To round out the old work that I have neglected to post over the last year, Fraser and I did some work using electromyography, motion capture, and a multi-touch tabletop to understand the extent of motor movements made during multi-touch tabletops usage in rehabilitation settings. The results of our experiment went into our CHI 2012 work in progress, “Tabletops in Motion: The Kinetics and Kinematics of interactive surface physical therapy”, found here, as well as our ICDVRAT 2013 paper discussed here.

Abstract:
Technology-based rehabilitation methods have shown promise for improving physical therapy programs, but much of the research is lacking quantitative analysis. We present a study conducted with healthy participants where we compared traditional “table-based” therapy methods with new technology-based methods. Using motion analysis and electromyography recordings, we assessed the kinetic and kinematic dimensions of participant motion during four activities. While technology-based methods are more enjoyable, our results indicate that it is the design of an activity that has a significant impact on the movements performed.