Resumen
The assessment of impairments related to gait, posture, upper limb function, and hand dexterity derived from
neurological disorders, such as stroke, traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, multiple sclerosis, or
Parkinson's disease, are usually done in the clinic through standardized scales and tests. Clinical tools are
easy to administer and not time-consuming, but may rely on subjective interpretations and be biased.
Different instrumented tools have been proposed to overcome these limitations, providing quantitative
measures of the motor function. However, their high cost and spatial requirements l1ave limited their use to
big facílíties with significan! financia! resources. Lates! advances in entertainment technology have given rise
to low-cost off-the-shelf devices (less than 250¿) that enable human-computer interaction through whole-body
movements, weight transferences, or fínger movements, with comparable accuracy to laboratory-grade
systems. The hypothesis of project VALORA is that last-generation devices could be used for a
comprehensive assessment of the motor function and provide objective, accurate, and reliable measurements
in different neurologic disorders. We conjecture, therefore, that the psychometric properties, the low casi, and
accessibility of assessment tools based on these devices would facilita te their use in the daily practice and
promote research activities, also in small and medium-sized neurorehabilitation units. Project VALORA aims
to determine the validity of low-cost tools to assess gait, posture, upper limb function, and hand dexterity in
comparison to gold-standard systems and clinical tests in the mentioned neurologic populations and in
healthy individua Is. lf the initial hypothesis is confrrmed, project VALORA will provide therapists and
researchers worldwide with the first open-access too! to assess the motor function of neurological patients
with quantitative spatiotemporal and kinematic data, expressed not only in absolute terms but also compared
with a sample of age-matched healthy individuals.