Facial and Body Motion Technology to Detect Psychosocial Distress in Stroke Survivors and Informal Caregivers Living at Home

Stroke is a leading cause of disability. Most stroke survivors are discharged home after hospitalization and receive care from informal caregivers (e.g., unpaid spouses) who are often unprepared for the role. Stroke survivorship is an exemplar of a chronic condition that detracts from the affected individual and caregiver's capacity to live well within the home (e.g., psychosocial distress). Early identification of psychosocial distress is likely to lead to timely interventions and, subsequently, decreases in associated morbidity, mortality, and disability. Yet, only a minority of survivors are properly identified and treated for psychosocial distress, and caregivers are primarily forgotten. In-home, objective measures to identify psychosocial distress are lacking. Using facial expression and body motion technology by extracting facial characteristics and body joints (skeletal graph) known to be associated with psychosocial distress (e.g., frowning) provides new opportunities to support in-home telemonitoring. To accommodate real-world, post-stroke home environments, the technology needs to be customized to an in-home environment. Toward this end, the investigators must consider background variability, possible occlusions, privacy concerns, and stroke survivor motor weaknesses, gait impairments, and facial paralysis. Objectives: The primary objectives are to customize facial expression and body motion technology and examine the acceptability of the technology through a study of 6 stroke survivor-informal caregiver dyads within a simulated home environment. The project will serve as a necessary step to amass critical information to design future trials using facial expression and body motion technology. The ultimate goal is to improve psychosocial well-being for those aging at home.