Immersive virtual reality platform for cerebral palsy rehabilitation

The Gait Real-time Analysis Interactive Lab (GRAIL) is an innovative platform based on immersive Virtual Reality (VR), providing amazing scenarios where the subjects are asked to walk or change their load and posture to get points and conclude exergames. The system captures in real-time the kinematic and kinetic of the motion and gives multi sensorial feedbacks (audio, video, or proprioceptive) to the subject. The GRAIL system has been recently used for the rehabilitation of walking abilities in the developmental age. In this study, 11 children suffering from bilateral cerebral palsy (CP) underwent a 20-session treatment with the GRAIL plus 20 sessions of physical therapy; gross motor abilities and the 3D gait analysis were selected as outcome measures. Significant improvements in the kinematic and kinetics of the walking were observed: the walking speed, the maximum power at the ankle during flexo-extension, the knee flexion at the initial contact are only some of the parameters that improved after the training.