SBIR Phase I: Patient Digital Twin and Performance Capture System for Scoliosis Physiotherapy

Award ID: 2136086

The broader impact /commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project focuses on scoliosis physiotherepy. Physiotherapy Scoliosis Specific Exercises (PSSEs) have been proved effective in treating scoliosis patients; However, PSSE effectiveness can be significantly reduced due to inappropriate planning, unclear requirements, and poor compliance. This project seeks to develop a hardware-software integrated system which employs a synthetic, immersive environment for physiotherapists and patients to conduct PSSEs effectively. The technology may save costs for patients, expand services for clinics, and improve the outcomes of scoliosis physiotherapy. The commercialization of the technology will be conducted via business to business and business to customer mechanisms. This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project focuses on the development a hardware-software integrated system which employs a patient digital twin (PDT) and a performance capture system to create a synthetic, immersive environment for physiotherapists and patients to utilize telehealth communication between physiotherapists and scoliosis patients. The technology seeks to improve the accuracy and completeness of diagnosis and assessment, optimize physiotherapy design and planning, facilitate effective patient communication and education, and help patients to perform physiotherapeutic exercises according to instructions and compliance requirements. By using PDT, the diagnosis of scoliosis and assessment of spine deformity can be performed in 3D space thus improving the completeness of assessment and the design of PSSEs. By building a light-weight performance capture system, body shape, pose, and motion can be captured in 3D space in real time. The teams seeks to represent the prescribed PSSEs in 3D games by animating the PDT with motion captured during clinic practice. In this way, the actual poses and motions of a patient during home exercise can be monitored, evaluated, and used to instruct with adjusted 3D games as reference. The goal of Phase I is to demonstrate the technical and commercial feasibility of the proposed innovation, which will be accomplished through a technical feasibility study, initial prototyping, and a commercial feasibility demonstration. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Program Director: Alastair Monk