An innovative electric-powered glove system has been prototyped to support finger rehabilitation for people with motor impairment on their fingers after a stroke. This glove system is composed of a leather glove which has a unique actuation mechanism called an exotendon system, a muscle activity sensor is fixed on the upper forearm to detect user's efforts during finger exercises and a controller including a microcomputer and a drive unit. An evaluation has been conducted based on A-B design of a single subject study and it has been observed that finger exercises carried out using the prototyped glove system has effectively improved the finger functionality of a stroke patient.

An electric-powered hand orthosis has been developed to support daily activities of people with motor impairment in hand fingers. This system is composed of an orthotic part, a head-mounted interface to detect user's commands, and a controller. One major feature of this system is that the orthotic part is basically made of soft and lightweight materials only. It is expected that this feature allows users to frequently and continuously use the system in their daily life. A prototype has been made and tested. It was demonstrated that the system has an excellent operability and has promising performance to support daily activities of people with finger disability through the tests.