Game-based Rehabilitation Experiences to Augment Therapy

On this website we present the interactive  pressure sensitive floor for gait rehabilitation. Also known under the name PadWalk fitting the first game created for this floor. We have a Dutch description and both a more general and a more technical description of our project in English below.

Omschrijving

Het project draait om een medische toepassing op LedGo’s interactieve video vloer (Black Spinel). Op de vloer wordt een persoonlijk aanpasbaar spel gespeeld voor revalidatie loop doelstellingen. In de afgelopen jaren zijn we met aantal studenten begonnen met het maken van de eerste spelletjes voor deze vloer. We betrekken hierbij zowel de therapeuten, patienten als verschillende onderzoekers. In deze context hebben we een eerste paar pilot tests gedaan met een aantal patienten die revalideren om weer beter te leren lopen.

Eerste indicaties na testen met patiënten in revalidatiecentrum ‘De Hoogstraat’, Utrecht
– Hoge mate van motivatie en betrokkenheid
– Het trainen van de revalidatiedoelen ging in een intuïtieve en impliciete manier
– Enthousiaste reacties van patiënten en behandelaars na de test.
– Meerderheid van de patiënten verklaarde ofwel dat deze manier van training is beter dan de conventionele interventie, of dat het een zeer aangename en aantrekkelijke aanvulling was naast hun conventionele therapie.
– Bijna alle patiënten waren gemotiveerd om hun scores te verbeteren na elk level en toonden hun competatief gedrag
– De pediatrische patiënten vertoonden verrassend genoeg totaal geen angst, sommige liepen zelfs op langere loopafstanden zonder pijn in vergelijking met hun conventionele therapie
– Niet alleen de jongeren werden ondergedompeld in het spel, ook de oudere patiënten werden meegenomen in het spel en beleefden er veel plezier aan. Op deze manier profiteert iedereen

Description

The platform detects the position of the feet of patients using pressure sensors in an 8 meter long LED floor. With this information we created several games:
Padwalk, our first game where the player needs to step on virtually placed lily pads.
Swiss cheese, a game where the player helps a mouse to collect pieces of cheese while preventing to come in contact with mouse traps and moving virtual cats.
Crazy object, in which the player needs to step on the right objects. During the game the object to step on can suddenly change, requiring cognitive resources and change of visual attention.
Treasure hunt, where the player needs to collect a key in order to open the treasure at the end of the floor. The player will need to avoid moving spiders, walk over floating trees and step on small stones. The game parts can be switched and set by the therapist.

Technical details

The platform exist of three parts: an interactive led floor, a tablet to alter settings and the games. The main hardware, the floor, is provided by Ledgo. The floor currently consists of an eight by one meter long interactive LED floor, also known as the Black Spinel. You might have seen the floor on television (shows) such as the Eurovision Song Contest. This modular floor system thus allows for other sized floors as well. The floor basically functions as a computer screen as well as a multi-touch input device. Each module has pressures sensors which send their position and pressure information to the game. The second part is a user-friendly interface on a tablet. The therapist can use it to switch what game will be played next or adapt the game to the player. For instance, therapists can change the step size, the level of cognitive challenge for puzzles, and the time in which a step should be taken. These settings are send via a web-form and can be directly loaded by the game. The third part are the previously described set of games. For this part we have used both the popular game engine Unity 3D and openFrameworks. Tracking performance of how the game is played allows to present scores related to the time a player needed, the step equality, and the precision of the feet placement.

Type of users

We have had a variety of players and therapist that tested the floor, many gave very positive responses. Our early experiments included a broad type of user. From very young children to older people with acquired brain damage.

A showcase of interactive games for therapy on the interactive pressure sensitive LED floor of LedGo. To be more specific, together with de Hoogstraat rehabilitation centre we created entertaining gait rehabilitation exercises in an interactive game form. It also includes a user friendly web application to tailor the properties of these game to the current user (step width, difficulty etc).

News
We are currently working on a proposal for further research, and looking for foundations that are interested to help fund this practical research into interactive gait rehabilitation.

Involved people

Robby van Delden (HMI, Universiteit Twente) (R.W.vanDelden@utwente.nl)
Dennis Reidsma (HMI, Universiteit Twente) (d.reidsma@utwente.nl)
Dirk Heylen (HMI, Universiteit Twente) (d.k.j.heylen@utwente.nl)
Joep Janssen (de Hoogstraat Revalidatie)
Winnie Meijer (Ledgo)