Muscle Activation during Exergame Playing

Abstract

Exergames may provide low-cost solutions for playing, training and rehabilitation. Exergame user research, studies the interaction between an exergame and users, in order to provide feedback for game developers and safe and meaningful game play. Detailed evaluations and a coding system based on muscle activation levels are necessary to characterize. This is important when it comes to use exergames in purposes other than fun. The purpose of this chapter was to characterize the muscle activation during a swimming exergame and to compare the level of activation during different conditions. Healthy subjects played bouts of exergame using Xbox360 and Kinect. Muscle activation was monitored for desired muscles on dominant upper limb using wireless electromyography system. An investigation of muscular coordination was also conducted to provide activation sequences of studied muscles. Preliminary results showed that upper trapezius was the most active muscle in all techniques. Results can provide insights for practitioners to have a baseline on application of exergames in their routines.

Stereo vision system for human motion analysis in a rehabilitation context

“…Markers were placed in order to mimic the positions of the joints in the skeleton model used by the developed system. For that, 27 reective markers were placed on predened body positions as suggested in (Soltani and Vilas-Boas 2016). Two healthy subjects were instructed to perform the exercises described in Section 3.1.…”

Upper Limb Muscles Activity during Punches in Virtual Reality Exergame on Standing and Sitting Position

“…Electromyography (EMG) measures electrical signals related to muscle-neural activity and provides real-time information about what happens in nerves and muscles in general, also muscle activity sequence or timing, which also allows us to examine skill related parameters during exercise and learning process. 22 A complete and comprehensive understanding of muscle activity involved is important to assess the potential benefits of VR EXG. 23 In boxing punches, the muscles recruitment order gives us hints regarding the importance of lower body/lower limbs, which begin from lower body to upper body and sequentially to upper extremity.…”