Vibration Motors Used in Haptic Feedback for Stroke Rehabilitation

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The good folks at the Electronics and Computer Science department and the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Southampton have been putting our vibration motors to some very good uses indeed.

To help sufferers of strokes or other neurological illnesses, the team created different devices to aid recovering motor skills. The paper published in IET Assisted Living 2011, 06 April 2011, goes on to describe how a vibration tactile device can be used to provide haptic feedback to the user. Two devices mounted on the thumb and index finger, using a Velcro belt, each contained an ERM pager motor to amplify the sense of touch.

Our 304-002 (Pico Vibe 4mm x 8mm Vibration Motor with flying leads) was driven using a PWM signal to control the level of vibration and therefore adjust the sensation of touch.

This is a great example of how our vibration motors are used in a wide variety of applications, and in this case medical based haptic feedback equipment. We wish G.V. Merrett, C.D. Metcalf, D. Zheng, S. Cunningham, S. Barrow, and S.H. Demain all the best with their future research.

You can check out the paper here