Saturday, 17 March 2012

Activity-promoting gaming systems in exercise and rehabilitation

Matthew J. D. Taylor, PhD; Darren McCormick, BSc; Teshk Shawis, MBChB, FRCP; Rebecca Impson,
MSc; Murray Griffin, PhD

Journal of Rehabilitation Research & Development
Volume 48, Number 10, 2011 Pages 1171–1186

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Abstract—

Commercial activity-promoting gaming systems provide a potentially attractive means to facilitate exercise and rehabilitation. The Nintendo Wii, Sony EyeToy, Dance Dance Revolution, and Xbox Kinect are examples of gaming systems that use the movement of the player to control gameplay. Activity-promoting gaming systems can be used as a tool to increase activity levels in otherwise sedentary gamers and also be an effective tool to aid rehabilitation in clinical settings. Therefore, the aim of this current work is to review the growing area of activity-promoting gaming in the context of exercise, injury, and rehabilitation.


Key words: activity-promoting, Dance Dance Revolution,
exercise, falls, games, gaming systems, injury, Nintendo Wii,
rehabilitation, Sony EyeToy, Xbox Kinect.

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Friday, 2 March 2012

Assisting people with disabilities to actively improve their collaborative physical activities with Nintendo Wii Balance Boards

Research in Developmental Disabilities, Volume 33, Issue 4, July–August 2012, Pages 983-989
Ching-Hsiang Shih, Man-Ling Chang
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Abstract
The latest researches have adopted software technology to modify the Nintendo Wii Balance Board functionality and used it to enable two people with developmental disabilities to actively perform physical activities. This study extended the latest research of the Wii Balance Board application to assess whether four people (two groups) with developmental disabilities would be able to actively improve their physical activities collaboration – walking to the designated location following simple instructions, by controlling their favorite environmental stimulation through using three Nintendo Wii Balance Boards. We employed an A–B–A–B design, with A represented the baseline and B represented intervention phases. Data showed that both groups of participants significantly increased their collaborative target response (collaboratively performing designated physical activities) by activating the control system to produce their preferred environmental stimulation during the intervention phases. Practical and developmental implications of the findings are discussed.

Highlights
-Commercial high-technology products can be used as high performance assistive devices.

-The Nintendo Wii Balance Board can be used as a high performance standing location detector.

-Four people (two groups) with developmental disabilities can control environmental stimulation through the Wii Balance Board by performing collaborative physical activities.

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