User Experience of a Serious Game for Physical Rehabilitation Using Wearable Motion Capture Technology (original) (raw)
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Using Serious Games and Motion Tracking for Physical Rehabilitation
2020
Tele-rehabilitation has evolved significantly in recent years thanks to the latest advances and low cost of the 3D movement acquisition technologies. Autonomous physical rehabilitation from home through the use of serious games requires measuring angles of interest and compensatory angles of the patients when they perform the exercises. this work has been focused in creating a game with an architecture based on the Unity 3D engine to support rehabilitation activities. It encompasses the acquisition of an articulated skeleton, the customization of a character (avatar) in friendly scenes, and the compute of the required angles to evaluate a set of exercises.
Designing a Game-based Solution for In-home Rehabilitation
Proceedings of the 2nd International Congress on Neurotechnology, Electronics and Informatics, 2014
This paper presents initial concepts and formative evaluation results from a research (REHAB@HOME) investigating the patient-centred design of game environments aimed at raising patients' motivation and compliance with motor-cognitive rehabilitation programs. During the initial phase of the project five games were deployed through main gaming platforms and interaction devices (Kinect, LeapMotion, Sifteo Cubes). A pilot study involving six patients from two different rehabilitation centres (one in Italy and one in Austria) was conducted to assess usability and motivational factors implied in the initial usage of the solutions proposed. From the pilot study results we derive indications to inform the future design of game solutions for raising patients' compliance with upper body rehabilitation programs.
A serious game for virtual rehabilitation: evaluation with patients and physiotherapists
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Games can make training procedures more engaging for patients. Considering the complexity of the process for upper limb function rehabilitation, this paper presents the development and an initial evaluation of the AGaR – a serious game with virtual reality and natural interaction, both to aid patients to execute repetitive exercises and to aid physiotherapists to follow the rehabilitation process. Additionally, we obtain and analyze data about patients’ engagement as a differential in relation to others games developed for similar goals. In this game, the patient has to associate two different images with complementary meanings, using a movement sensor to drag the image to the target. We conducted an experiment with physiotherapists in order to evaluate the feasibility of applying the game in real therapies. We also conducted an initial experiment with patients. The results show that physiotherapists believe that the game is effective and might be used during therapies. From the exp...
Physical Therapy Reviews, 2009
Aims/background: Off-the-shelf games for consoles such as the Nintendo Wii, Nintendo WiiFit and Sony PlayStation 2 EyeToy have been developed and tested for the purpose of entertainment. Many clinics are adopting the use of these off-the-shelf devices for exercise, social interaction and rehabilitation because they are affordable, accessible and can be used within the clinic and home. Our group carried out initial usability evaluations for these off-the-shelf games and a prototype game (using an off-the-shelf device) specifically developed for people with disabilities. Methods: A series of studies have been undertaken through formative and summative evaluation and focus group research with a sample of people recovering from spinal cord injury, traumatic brain injury and stroke. Findings from two studies are presented. Following a demonstration and trial of the devices, observational and questionnaire data were collected to determine participants' perception of each system's usability, appeal and enjoyment. Results: The first study involved evaluation and focus group discussions of seven participants (two females, five males) with SCI (n54) and CVA (n53). Findings indicated that interaction with the EyeToy interface appeared to be more intuitive than the use of the Wii-mote interaction device, although some participants had difficulty navigating the menu of the PlayStation EyeToy. The second study involved evaluation of six participants (SCI54 males, TBI51 male, CVA51 female), aged between 25 and 58 years. The investigator was able to increase or decrease the difficulty of a game (developed specifically for bimanual rehabilitation task), using an off-the-shelf haptic feedback device, for each participant, depending on their skill level so that each participant was able to work at a level that was challenging to them. In both studies, participants reported that they would be more motivated to exercise if playing these types of games in both the clinic and home setting. Conclusion: This series of usability tests is the first phase within a program of work using gaming for a range of physical disabilities. The use of virtual reality and video games for rehabilitation offers potential for motivating patients to perform specific therapy tasks.
