Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Virtual table tennis – alternate access

‘Hyper Ping-Pong’ is a virtual table tennis game, played with a bat containing motion sensors and a speaker. The game provides sound feedback to the motion of swinging at the ball to guide game play. A player hears the other (virtual) player hit the ball, and responds to sustain a rhythm, or to keep the rally going.

The game was developed by Happinet, a Japanese game company, and demonstrated at the International Tokyo Toy Show, June 16 – 19, 2011. It will not be available till October of this year and is estimated to cost $25.

Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2007785/Ping-pong-partner--ball-Japanese-develop-table-tennis-game-play-ear.html#ixzz1QalvnkAF

View: www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5xdj3s7uXc

Friday, June 24, 2011

Choosing Between Games for Rehab

Subject Review:
Facilitating clinical decision-making about the use of virtual reality within paediatric motor rehabilitation: Application of a classification framework

Levac, D. C. & Galvin, J., Developmental Rehabilitation, June 2011; 14(3): 177-184. Link to the abstract: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21410403

The authors create a clinical tool to enable therapists to choose when they would use different virtual reality game systems. Game systems covered include: Nintendo Wii, Sony EyeToy, Dance Dance Revolution (DDR), GestureTek IREX, Pediatric Intensive Therapy System (PITS) glove and Sony PlayStation 3 (PS3) glove. The decision tool is applied to three case studies of children with motor impairments.

Levac and Galvin identify (but don’t define) their therapist-friendly criteria for sorting out the video games. The criteria include the following. Is it possible to manipulate game levels to grade activity difficulty, or track the variables to evaluate activity performance? Can the therapist choose games that focus separately on upper extremity or lower extremity activities? Are the cognitive requirements to follow the game separate from increasing motor demands as the game progresses? What is the type of motor input and user capabilities, such as fine motor control, required to operate the game? And what seated or standing position is required to play the various games? These criteria are assembled into a table that sorts the game systems.

Then, by way of example, the criteria are applied to three case studies to choose game systems. The authors also provide a comparison of game systems, based on the criteria. This has value in clinical settings where only one system can be purchased. Generally, commercial systems (Wii, EyeToy, DDR) are seen to have fewer motor rehabilitation qualities than the game systems specifically developed for rehabilitation (IREX, PITS, PS3 glove).

The classification system is continuing to be studied to establish validity and clinical utility.