García Carmona, Rodrigo

The purpose of this work is to study the gap between the research evidence and the clinical practice in the physical rehabilitation of people with cerebral palsy. A review process was performed to (1) identify physical therapies to improve postural control in children with cerebral palsy and (2) determine the scientific evidence supporting the effectiveness of those therapies. A Likert-based survey addressing a total of 43 healthcare professionals involved in pediatric physical therapy departments in Spain was carried out. The discussion was mainly supported by studies of level I or II evidence (according to the Oxford scale). The search process yielded 50 studies reporting 16 therapies. A strong positive correlation between the most used treatments and elevated levels of satisfaction was found. Some well-known but not often used techniques, such as hippotherapy, were identified. The treatment with the highest degree of use and satisfaction-neurodevelopment therapy (Bobath)-and some emerging techniques, such as virtual reality, were also identified. The fact that there is a meaningful gap between clinical practice and the scientific evidence was confirmed. The identified gap brings a certain degree of controversy. While some classic and well-known therapies had poor levels of supporting evidence, other relatively new approaches showed promising results.

This study evaluates and compares the suitability for child–computer interaction (CCI, the branch within human–computer interaction focused on interactive computer systems for children) of two devices: a standard computer mouse and the ENLAZA interface, a head mouse that measures the user’s head posture using an inertial sensor. A multidirectional pointing task was used to assess the motor performance and the users’ ability to learn such a task. The evaluation was based on the interpretation of the metrics derived from Fitts’ law. Ten children aged between 6 and 8 participated in this study. Participants performed a series of pre- and post-training tests for both input devices. After the experiments, data were analyzed and statistically compared. The results show that Fitts’ law can be used to detect changes in the learning process and assess the level of psychomotor development (by comparing the performance of adults and children). In addition, meaningful differences between the fine motor control (hand) and the gross motor control (head) were found by comparing the results of the interaction using the two devices. These findings suggest that Fitts’ law metrics offer a reliable and objective way of measuring the progress of physical training or therapy.

Neck injuries and the related pain have a high prevalence and represent an important health problem. To properly diagnose and treat them, practitioners need an accurate system for measuring Cervical Range Of Motion (CROM). This article describes the development and validation of an inexpensive, small (4 cm 4 cm 8 cm), light (< 200 g) and easy to use solution for measuring CROM using wearable inertial sensors. The proposed solution has been designed with the clinical practice in mind, after consulting with practitioners. It is composed of: (a) two wearable wireless MEMS-based inertial devices, (b) a recording and report generation software application and (c) a measurement protocol for assessing CROM. The solution provides accurate (none of our results is outside the ROM ranges when compared with previously published results based on an optical tracking device) and reliable measurements (ICC = 0.93 for interrater reliability when compared with an optical tracking device and ICC > 0.90 for test-retest reliability), surpassing the popular CROM instrument’s capabilities and precision. It also fulfills the needs for clinical practice attending to effectiveness, efficiency (4 min from setup to final report) and user’s satisfaction (as reported by practitioners). The solution has been certified for mass-production and use in medical environments.

El metaverso es un entorno digital simulado y persistente que el usuario habita en primera persona, de forma inmersiva. Es un espacio conectado y común a todos sus usuarios, pudiéndose por tanto experimentar de forma colectiva. Varias aplicaciones y experiencias pueden formar parte del metaverso, igual que nuestro mundo real acoge espacios diferentes, siempre y cuando estos cumplan con las características antes nombradas. No obstante, no es necesario que un objeto del metaverso sea la representación virtual de una contrapartida real, aunque podría serlo. Este es el ámbito de los gemelos digitales, un concepto que, si bien es adyacente al de los mundos virtuales, no es sinónimo. Así, una aplicación con la que se interactúa a través de una pantalla de ordenador o de un teléfono móvil no formaría parte del metaverso, pues el modo de interacción ya no es el propio cuerpo. Tampoco podría considerarse parte del metaverso una aplicación offline o monousuario, ni un entorno cuyos elementos desaparecen al desconectarse el usuario, por poner algunos ejemplos. El metaverso es, en otras palabras, una Internet «encarnada», un universo virtual multiusuario experimentado a través de la realidad virtual o aumentada.