MyoPhysicalTherapy

Inspiration

When looking for project ideas, we considered how we could fulfill Siemens' healthcare project using the MLH hardware available. When seeing the Myo armband, we realized that it could be applied to physical therapy, and wanted to see where we could take the idea this weekend.

What it does

The core concept it simple -- a user (physical therapist) can record gestures. Another user (patient) can perform a specific gesture and specific number of reps of that gesture.

How we built it

We used Myo's C++ SDK and started by editing their sample files in Visual Studio. We attempted to integrate Qt for a GUI, but were unable to complete that.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

The algorithm to both record and then verify that a gesture had been completed was relatively difficult and took the most mental effort to get through. In that way, we're very proud that we created a working and flexible algorithm that can be tweaked to be more or less flexible as a user would desire.

What we learned

Working with third party SDKs can be a huge portion of the work by itself, especially if the SDK hasn't been updated in years. Defining overall architecture at the beginning that you know will fit together saves a lot of time.

What's next for MyoPhysicalTherapy

The app can be expanded in many ways. The client could be re-written in any GUI language, and made cross-platform. There could be therapist and patient specific programs, which would allow therapists to remotely help low-need patients.