Strategies for Playful Design when Gamifying Rehabilitation. A Study on User Experience (Jun 2017)
2017
Gamifying rehabilitation is an efficient way to improve motivation and exercise frequency. However, between flow theory, self-determination theory or Bartle's player types there is much room for speculation regarding the mechanics required for successful gamification, which in turn leads to increased motivation. For our study, we selected a gamified solution for motion training (an exergame) where the playful design elements are extremely simple. The contribution is threefold: we show best practices from the state of the art, present a study analyzing the effects of simple gamification mechanics on a quantitative and on a qualitative level and discuss strategies for playful design in therapeutic movement games. CCS Concepts • Human-centered computing~User studies • Human-centered computing~Usability testing • Human-centered computing~ Mixed / augmented reality • Human-centered computing~ Empirical studies in HCI • Human-centered computing~Field studies • Human-centered computing~User centered design • Human-centered computing~Activity centered design • Social and professional topics~People with disabilities • Applied computing~Health informatics • Applied computing~Computer-assisted instruction • Software and its engineering~Interactive games • Software and its engineering~Virtual worlds training simulations • Software and its engineering~Software design engineering
Journal of Biomedical Informatics, 2019
One of the principal problems of rehabilitation is that therapy sessions can be boring due the repetition of exercises. Serious games, and in particular exergames in rehabilitation, can motivate, engage and increase patients' adherence to their treatment. Also, the automatic personalization of exercises to each patient can help therapists. Thus, the main objective of this work is to build an intelligent exergame-based rehabilitation system consisting of a platform with an exergame player and a designer tool. The intelligent platform includes a recommender system which analyzes user interactions, along with the user's history, to select new gamified exercises for the user. The main contributions of this paper focus, first, on defining a recommender system based on different difficulty levels and user skills. The recommender system offers the ability to provide the user with a personalized game mode based on his own history and preferences. The results of a triple validation with experts, users and rehabilitation center professionals reveal a positive impact on gestural interaction and rehabilitation uses. Also, different methods are presented for testing the rehabilitation recommender system.
2017 IEEE International Instrumentation and Measurement Technology Conference (I2MTC), 2017
Recent advances in low-cost natural user interfaces such as Microsoft Kinect and Leap Motion controller allow the Virtual Reality implementation of 3D serious games for, posture, upper limb and lower limb rehabilitation purposes. However, it is very important to compare the results obtained by the users that train in virtual and real environments. This paper presents a virtual reality serious game for upper limb rehabilitation using a natural user interface expressed by Leap Motion controller. One of the developed virtual reality serious game for rehabilitation is converted to a real scenario with the same elements and rules and the same aims of physical rehabilitation. In order to extract appropriate information from the serious game based on real objects a RFID technology was used together with software components developed in LabVIEW. The evaluation of hand muscles' activity during the training session is based on the usage of thermography that permits to measure in an unobtrusive way the distribution of the temperature on the hands' level. Based on analysis of thermographic images obtained before and after serious game practice, the level of activity of specific muscles associated with training for virtual and real scenario is extracted. Experimental results that are also included in the paper underline the effectiveness of the proposed method for the comparison of the training in virtual and real scenarios.
New Approaches to Exciting Exergame-Experiences for People with Motor Function Impairments
Sensors, 2017
The work presented here suggests new ways to tackle exergames for physical rehabilitation and to improve the players' immersion and involvement. The primary (but not exclusive) purpose is to increase the motivation of children and adolescents with severe physical impairments, for doing their required exercises while playing. The proposed gaming environment is based on the Kinect sensor and the Blender Game Engine. A middleware has been implemented that efficiently transmits the data from the sensor to the game. Inside the game, different newly proposed mechanisms have been developed to distinguish pure exercise-gestures from other movements used to control the game (e.g., opening a menu). The main contribution is the amplification of weak movements, which allows the physically impaired to have similar gaming experiences as the average population. To test the feasibility of the proposed methods, four mini-games were implemented and tested by a group of 11 volunteers with different disabilities, most of them bound to a wheelchair. Their performance has also been compared to that of a healthy control group. Results are generally positive and motivating, although there is much to do to improve the functionalities. There is a major demand for applications that help to include disabled people in society and to improve their life conditions. This work will contribute towards providing them with more fun during exercise.