Technical advancements in augmented & virtual reality (AR/VR), head-mounted displays (HMD) and motion capture/tracking systems create many opportunities for  a great variety of new and innovative treatment options in motor rehabilitation. However, effort is required to transfer technological innovations originating at academic institutions into the open market in order to enable a broad application in clinical practice. To master this challenge the St. Pölten University of Applied Science (UAS) established a cutting-edge research laboratory, the ReMoCap-Lab: A Laboratory for Capturing Motion and Augmenting Environment in Motor Rehabilitation which aims at advancing motor rehabilitation by bringing together specialist from the field of augmented and virtual reality, machine learning and visual analytics with clinical experts and human movement scientists.

In AVATAR these specialists work together with a highly innovative industrial partner, Saphenus medical technology GmbH to develop a ready-to-use clinical application for their outpatient prosthetic-rehabilitation day care center. 
AVATAR is based on preliminary work carried out in the ReMoCapLab with the main goal to combine state-of-the-art motion capture technology and AR/VR by using HMDs. The idea is to accurately quantify the movement of a patient in three-dimensional (3D) space (motion capturing) and transfer these data in real-time to the AR/VR environment provided to the same patient by an HMD. In the AR/VR envronment this information then can be used to augment traditional motor rehabilitation, provide real-time biomechanical feedback, and, by adding gamification aspects, fun and motivation to participate in motor rehabilitation can be increased.