No abstract

This paper describes a user and task analysis that was conducted in order to examine the role of therapists in the use of video games in therapy. The results show that video games were used often, but improvements could be made to make them more effective for the therapist. From these results recommendations for video game design were derived. Recommendations include that a therapeutic video game should be easy to startup and configure, should allow the therapist to support a patient during play, and should support the therapist in tracking a patient's performance.

With the advent of computer games involving the movement of the player's whole body or body parts, an opportunity arises to develop games for people with motor disabilities. In this paper we present four minigames developed for people suffering from spasticity and loss of motor control. We thereby focus on the input devices, sensor signal processing and mapping of players' actions on events in the game. In order to adapt the game to the player's motor skills and goals, specific attention should be paid to calibration procedures and adjustable parameters. We illustrate how this can be done and simultaneously, we demonstrate the feasibility for the development of digital games for physical therapy with currently available commercial input devices.

We present the Boneshaker framework, a generic framework developed to facilitate the design of physical therapy games with the Unity 3D engine. The Boneshaker framework lowers the threshold for developing a variety of physical therapy games as it allows both developer and therapist to quickly add input devices and change specific game dynamics/therapy exercises.

This paper describes a user and task analysis that was conducted in order to examine the role of therapists in the use of video games in therapy. The results show that video games were used often, but improvements could be made to make them more effective for the therapist. From these results recommendations for video game design were derived. Recommendations include that a therapeutic video game should be easy to startup and configure, should allow the therapist to support a patient during play, and should support the therapist in tracking a patient's performance.