A user-friendly assistive glove for SCI people performing natural writing posture

Abstract

Spinal cord injury is one of the leading causes of adult disability which occurs tetraplegia. SCI people use assistive devices as alternatives for body functions to do activities of daily living (ADL). However, many users complain about assistive devices because of appearance, weight, portability, and usability [1]. Among these devices, we focus on the writing assistive device which is called pen holder. The peak age of SCI people is 15 to 29 years old, and writing is essential for people in this age range because they usually study or work for most of their time. Previously commercialized pen holders fix the pen by putting in to a hole of the device and attached to the hand using cuff. Pen easily fall out because of a low fix ability. Users have to raise their whole arm while using the pen holder because the pen shake a lot when users lean their arm on the desk. This unstable posture applies high stress on the shoulder. It can also cause scoliosis when the writing time is long. Penholder which is named as CATCH glove is developed to resolve these problems. CATCH glove is designed to change user`s hand posture into a tripod grasp. Users can lean their arm on the desk while writing with the tripod grasp. Single wire pass through teflon tubes which are attached to thumb, index, and middle finger for the tripod grasp. Wire tension gathers three fingers into a single point when the wire is pulled. The CATCH glove is evaluated using qualitative and quantitative method. Writing accuracy is chosen as evaluation value for qualitative measurement. Solidity of posture is also measured to verify reasons for writing accuracy. Writing feeling and convenience are measured for quantitative evaluation. Hand writing, writing with conventional pen holder are also used to verify the advantages of CATCH glove. The CATCH glove can be used not only for holding pens, but for grasping other objects, i.e. spoons, cups, joystick.