Increasing patient engagement in rehabilitation through citizen science

In this paper, we investigate the effects of including scientific tasks on the satisfaction of patients performing rehabilitation exercises. A low-cost system, comprised of a haptic joystick and a laptop computer, is used for patients to interact with a virtual environment. Within the virtual environment, users are presented with and classify images captured by a robot as part of a citizen science project. Results show that higher levels of satisfaction are attained when the exercise includes scientific tasks.