Friday, September 23, 2011

Therapists Creating Rehabilitation Games


Qualitative Research

Kelleher, C., Tam, S., May, M., Profitt, R. & Engsberg, J.
Towards a Therapist-Centered Programming Environment for Creating Rehabilitation Games Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Computer Games pp. 240 – 247.

Link to abstract: ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/freeabs_all.jsp?arnumber=6000346

Objective: to discover the ways therapists describe video games in order to help create therapist-programmed video games for clients and rehabilitation goals. Characterizing the language therapists use to talk about video game-based therapies can help programmers, and may lead to games that can be programmed by therapists to suit the specific therapy goals of their patients.

This study comprises two parts:
  1. a language study to elicit therapists’ descriptions of the relationship between players and the game environment.
  2. have therapists build games using simple programming to suggest guidelines for supporting therapists to program games.


The first study introduced ten occupational therapists to seven video samples showing both the player and the player’s related action in the video game. Therapists were asked to describe in words or drawings “how the computer should perform the actions depicted in the clip”. This information was categorized into six properties describing various motions, the relationship between the player and game motion, and the relationship between the sensors and body parts.

The second study had eight rehabilitation occupational therapy graduate students do programming of a rehabilitation game using a simple program, Looking Glass. These subjects identified a target motion, then designed a game around that motion.

Outcomes:
Some of the guidelines that might help a therapist-friendly programming environment include:
  • creating an avatar or player object for therapists to manipulate to see how the game responds,
  • relating movements to player body parts rather than what the sensor does or detects,
  • describing movements and distance relationships in the game in therapist-centric language
  • providing a model of game development
  • avoiding calling attention to the hardware
  • improving the efficiency of game creation

Friday, September 16, 2011

Wii Balance Board vs. Force Plate


Research paper: Validity and Reliability of the Nintendo Wii Balance Board for assessment of standing posture

Clark, R. A., Bryant, A. L., Pua, Y., McCrory, P., Bennell, K. & Hunt, M. (2010). Published in:
Gait & Posture 31 pp.307-310

Link to abstract: ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20005112

Objective: The Nintendo Wii Balance Board has the ability to inexpensively measure standing balance. In clinical settings where the Wii is used as a rehabilitation tool, measuring improvement in standing balance becomes an asset to the therapist for tracking rehabilitation gains.

This paper demonstrates the Balance Board’s equivalence to the ‘gold standard’ of a force plate to assess standing balance. Thirty able-bodied subjects with an average age of 23.7 years, stood on both devices with one or two legs and eyes open or closed. Subjects were tested on these four conditions twice; at least one day and not more than 14 days apart. Testing device and order of balance tasks was randomly assigned. The outcome measure used in this study is the length of the center of pressure (COP) path, known to be a valid and reliable measure of standing balance.

Findings: Comparison of COP path lengths across the Balance Board and the force plate for the four test conditions show good to excellent reliability within and across the two devices, and the Balance Board “possesses concurrent validity with a laboratory-grade force plate.”

Less expensive than force plates, the Wii is now often found in clinical settings. In addition to being popular with therapists and children, providing a way to measure change and give therapists quantitative data gives the Wii extra value.

Friday, September 9, 2011

Wiihabilitation Games Blog


Rebecca is a physiotherapist based in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England. She has created a blog on the use of Nintendo Wii for therapy, “based on experience... as a physiotherapist working with young disabled adults with a variety of conditions.” Her website is aimed at therapists who are using or will use the (Wii) console in rehabilitation. wiihabilitationgames.blogspot.com/

The blog organizes information about Wii by diagnosis including assessment and recording and by therapy type indicating what body system is being targeted for physiotherapy. The equipment section includes wii adaptations, and ways to calibrate the wii balance board for use with upper extremities and in sitting. This and the game reviews she has prepared wiihabilitation.co.uk/games.shtml can be of great benefit to therapists.