Serious Games for the Cognitive Stimulation of Adults: A Proposal of a Pilot Project (original) (raw)
Related papers
2017
The aging process is often influenced by brain diseases affecting cognitive and physical abilities. From a clinical perspective, methods for neuropsychological assessment and cognitive stimulation adapted for an older population are crucial to quantify the cognitive and functional decline. Ideally, these methods should include relaxed, non-tiring and engaging tasks in order to motivate the elderly. Serious Games that adapt the current neuropsychological tests in order to assess performance of the players can enable useful data collection for medical evaluation. Here were port on initial steps for a methodology concerning the development of serious games for cognitive assessment, involving usability tests on two proposed prototypes. We present and discuss the behavior of the players during usability tests: the responses of players to the interview. An analysis of relevant points from the study concerning the challenges of working with an older population has revealed that the main ch...
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
ADE2: Towards a Method for Implementing Serious Games for Older People's Memory Training
Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies for Ageing Well and e-Health, 2021
Over the years, cognitive deterioration appears, which is even more evident as age increases; therefore, it requires attention and treatment. Among the older adults' primary needs are learning and entertainment. These needs promote older people, caregivers, and health personnel to seek technological solutions that help during their free time while training the executive functions in the home or gerontological centers. Hence, serious games can teach without neglecting entertainment and fun. Thus, it is necessary to develop techniques, methods, tools, or standards for creating serious games by following a process that considers all the needs and specific characteristics of older adults. Hence, this paper presents a method named ADE2 that aims to facilitate the development of serious games for older adults aligned to usability standards, human-computer interaction (HCI) techniques, and healthcare and software engineering experts' considerations. Evaluating the feasibility of the method has been presented the construction of a serious game and a case study that evaluates the game's use perception. The evaluation was developed from the point of view of the psychological area and the enduser (older adult).
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.
IEEE Access
This study develops a cognitive computer game system for the motor-cognitive dual-task training of the elderly. This system simultaneously combines musical rhythm games with exercises for cognitive training, while the exercises are designed to correlatively combine movements with the concept of acupressure points. Incorporating the concept of acupressure points can motivate participants to complete the exercises. The system has the features of being improvable and expandable based on modular design. The system framework is divided into three parts: first, the motion sensing controller (MSC) can detect a trainee's slapping motions during cognitive training; a variety of installation methods are designed to flexibly coordinate with a user's conditions, slapping motions and acupressure points for application. Next, the rhythm game is a set of games combining images and musical rhythms. Games can be developed to correspond with different cognitive skills; in this study, relevant games have been developed for cognitive skills like processing speed, short-term memory, working memory, divided attention, and inhibitory function. Finally, the cognitive skill evaluation (CSE) uses the cognitive computer games to evaluate the user's relevant cognitive skills. Sixteen healthy elderly people aged 65 or older are recruited for evaluation of the various modes and functions of this system. After four weeks of interventional training twice a week, the subjects' cognitive skills such as short-term memory, divided attention, and inhibitory function improved significantly, and their overall cognitive function assessed by the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) are also found to have improved. On the user's feedback questionnaire, their self-evaluation of physical conditions, the difficulty levels of the games, and their continued willingness to use the system all receive good appraisals. It can be seen that the rhythmic cognitive computer games in combination with exercises as developed in this study is helpful and feasible for the cognitive training of the elderly.
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.
Design Requirements for a Cognitive Training Game for Elderly or Challenged People
Kansei Engineering International Journal, 2012
An electronic-mechanical game was developed for elderly and disabled people so that they could have an enjoyable way to train their cognitive functions. Because our players were not familiar with electronic games, we proposed constraints and requirements to the game so that they were able to play the game and were willing to play repeatedly. Here, we describe our proposed game, "Ikiiki-pom," which was tested on a group of approximately 80 elderly people with energetic bodies, and about 10 people who were physically challenged at facilities, and about 15 young students with developmental disabilities.
Game based Monitoring and Cognitive Therapy for Elderly
As the proportion of older adults grows, the number of special care provisions to help individuals with declining cognitive abilities needs to also increase. Information Communication Technology (ICT) is beginning to play an increasing role in facilitating the work of specialists to support and monitor individuals with cognitive impairment within their everyday environments. In addition, advances in artificial intelligence and the development of new algorithmic approaches can be used to approximate the computational processes of human behaviour in different circumstances. In this paper, we report on the development of a software system using game based therapies for older adults in Mexico suffering from cognitive impairment, where this system has been deployed in a unique day therapy centre. We further propose an evaluation module based on using AI approaches and affective sensing to monitor and detect significant changes in performance cognation that might indicate a possible cognitive decline.
Healthy Elder: Brain Stimulation Game for the Elderly to Reduce the Risk of Dementia
Procedia Computer Science, 2021
In general, everyone will experience a period of growth, starting from infants to children to adults. There will come a time when a person's growth stops and decreases. When cognitive capabilities are not used often, it will decline, and this phenomenon is known as cognitive impairment. The most common form of cognitive impairment is dementia. Dementia is a degenerative disease that cannot be cured with the usual treatment techniques for physical degenerative diseases, such as surgery or physical contact. It is because this disease attacks the human nerve. One method that can be done is to prevent or reduce the risk of dementia by stimulating the brain. To implement this method, the researchers made a game that can stimulate the brain. The researcher used the Game Development Life Cycle (GDLC) method in the process of making the game. The test was conducted at Berea Nursing Home and Pusaka 41 Nursing Home. The result shows that out of 30 people who were tested, 19 people showed improvement in terms of their cognitive capabilities in seven days.