Physiotherapy for Elderly through Exergames using Microsoft Kinect Sensor

Abstract

Falls in the elderly is a big issue and thus physiotherapy through daily exercise is essential to strengthen the dedicated muscles. However, exercise in elderly always relates to low adherence and unexciting. In this paper, we propose a simple form of exercise through video games that might attract the attention of the elderly. The entertainment based exercise or exergame which is a combination of exercise and video game is developed for the targeted elderly group in order to prevent their sedentary lifestyle. The developed exergame is focusing on arms and legs dedicated games. The arms game targets on improving the stability by lowering down the center of gravity with the help of expanding the arms apart to achieve a better balancing, while the legs game targets on the training of the leg muscles that stronger leg muscles means the elderly falling probability would be less. The choice step reaction time (CSRT) measurements during the games will be extracted and analyzed. This data can be used as a simple clinical test in assessing the risk of elderly fall.