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Virtual workout beats the boredom for stroke patients

By James Randerson

8 March 2003

PEOPLE who have suffered a partial loss of arm and hand control after a stroke might soon be spared the arduous trip to the hospital for physiotherapy. Instead they’ll be able to log on to the Internet at home and run through the rehabilitation exercises designed by their doctor.

The heart of the idea is a virtual reality system linked up to the Net that encourages patients to retrain their disabled arm by making a computer image of an arm perform various movements. Designed by Emilio Bizzi and Maureen Holden at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the system is geared…

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