The Use of Multisensory User Interfaces for Games Centered in People with Cerebral Palsy (original) (raw)
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A guide for making video games accessible to users with cerebral palsy
2019
Video games were initially considered as a form of entertainment. Today, this perception has changed. Many video games have been designed for a wide range of purposes: education, rehabilitation, etc. This paper presents our experience developing video games in collaboration with an association of users with cerebral palsy. Cerebral palsy is characterized by a group of permanent disorders of the development of movement and posture, causing activity limitation. This means that people affected by this disease are unable to handle the usual devices used in video games. Moreover, video games offer these people a form of leisure that can also benefit them in many ways: autonomy, strength, coordination, self-confidence, learning from error, etc. Three adapted video games have been developed as well as a guide for designing accessible video games for people with cerebral palsy. This experience has served to study and design new ways of making video games accessible to disabled people, givin...
— One of the challenges that children with cerebral palsy (CP) face is their inability to enjoy playing. Due to their motor disabilities, it is very difficult for these children to play with toys as other kids do. Therefore, disabilities resulting from CP can make childhood games very burdensome. Currently, computer systems are increasingly dedicated to providing users with more sophisticated sensory experiences. Also, games have explored the individual skills of people, in terms of action, interaction and immersion of the game users. Providing these disabled users with an engaging environment could ultimately help them explore the world of movement and motor skills. In this paper, we approach these features by exploring gaming interaction and the potential of sensory stimuli. Our main goal is to discuss the importance of designing games that are considerate of children with cerebral palsy. Many games work with interactivity, but interactivity, alone, is not enough when the goal is to achieve more than entertainment. A better approach may consider sensory stimulation as a gaming interaction. The best way to do this is to introduce synesthesia into the design. Accordingly, we will discuss synesthetic features in virtual environments prior to describing the scenario of how this concept may affect children with cerebral palsy. Accompanying this discussion, a review of related works is described in order to understand the potential use of games in the intervention of children with cerebral palsy.
GAME-ABLING: Platform of Games for People with Cerebral Palsy
European Project Space on Computer Vision, Graphics, Optics and Photonics, 2015
We present the FP7 European Project GAME-ABLING developed from December 2012 to January 2015. This project aimed at the development of a platform for the creation of games for patients with Cerebral Palsy (CP). A key point of the platform is that the framework can be used by personal with no specific skill in game creation, permitting caregivers and parents its utilization. The system is composed of (i) a framework that encompasses the several tools developed to run and control the games, (ii) the authoring tool to easily allows the creation of new games, and (iii) the analyzing tool that generate statistics on the impact of the games in CP patients. Due to motor and cognitive constraints of CP patients, specific sets of games were developed. Also an extensive group of peripherals can be employed beyond the usual game controllers, including color and depth cameras, Nintendo Wiimote and balance boards. This article describes the system elements and the results obtained during the evaluation of the games with real patients. Special detail is given to the analysis of the movements of the user's head and hands that is employed to control the games.
A Tangible Tabletop Game Supporting Therapy of Children with Cerebral Palsy
Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2008
This paper presents the design of a table-top game supporting the treatment of children with Cerebral Palsy. The game was developed through a participatory design process involving therapists and children from the target user group. The game is implemented on top of a platform that supports the implementation of tangible user interfaces using sensing technology. We argue that physical interaction, motivated and constrained by the design of tangible interfaces, offers enormous potential for occupational and physical therapy where patients need to practice specific and repetitive movements.
Developing Serious Games for Children with Cerebral Palsy: Case Study and Pilot Trial
Serious computer games developed for motor rehabilitation produce a more engaging and enjoyable method to participate in physical therapy, but lack of variation and a secondary focus on fun limit long-term appeal. Traditionally, the focus of serious games in a health context is on the rehabilitation of motor function, neglecting the often-absent or impaired sensory function of the patient. This paper discusses a series of approaches used to develop appropriate serious games for children with cerebral palsy targeted at the impaired sensory system, taking into consideration longevity of play experience, requirements from therapists or researchers, and the interface requirements of the participants themselves. Two of the games that were developed are provided as examples, including data and feedback from one child with cerebral palsy who evaluated the games for entertainment, engagement and replay value.
Augmented Reality Games for Children with Cerebral Palsy
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This paper describes and discusses the development of mobile exergames for children with cerebral palsy. The design process was built on codesign, and resulted in three activity games, two augmented reality (AR) games and one GPS based game. The resulting activity games were evaluated by 8 persons with cerebral palsy (CP). To complement this evaluation, the games have been evaluated against existing guidelines for accessible games. The developed games provide a proof of concept of how mobile games can be designed to encourage physical activity for children with mobility impairments.
Computer games can provide a participatory and engaging therapy experience for children with cerebral palsy (CP). However, significant accessibility issues must be considered and addressed. This paper discusses the design process and a subsequent evaluation session for a suite of accessible games that children with CP can independently play, engage with, and enjoy. To maximise accessibility, the games were designed so all control was based on joystick movements only, eliminating the need for in-game button use. A focus group session involving 31 typically developing children was conducted to solicit honest feedback and critique on six of the games. Positive feedback from the evaluation session supported the quality of the games and the participants’ willingness to replay them, with participant responses providing an 88% positive endorsement of the games. The evaluation demonstrated that the games would suit the intended intervention despite the modified control mechanic used to address accessibility issues. One of the major benefits of this early evaluation was that it helped to identify weaknesses in the initial game designs, with this information then feeding back into the development lifecycle for future iterations of the games and the development of new games.
Learning Through Playing for Children with Cerebral Palsy
Jurnal Teknologi, 2015
Guidelines for designing and developing a learning prototype that are compatible with the limited capabilities of children with Cerebral Palsy (CP) are established in the form of a model, known as Learning Software User Interface Design Model (LSUIDM), to ensure children with CP are able to grasp the concepts of a learning software application prototype. In this paper, the LSUIDM is applied in developing a learning software application for children with CP. We present a user study on evaluating a children education game for CP children at Pemulihan dalam Komuniti in Johor Bahru. The findings from the user study shows that the game, which was built, based on the LSUIDM can be applied in the learning process for children with CP and most notably, the children are engaged and excited using the software. This paper highlights the lessons learned from the user study, which should be significant especially in improving the application. The results of the study show that the application is proven to be interactive, useful and efficient as the users used it.