Interactive Games with Robotic and Augmented Reality Technology in Cognitive and Motor Rehabilitation

Abstract

Over the years, robotics have become technological service tools in different application domains. This chapter presents a direct application of games and robotics as therapeutic tools in the healthcare of patients. These strategies are used in ACROSS project, involving more than 100 researchers from 13 Spanish entities. The main objective of this project is to modify the current perspective of the therapies, taking advantage of the game properties that will be implemented in social robots, which are blocked in providing predefined services. These new systems are able to self-reconfigure and adapt autonomously. In order to provide an open framework for collaboration between universities, research centres, and the Administration, ACROSS will develop Open Source Services available to everybody. This chapter aims to contribute a new overview of treatment therapies with elderly and paediatric patients that present cognitive and motor impairments as well as present the methodology of evaluation to determine the effect of games and social robots as a means to carry out a therapy.