Step Kinnection: An exergame for the elderly

Brief

Falls are the leading cause of disability, injuries or even death among older adults. Exercise programmes that include a balance component reduce the risk of falling by 40%. However, such interventions are often perceived as boring and drop-out rates are high.

The characteristics of video games may overcome this weakness and increase exercise adherence. The use of modern input devices, such as the Microsoft Kinect, enables quantification of player performance in terms of motor function while engaging with games. This capability has just started to be explored. This project focuses on the development of a Kinect-based system to deliver step training while simultaneously measuring parameters of stepping performance that have shown to predict falls in older people.

Members

Jaime A. Garcia
Karla Felix Navarro
Yusuf Pisan
Chek Tien Tan

Outputs

J. Garcia, Y. Pisan, C. T. Tan, and K. F. Navarro, “Assessing the Kinect’s Capabilities to Perform a Time-based Clinical Test for Fall Risk Assessment in Older People,” Entertainment Computing – ICEC 2014, 2014.

J. Garcia, Y. Pisan, C. T. Tan, and K. F. Navarro, Step Kinnection: A Hybrid Clinical Test for Fall Risk Assessment in Older Adults. In Proc. CHI 2014 Ext. Abstracts, 2014.

Garcia, J. A., Felix Navarro, K., Schoene, D., Smith, S. T., & Pisan, Y. (2012). Exergames for the elderly: Towards an embedded Kinect-based clinical test of falls risk. In A. J. Maeder & F. J. Martin-Sanchez (Eds.), Studies in Health Technology and Informatics (pp. 51–57). IOS Press. doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-078-9-51.

Oct. 26, 2016, 3:12 p.m.