VREAD: A Virtual Simulation to Investigate Cognitive Function in the Elderly

Interactive Digital Serious Games for the Assessment, Rehabilitation, and Prediction of Dementia

“…Imbeault et al [22] state that Alzheimer's patients require specialist noninvasive and assistive training in the four key areas which are (i) memory, (ii) planning skills, (iii) initiative, and (iv) perseverance which their game accommodates. However, there are additional factors of equal importance that are absent from their design such as visuospatial awareness [18]. Furthermore, their mechanism itself offers no recognisable advantage over other conventionally available commercial releases such as Dr. Kawashima's brain training or Cooking Mama for the Nintendo DS that currently feature an adaptive difficulty level.…”

“…Although the training technique used by Prokopenko et al [23] is somewhat effective it is limited in terms of effectiveness, usability, and appeal. Other studies make better use of gaming technology available such as both the [18] and [17] environments. It is also felt that this system would be more efficient to develop and easier to use by adopting a single game level that requires only one game development toolkit and employs a largely uniform style of gameplay and mode of interaction.…”

“…Shamsuddin et al [18] have designed a series of virtual environments to gauge topographical disorientation in a user's ability to navigate space. The system is said to have a 90% degree of average effective accuracy of indication for MCI that is thought to be a precursor towards dementia, providing a significant level of prediction.…”

“…Their work mainly focuses on adapted derivatives of commercially available games that are opposed to those that employ more academic grade alternatives, a highly important new innovation in dementia care. A key case in point is the visuospatial study for Alzheimer's disease diagnosis as developed by [18].…”

“…However, the use of a robot lacks efficiency in terms of cost and complexity. It is also felt that maintaining cognitive attention of a user can be achieved comparatively more effectively through using a conventional interactive game environment alone as demonstrated by [18].…”