Aung Pyae

Investigating the effects of motion-based Kinect game system on user cognition

Kinect, which is useful as a multimodal input device, offers multiple features such as voice recognition, facial tracking, object recognition, and gesture recognition. Games with such human-centred, interactive interfaces create an environment that bridges between artificial and natural cognitive capabilities, enabling them to work together more efficiently. This study specifically examines a usability evaluation method that uses Kansei engineering knowledge to identify and remedy difficulties related to user interface development. As a practical application of the suggested evaluation method, we used a particular serious game, “The Glider,” a prototype developed by Serious Games Finland. It exploits Kinect as its game controller. Serious games are usually aimed at promoting specific effects that can be achieved through playing the game. However, such effects can also present tradeoffs in terms of usability. Controlling motions in “The Glider” has been developed in close cooperation with medical doctors, physiotherapists, and patients in terms of well-being and light exercise. However, modulating the difficulty balance and usability of the game is also a very important aspect of game development. As described in this paper, our goal is to evaluate the control motion of the game from a usability perspective. Evaluation consists of state and appearance observations conducted with 12 Japanese subjects. Observed data were tagged into several categories to quantize their behaviours and speeches, and were analysed using both cognitive bias evaluation and statistical evaluation. Results show that difficulties for subjects in control motions of the game were curved out, which is a key to balancing usability and difficulty while maintaining the genuine purpose of the serious game.

Serious games and active healthy ageing: a pilot usability testing of existing games

In this paper, we report the findings from the pre-studies of gamified solutions in healthcare GSH project, which include mapping the existing games for seniors, conducting a pre-test on console games, interviewing elderly, and a literature review on the motivational factors for elderly. The findings showed us the limitations of the existing games and technologies. The literature review gave the useful game design opportunities. The insights from these pre-studies helped us to form the agenda, activities, and plan for our project. According to the proposed activities, we conducted a pilot testing of existing games with elderly and found out that the existing games have potential to be re-used with further modifications in our project. Furthermore, we learned the important lessons from this testing in terms of game design, interaction, and design opportunities. Then, we continue to re-design the existing games and develop new games followed by a usability testing.

Understanding Stroke Patients’ Motivation for Motivation-Driven Rehabilitative Game Design

Stroke is one of the major problems in medical and healthcare that can cause severe disability and death of patients especially for older population. Rehabilitation plays an important role in stroke therapy. However, most of the rehabilitative exercises are monotonous and tiring for the patients. For a particular time, they can easily get bored in doing these exercises. The role of patient’s motivation in rehabilitation is vital. Motivation and rehabilitative outcomes are strongly related. Digital games are promising to help stroke patients to feel motivated and more engaged in rehabilitative training through motivational gameplay. Most of the commercial games available in the market are not well-designed for stroke patients and their motivational needs in rehabilitation. This study aims at understanding the motivational requirements of stroke patients in doing rehabilitative exercises and living in a post-stroke life. Based on the findings from the literature review, we report that there are many factors that can influence the stroke patients’ level of motivation such as social functioning, patient-therapist relationship, goal-setting, and music. These findings are insightful and useful for ideating and designing interactive motivation-driven games for stroke patients. The motivational factors of stroke patients in rehabilitation may help the game designers to design motivation-driven game contexts, contents, and gameplay. Moreover, these findings may help not only game designers but also healthcare professionals who concern stroke patient’s motivation in rehabilitative context.

Pre-studies on Using Digital Games for the Elderly’s Physical Activities

In this study, we conducted the pre-studies of Gamified Solutions in Healthcare (GSH) project. The main objectives of these pre-studies are to understand game design guidelines, the usability of Kinect, commercial, and non-commercial games. In pre-study 1, we conducted a literature review of motivational factors for the elderly’s physical rehabilitation. In pre-study 2, we reviewed commercial games for the elderly. We conducted a usability testing of Microsoft Kinect with eight elderly in pre-study 3. Then, in pre-study 4, we conducted a usability testing of Puuha’s game and two commercial games with five elderly participants. The findings from the literature review of motivational factors provide us useful game design guidelines how to motivate the elderly. The findings from the review of commercial games highlight that commercial games lack important design guidelines for the elderly. We also learn from the usability testing that Kinect has the potential to be used as an input device for the elderly, but built-in gestures are difficult for the elderly. Finally, the findings from the usability testing of Puuha’s game and two commercial games provide us insightful game design and usability guidelines for the elderly. These findings are useful for our future game development for the elderly.

Serious Games and Active Healthy Ageing: A Pre-study

This article describes the results of a pre-study that was conducted in a project called Gamified Solutions in Healthcare. The Gamified Solutions in Healthcare project, funded by Tekes – the Finnish Funding Agency for Innovation, develops new services and effective activity solutions to elderly people through gamification. This research project combines the expertise of many different disciplines and is linked to company-driven projects that develop scalable international serious games solutions for healthcare utilisation. The pre-study consisted of mapping existing games for seniors, conducting a pre-test on console games and interviewing potential users of serious games. The purpose of this article is to report these results and to present a research agenda for future research.

Investigating the Usability, User Experiences, and Usefulness of Digital Game-based Exercises for Elderly People: A Case Study of Finland

In this study, we evaluated the usability, user experiences, and usefulness of digital game-based exercise called The Skiing game for the Finnish elderly people in Finland. The findings suggest that digital games are promising to be used as an alternative way of exercising for them. The findings also highlight usability recommendations for us to take into account in future study. The findings from this study can be insightful for health practitioners, policy makers, researchers, and game designers not only in Finland, but also in other countries for promoting elderly peoples physical well-being through digital gameplay.