Evaluating Interventions With an Adaptive Video Game Platform for Children With Cerebral Palsy
By Odle, Brooke M.; Irving, Amanda; Foulds, Richard; RESNA Annual Conference - 2009,Publication Date: 2011
Study evaluated the usability of Hands-Up, an open source, low cost video game platform featuring software that enables users to customize games to ensure successful game play for children with orthopedic disabilities. Developed at the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center (RERC) on Technology for Children with Orthopedic Disabilities at New Jersey Institute of Technology, Hands-Up runs on the 2007b version of Matlab and also consists of a 30 frames per second webcam which allows for external user input by taking snapshots of real-time hand movements. The player views representations of his hands, allowing him to move and interact within the gaming environment. Participants were 3 boys aged 4 to 12 years with hemiplegic, spastic, and diplegic cerebral palsy, respectively. The children played games using trackers selected based on their therapeutic goals and engaged in functional tasks to assess the effectiveness of Hands-Up in assisting them to achieve those goals. Usability questionnaires were completed by a physical therapist, an occupational therapist, and an occupational therapy student who treated the children to evaluate the platform’s effectiveness. All 3 believed that virtual reality based gaming systems could help their patients achieve their therapeutic goals and reported noticing an improvement of their patients’ reaching ability. All were also in agreement that their patients became more comfortable with the platform after participating in a few intervention sessions. Finally, all indicated that they would consider using Hands-Up in their clinical setting. Implications for further development of the platform are discussed.
Published by: Rehabilitation Engineering & Assistive Technology Society of North America (RESNA) (Website:http://www.resna.org)
Rehabilitation Engineering & Assistive Technology Society of North America (RESNA) (Web Site: http://www.resna.org )
Link to text: http://web.resna.org/conference/proceedings/2009/Other/Odle.html
