92. Virtual Physical Therapy

The Next Byte Podcast · 18 Oct 2022 · 26m

What this episode covers

Daniel and Farbod discuss an MIT and Massachusetts General Hospital system called Muscle Rehab, which uses a sensor-laden suit and VR to enable unsupervised physical therapy. The system repurposes Electrical Impedance Tomography (EIT), a technology originally used for cancer treatment, to measure deep muscle engagement rather than just surface motion. The hosts highlight that this approach improves rehabilitation effectiveness by 15% and increases physical therapist adoption by providing real-time, data-driven feedback on muscle activation.

Mentioned

Companies
MIT, Massachusetts General Hospital, Mouser Electronics
Products
VR headset
Tools
Electrical Impedance Tomography, EMG

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