ExerciseCheck: Remote Monitoring and Evaluation Platform for Home Based Physical Therapy

A daily exercise program designed by a physical therapist or physician may be crucial for a patient's physical rehabilitation. However, when these exercises are performed at home without the supervision of the therapist, they may not be as effective as when performed in the presence of the therapist. In this paper, we present ExerciseCheck, a remote monitoring and evaluation platform for individuals involved in a home exercise program. The goal of the platform is to give patients feedback about their performance and, if needed, and how they should adjust their movements. ExerciseCheck is designed for a therapist to remotely monitor a patient in real time, enabling the therapist to give instant feedback or further instructions. To demonstrate how ExerciseCheck is used with a Kinect interface, we tested it with two exercises -- arm raise and squat. The results highlight the potential benefits the proposed platform may have in home-based physical therapy, enabling communication between the patient and the therapist.