INTRODUCTION Paraplegia is bilateral paralysis of the lower body including the two legs. It is commonly resulting from the Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) which communication between brain and the other part of body is blocked or loss. Messages below the level of injury are unable to pass damage in the spinal cord. A. Ibrahim reported that the major cause resulting in SCI in Hospital Kuala Lumpur in between 2006 to 2009, motor vehicles accidents contribute 66% and falls 28% [1]. In a study out of 670 motor vehicle occupant fatalities in Malaysia, 176 (26.3%) cases suffered spine injury. Motorcyclist are particularly vulnerable as the helmet only protect the head but not the neck and spine [2]. Figure 1 shows the depiction of a catapulting injury to a motorcyclist. Based on the study conducted by Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Hospital Kuala Lumpur, there were 292 patients suffering SCI from 2006 to 2009. The number increase every year. Reported that 63% of them subsequently became paraplegic (individuals who are suffering Paraplegia) and 37 % became tetraplegic (individuals who are suffering Tetraplegia) [1]. Tetraplegia or as known as Quadriplegia is a cervical (neck) injuries. Tetraplegic resulting in four limbs (both arms and legs) which are neck-down to paralyzed. Meanwhile, paraplegic resulting only in lower body (both legs) to paralyzed [3].
Most of the paraplegics wish to be able to walk normally again. It is important for a paraplegic to perform a regular range of motion exercise program. Lack of exercise can result in increased muscle spasms and increase the chances of developing pressure sores. Failure to exercise on a regular basis can cause joints, muscles, ligaments and tendons to stiffen. If parts of the body stiffen, it will impact the ability to sit and maintain body posture. In some critical cases, it leads to urinary failure or completely paralyzed [4, 5]. Thus, the leg orthosis instrument is introduced to help the paraplegic to perform regular exercise. Based on Dorland’s Medical Dictionary for Health Consumers 2007, orthosis is an orthopedic appliance or apparatus used to support, align, prevent and correct deformities or to improve function of movable parts of the body [6] . The leg orthosis instrument are largely electrical assembled. Based on the previous study, the doctors have increasingly come to realize the importance of exercise for people with paralysis. It is important to get immobile limbs to move [7]. Evaluation of performance for the leg orthosis had been made and it is proven to solve problems of paraplegic patients however the previous development of the leg orthosis is controlled manually where the leg orthosis will swing up and down by controlling on-off of the power button. Therefore during rehabilitation treatment plans, the physiotherapist (a specialist in physical rehabilitation and exercise) must always alongside with the paraplegic patient to control the on-off power button and monitored the result of the treatment. There are important parameters that doctor, physiotherapist and medical doctor need to monitor during the exercise period however this information is difficult to be available for the doctors. Therefore this project continues with the development of the control system and monitoring platform for leg orthosis by using Android application. This study mainly focuses on the development of a userfriendly control and monitoring system for leg exercise using leg orthosis. The motorized leg orthosis will be controlled using Android device which is connected wirelessly to the exercise system. The patient’s pulse rate, date and time will be shown on the android device during the exercise session. The data of the previous exercise sessions also can be stored together with other patient’s information. These information are important data needed by the doctor during rehabilitation plans. Android is the world’s most commonly used smartphone platform and it is used by many different smartphone manufacturers. Besides that, the price gap between iOS and Android smartphones is widening. The price of iOS smartphones are double the price of standard Android smartphones. This user-friendly system is design to accommodate paraplegic at a reasonable cost.