Serious Games for Post-Stroke Rehabilitation Using Microsoft Kinect

Abstract

Traditional rehabilitation is a tedious task which typically reduces the patient’s motivation to perform rehabilitation exercises. Patients therefore need a program that can entice them to do rehabilitation exercises continuously. The proposed game includes two different types of game and three different types of movement for interacting with the game. The game was designed and developed based on the elements of a rehabilitation game and the types of movement in rehabilitation exercises. The interface was developed with the aim of increasing the motivation of players, and the design was based on an analysis of the technology constraints faced by post-stroke patients. Since these patients experience physical limitations, Microsoft Kinect was used for interaction in this game. Using Kinect, the patient is not bound by the controller to interact with the game. Therefore, rehabilitation exercise games that support multi-player will provide a higher motivation than the single-player. Since most stroke patients suffer from cognitive impairment, cognitive challenge levels are also the key factors in the design of the game so that it does not become an obstacle for the recovery process. This research develops a prototype of a rehabilitation exercise game that contains aspects of the social context, the type of movement and cognitive challenges. It also provides usability in game design, according to a post-stroke stage so that they can perform recovery activities based on their ability. In addition, this study highlights technology and rehabilitation exercise games in Malaysia.The game also adds a social context that gives patients the opportunity to have a friend to play either by competition or cooperation. The contribution of this research is to measure the effectiveness of Microsoft's Kinect game console and this game can help in recovery the post-stroke patients do additional exercises at home without the supervision of therapist.