A Serious Games Platform for Cognitive Rehabilitation with Preliminary Evaluation

J Med Syst. 2017 Jan;41(1):10. doi: 10.1007/s10916-016-0656-5. Epub 2016 Nov 18.

Abstract

In recent years Serious Games have evolved substantially, solving problems in diverse areas. In particular, in Cognitive Rehabilitation, Serious Games assume a relevant role. Traditional cognitive therapies are often considered repetitive and discouraging for patients and Serious Games can be used to create more dynamic rehabilitation processes, holding patients' attention throughout the process and motivating them during their road to recovery. This paper reviews Serious Games and user interfaces in rehabilitation area and details a Serious Games platform for Cognitive Rehabilitation that includes a set of features such as: natural and multimodal user interfaces and social features (competition, collaboration, and handicapping) which can contribute to augment the motivation of patients during the rehabilitation process. The web platform was tested with healthy subjects. Results of this preliminary evaluation show the motivation and the interest of the participants by playing the games.

Keywords: Cognitive rehabilitation; Games; Health informatics; Natural user interfaces; Rehabilitation; Serious games.

MeSH terms

  • Cognition Disorders / rehabilitation*
  • Eye Movements
  • Facial Expression
  • Humans
  • Interpersonal Relations
  • Motivation
  • Movement*
  • Pattern Recognition, Automated / methods
  • Speech Recognition Software
  • User-Computer Interface
  • Video Games*