Thresholding is a way of segmenting an image into foreground and background according to a fixed constant value called a threshold. Image segmentation based on a constant threshold leads to unsatisfactory results with dental X-ray images due to the uneven distribution of pixel intensity. In this paper, an adaptive thresholding method is proposed to attain promising segmentation results for dental X-ray images. The Mean, Median, Midgrey, Niblack, and OTSU thresholding methods are utilized to delineate the acceptable range of threshold values to be applied for segmenting X-ray images. Experimental results showed that the Median method provides consistency in achieving the best range of threshold values which is between 57 and 86 in greyscale.

Disability of upper limb parts is common for stroke survivors. Early implementation of well-organized upper limb treatment after stroke may result in fast recovery of upper limb functions. There are many treatments and assessments to improve the ability in upper limb movements. However, the specialists in rehabilitation departments use patient information system (PIS) to store and manage all the patient�s information and assessment records. The information and assessment records of the patients usually are obtained from various categories of assessment but it is inconsistent. This causes difficulties in seeking information, and needs to run all the assessments even those not important for the patients. In this paper, an ontology in the development of PIS will be constructed to overcome the problem. The ontology enables semantic knowledge representation for upper limb stroke rehabilitation. This ontology will be designed based on the Enterprise Ontology, TOronto Virtual Enterprise Ontology, METHONTOLOGY and Ontology Development 101. As a result, the proposed ontology will improve the information management in PIS. � 2018 CEUR-WS. All rights reserved.

Upper limb rehabilitation plays an important role for stroke survivors to regain their functional abilities as much as possible after stroke. Robotic devices (RD) have been emerged as an effective intervention for upper limb rehabilitation in terms of consistency and reliability over repetitive exercises compared to the manual therapy intervention. In this paper, we present a literature survey on existing RD systems in perspective of performing thorough analysis to find potential research trends. Moreover, distinctive aspects and main shortages for various types of RD systems are provided. Based on this survey paper, although most researchers claimed that their RD systems improve upper limb functionality after stroke but there are still needs to make these systems more feasible. � 2017 IEEE.

Upper limb complications are common following stroke and may be seriously debilitating. There are many treatments and assessments to improve the ability in upper limb movements. Due to the increasing of stroke survivors, specialists in rehabilitation departments usually use Patients Information System (PIS) to store and manage the patient's information and their assessments records. Designing an ontology for PIS is crucial to help the specialists in seeking the patients' information and managing their assessments. In this paper, an Upper Limb Stroke Ontology (ULSOnt) was developed to enable semantic knowledge representation for PIS at rehabilitation department. ULSOnt consists of tangible objects that are listed by the specialists at rehabilitation department of Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia (HUSM). ULSOnt was designed on the basis of Enterprise Ontology, TOronto Virtual Enterprise Ontology, METHONTOLOGY and Ontology Development 101. The logical consistency and model completeness of ULSOnt ontology were verified by ontology experts. ULSOnt ontology offers more flexibility in accessing the patients' information, which means that it can be utilize for designing Intelligent Rehabilitation (IntelliRehab) systems. � 2017 by SCITEPRESS - Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved.

Despite the increased interest of academic scholar in telerehabilitation implementation, there is a scarcity of studies that provide an up to date comprehensive research on it. This study provides a systematic literature review (SLR) on telerehabilitation implementation research. This review explores the processes involved in telerehabilitation implementation, research themes and the factors that influence the implementation of telerehabilitation at pre-implementation stage. In doing this, all relevant articles in the electronic databases of Scopus, ScienceDirect, PubMed, SAGE and Web of Science that published from 2007 to 2017 were reviewed. The results show that four themes have been paid attention by the researchers' including adoption, benefits, readiness and decision making. The factors in the adoption and readiness were found more dominant than others with seven and six factors respectively. Most of the factors from adoption were in the quality aspects (e.g., system quality, information quality and service quality) while change elements (e.g., attributes of the change, attributes of the change targets) in the readiness. Thus, this study suggests that more research is needed for understanding this complex process of telerehabilitation at pre-implementation in a more holistic manner. � 2018 The Authors.

Stroke is one of the main causes of disability in the world. In order for stroke survivors to reduce their disability, they need to go through a rehabilitation process to regain back their independence and improve their quality of life. To guide patients in their rehabilitation process and improve their receptiveness in performing repetitive exercises, a new rehabilitation training program using Virtual Reality (VR) technology has been introduced. This has attracted many researchers to explore more on VR technology as a new tool for stroke patient's rehabilitation. This paper presents a review on existing VR systems that have been developed for stroke rehabilitation. First, recent VR systems utilized for rehabilitation after stroke are delineated and categorized. Each of these categories concludes with a discussion on limitations and any issues that arise from it. Finally, a concise summary with significant findings and future possibilities in VR rehabilitation research is presented in table format. � 2017 Author(s).