The AR Workbench: A Complete Co-located Reach-in Mirror-Based ...

Marlon Richert, Master’s Thesis, Friday, 23 February, 2007
the system, as it makes the observed movements more spatially correct regardless
of the angle from which you watch them and thus be more effective at stimulating
motor imagery. A version of the VR mirror with stereoscopy will be an improvement
over the original, as the latter does not provide this.
Further, as mentioned in the same section, to maximize the effectiveness of
mental practice, it clearly is important to stimulate the use of intensive motor
imagery as much as possible, while reported vividness of motor imagery, however,
does not appear to correlate with the effectiveness of mental practice. This
correlates with the conclusion in the previous paragraph, implying that an AR version
of the VR Mirror should be able to aid mental practice more effectively than the
original, while not requiring expensive graphics hardware or detailed modeling.
Finally, an AR version of the VR Mirror will effectively combine the best of both the
mirror box and the video approach to post-stroke rehabilitation. Firstly, it will create
a virtual version of the mirror box, but without requiring a training period, since the
patient does not have to move the healthy arm at the same time, making it easier to
focus on the virtual arm. Secondly, it will be able to provide the same timing
feedback that the video approach does.
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