Fluid Thinking for Ageing Parents – Compensating the Psychological Risks of COVID-19 Pandemic Using Gamification (original) (raw)
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Proceedings of the First International Conference on Gameful Design, Research, and Applications - Gamification '13, 2013
Gamification is the use of game-like properties in non-game scenarios, and is applied in the design of our application to stimulate cognition, and enjoyment, which often decreases due to age-related changes. The goal of the research reported here is to develop a game, targeted for elderly citizens, that has a user-friendly interface and the ability to predict cognitive ability. This paper will introduce and evaluate a game designed based on the classic carnival game called whack-a-mole, which has the objective of a user 'hitting' a 'mole'. Our version of the game underwent a usability study where we evaluated the game in an experiment, and investigated its cognitive predictive ability. This paper will discuss the results from the experiment, detail the limitations, and propose future research.
Games for Health: Design Cognition-Focused Interventions to Enhance Mental Activity
Communications in Computer and Information Science, 2011
Older adults want to proactively protect their aging cognition with various possible ways. Cognitive intervention has been proposed as an effective way to improve memory loss problems. In this paper, we present the CogStim Game, an iPad application for older adults to exercise their memory. For example, by practicing name-face matches through the medium of a game, older adults would have a chance to stimulate their cognition. Together with the game description, we will also present our design rationale behind the game development. The CogStim Game would provide a more accessible and effective way to address our society's concerns due to an increasing aging population.
Cognition, technology and games for the elderly: An introduction to ELDERGAMES Project
Psychnology Journal, 2006
Eldergames is a EU-funded project to develop games using advanced visualisation and interaction interfaces to improve the cognitive, functional and social skills of older users. The project merges two major areas to which technology for elderly people is applied: health and social engagement. Its platform will allow users to improve their cognitive skills and individual well-being by playing on a mixed-reality platform; in addition, it will offer the unusual experience of communicating with people located in other countries without the need to share the same language. After introducing the field of gerontology and the project, this paper describes the main cognitive abilities that change with aging (perception, attention, memory, and other more specific processes such as decision-making), and that have to be taken into account while designing a technology for elderly people. Some guidelines that are specifically meant to ensure usability of these products are listed in the conclusions.
Alzheimer's & Dementia, 2020
People with dementia (PwD) are often excluded from intergenerational social activities due to stigmatization. The generation gap is constantly widening while young people are losing their interest to participate in volunteering actions concerning elderly people. The Erasmus+ funded “Bridge” program is a 3 year pan‐European initiative that aims to develop a set of prototypes Serious Games (SGs) (physical, digital or phygital) acting on cognitive and behavioral symptoms of dementia, involving also younger and older people.
Developing Serious Games Specifically Adapted to People Suffering from Alzheimer
Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2012
To face new challenges caused by society aging, several researchers have initiated the experimentation of serious games as a re-education platform to help slowing down the decline of people suffering from Alzheimer. In the last few years, academic studies have been conducted and some commercial products (Nintendo's Brain Age, Big Brain Academy, etc.) have emerged. Nevertheless, these initiatives suffer from multiple important limitations since they do not really suit perceptual and interaction needs of silver-aged gamers, more specifically people suffering from Alzheimer disease. In an effort to address this important issue, we present in this paper a set of specific guidelines for designing and implementing effective serious games targeting silver-aged and Alzheimer's patients. Our guidelines cover the following aspects: (i) choosing right in-game challenges, (ii) designing appropriate interaction mechanisms for cognitively impaired people, (iii) implementing artificial intelligence for providing adequate assistive prompting and dynamic difficulty adjustments, (iv) producing effective visual and auditory assets to maximize cognitive training. Also, as a case study, we present the prototype of our new serious game for Alzheimer's patients.
Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies for Ageing Well and e-Health, 2015
Old age cognitive deficit is a relatively new mass-phenomenon due to the fast growth of older populations, and the fact that dementia is chronic, progressive, long lasting and, so far, incurable. However, in the early phase of cognitive decline symptoms do not manifest clearly, and may remain unexplored for a longer period of time. Clinical tests, using either paper-based or computerized methods, are made quite infrequently, providing too sparse snapshots of the cognitive performance. In this paper, computer games are proposed for home monitoring of possible significant changes in mental state. This approach is advantageous as it is a regular but voluntary method. This way, more frequent assessments are possible than with the traditional clinical test scenario. Problem descriptions, possible solutions and methods, presented in this paper, have been elaborated in the AAL project Maintaining and Measuring Mental Wellness (M3W). The ultimate goal of the project is to develop a computer game toolset and a methodology for monitoring the mental state of older adults remotely (at home). As it is a complex task, only basic considerations and concepts, a few challenges, problems and potential solutions, the proposed architecture, and the proofs of the concept are presented in the paper.
From Research to Design - Sketching a Game to Trigger Reminiscence in Older Adults
Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2013
This contribution describes a series of design sketches for a playful digital application designed to trigger reminiscence in older adults. The goal of the intervention is to be a preventive measure against cognitive disabilities such as dementia and Alzheimer's disease. Research shows that reminiscence and cognitive activities are beneficial in this area. The presented sketches have been developed as part of a design workshop and are based upon the results of a focus group study which involved older adults, their families, experts and care personnel. The ideas are all rooted within the context of the project which revolves around the playful use of media such as photos, video clips and audio recordings. These personal media artifacts shall trigger reminiscence and engage players cognitively.
Eldergames: videogames for empowering, training and monitoring elderly cognitive capabilities
Gerontechnology, 2008
Recent solutions offered by Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in elderly care and interventions have reached considerable levels of effectiveness; an emerging new approach to psychological, cognitive and neuropsychological rehabilitation is represented by the use of interactive applications such as videogames. Eldergames is an EU funded project aiming at developing a system to enrich the quality of life of elderly people, through an interactive tabletop solution, while simultaneously trying to reduce the natural physical and cognitive decline derived from aging. The paper considers the benefits of a cognitive training performed via videogames, and describes the solution offered by the Eldergames system. I. INTRODUCTION HE great increase of old population, and of the ensuing economic and social costs represent an urgent issue that contemporary society should address with proper plans [1]. When compared with the global population, the European one results to be the oldest: its median age is 39 [2], with concerning esteems for the next 20 years, when old people will be more than 1.2 billion [3]. The increase of the percentage of the old population has implications for the society as much as for the individuals; as a general datum, it has been estimated that up to 50% of people aged over 85 suffers from a cognitive decline [4]. The aging process involves changes in the physical and
Design and evaluation of an intergenerational gaming platform for cognitive stimulation
2014
Cognitive stimulation therapies based on games are commonly used nowadays in care centers for people suffering from Alzheimer's or other cognitive diseases. Although users usually like the proposed games, they are not motivated enough to play willingly on a regular basis. This work presents a novel game platform for cognitive stimulation that introduces the factor of intergenerational interaction in order to increase user’s motivation towards playing. This work tries to involve patient’s relatives in the gaming experience by including the use of social networks. The presented gaming platform has been designed, implemented and evaluated with real patients, proving its technical feasibility and usability. Evaluation results and practitioners’ experience show that the gaming platform will be more suitable for patients suffering from a mild level of cognitive disease.