Digitalization is changing our living environment. That also applies to rehabilitation. For example, through technically animated projections in eyeglasses - so-called 'Mixed Reality' - patients who have suffered from a stroke can obtain assistance in their everyday life activities. This makes it possible for them to carry out procedures like cooking tea without assistance. Nina Rohrbach is a doctoral candidate in this field under Prof. Dr. Joachim Hermsdörfer at the Chair of Movement Science. This scientific staff member is active in this project as a Fellow at the Center for Digitalization of Bavaria (ZD.B). With this initiative, the Free State of Bavaria promotes the scientific research for digitalization.
Doctorate on mixed reality in rehabilitation
In the course of the first ZD.B Symposium, Rohrbach received a second prize for her poster presentation on "Mixed reality as a new therapeutic approach to support activities of daily living in patients with chronic neurological disease". As an award, the doctoral candidate receives €1,000, which is intended for official travel.
"The implementation of digital technology for the field of rehabilitation is a rather niche topic at the ZD.B. I am consequently all the more proud of Nina Rohrbach for having received this exceptional appreciation for her poster presentation," says Prof. Dr. Joachim Hermsdörfer. In addition to the award for her poster, Rohrbach was invited to present her project once again in more detail in December. In the course of a general evaluation by the ZD.B, the doctoral candidate at the Chair of Movement Science performed this presentation before a scientific commission. "This invitation is actually considered to be even more valuable than the poster prize. Afterall, this date was of great importance for the entire ZD.B," says Prof. Hermsdörfer.
"With the poster and the evaluation presentation, I have provided an overview on my doctoral project in which I have attempted to find out how the use of mixed-reality methods can be employed to help support patients following a stroke or those who are suffering from dementia," summarizes Rohrbach.
"The digitalization and the mixed reality have also opened up new ways in motor activity research. We can now examine things, which would previously have only become realizable at an enormous expenditure. Here, an exciting new field has developed," explains Hermsdörfer.
Study on stroke patients
In the course of her doctoral project, Rohrbach is now performing a study in cooperation with the Schön Clinic in Bad Aibling. Here, based on the stroke patients, it is being investigated whether digital cueing is suitable for evoking a motor plan. For this purpose, two groups of both patients and healthy control persons, each with 23 individuals, were observed. In one case, the participants receive augmented-reality eyeglasses, which provide information projected in about everyday tools. The influence of different stimuli on the execution of movements is investigated, for example 3D and 2D-animations, as well as movement in relation to static supports. The data acquisition should be completed by the end of April 2019.
The ZD.B was created by the Free State of Bavaria in 2016. The primary goal of the center is to bundle competency and initiatives in the course of the digital change in the Free State and to facilitate the exchange between scientific and economical participants on topics involving digitalization.
To the Homepage of the Chair of Movement Science
To the Homepage of the Center for Digitalization of Bavaria
Further Information in the ZD.B yearbook
Contact
Nina Rohrbach
Chair of Movement Science
Georg-Brauchle-Ring 60/62
80992 Munich
Telephone: 089 289 24643
E-Mail: Nina.Rohrbach(at)tum.de
Text: Dr. Fabian Kautz
Photos: Private