Designing wearable interfaces for knee rehabilitation

Patients undergoing physical therapy often receive little feedback when performing exercises away from the clinic. They either have to rely on their memory of their rehabilitation session with a therapist or seek guidance from a paper based exercise tutorial. We address this feedback issue for knee rehabilitation with a wearable electronic device that helps patients visualize knee bend when performing exercises at home. We conducted a usability study of the device with six knee rehabilitation patients to better understand their perceptions of wearable interfaces. Through semi-structured interviews and prototype design activities, we derived design guidelines for future wearable devices in this space.