Hand Tracking for XR-Based Apraxia Assessment: A Preliminary Study

The current assessment of upper limb apraxia consists in administering tests to patient, using analog instruments. The use of immersive Extended Reality (XR) environments allows the evaluation of such tests in a quantitative manner and not relying solely on the medical observations. The objective of the study is to provide a tool to support the assessment of hand apraxia using an immersive simulation scenario. The focus of the study is, therefore, to evaluate a hand tracking system, for analyzing the patient's interactions with the virtual environment, while performing apraxia assessment tests. It was necessary to preliminarily test the system on a pathology-free subject to verify its suitability for clinical objectives. Thanks to the trajectories stored by the hand tracking system, it is possible to estimate a minimum threshold value from which the detection made by the camera can be studied. Since this is a preliminary study, it is not possible to return results on the main objective. It can be seen from the results obtained that the selected hand tracking technology proves capable of providing the information required by the apraxia assessment. Further testing campaigns on specific patients and further interventions to improve the virtual environment are needed.