Method and device for gravity like simulation of natural balance movements

摘要

We present a tool that can enhance the concept of BWS training by allowing natural APAs to occur mediolaterally. While in a supine position in a 90 degree tilted environment built around a modified hospital bed, subjects wear a backpack frame that is freely moving on air-hearings, as a puck on an air hockey table, and attached through a cable to a pneumatic cylinder that provides a load that can be set to emulate various G-like loads. Veridical visual input is provided through two 3-D automultiscopic displays that allow glasses free 3-D vision representing a virtual surrounding environment that may be acquired from sites chosen by the patient. Two groups of 12 healthy subjects were exposed to either strength training alone or a combination of strength and balance training in such a tilted environment over a period of four weeks.

主权项

1. A system for functional rehabilitation of at least one of strength and balance in a mammalian subject, the system comprising:
(a) a surface capable of supporting a mammalian subject in a plurality of angled positions from greater than 0 degrees to less than ninety degrees to gravity; (b) a frame operably connected to said surface by at least one air bearing disposed on said frame, the frame structured to be attached to the mammalian subject and the at least one air bearing being adapted to provide a uniform or substantially uniform air pressure exerted on said surface plate; (c) an exercise tool operably connected to said surface, said exercise tool positioned along an axis perpendicular to said surface and in operable contact with said subject; (d) an air pressure control system for providing air at a predetermined controllable pressure to the plurality of air bearings; (e) a cable having first and second ends, said first end connected to said frame and said second end threaded through a pulley system and connected to a force actuator for simulating a pseudo-gravitational force on the mammalian subject in said plurality of angled positions; and (f) a system of pulleys supporting said cable and operably connected to a linear bearing assembly, said linear bearing assembly operably attached to an edge of said surface, said linear bearing assembly allowing unrestricted mediolateral movement of the cable thereby providing a gravity-like load that maintains a direction perpendicular to the exercise tool with which the mammalian subject is in contact.