Biel Moyà-Alcover

Interactive Rehabilitation System for Improvement of Balance Therapies in People With Cerebral Palsy

The present study covers a new experimental system, designed to improve the balance and postural control of adults with cerebral palsy. This system is based on a serious game for balance rehabilitation therapy, designed using the prototype development paradigm and features for rehabilitation with serious games: feedback, adaptability, motivational elements, and monitoring. In addition, the employed interaction technology is based on computer vision because motor rehabilitation consists of body movements that can be recorded, and because vision capture technology is noninvasive and can be used for clients who have difficulties in holding physical devices. Previous research has indicated that serious games help to motivate clients in therapy sessions; however, there remains a paucity of clinical evidence involving functionality. We rigorously evaluated the effects of physiotherapy treatment on balance and gait function of adult subjects with cerebral palsy undergoing our experimental system. A 24-week physiotherapy intervention program was conducted with nine adults from a cerebral palsy center who exercised weekly in 20-min sessions. Findings demonstrated a significant increase in balance and gait function scores resulting in indicators of greater independence for our participating adults. Scores improved from 16 to 21 points in a scale of 28, according to the Tinetti Scale for risk of falls, moving from high fall risk to moderate fall risk. Our promising results indicate that our experimental system is feasible for balance rehabilitation therapy.

Design Issues for Vision-Based Motor-Rehabilitation Serious Games

When rehabilitation sessions are for maintaining capacities, the demotivation of patients is common due to the difficulty in improving their situation. Recent experiments show that rehabilitation results are better when users are motivated and serious games can help to motivate patients in rehabilitation processes. We developed a rehabilitation serious-game for a set of patients who had abandoned therapy due to demotivation in the previous years. The serious-game was developed following desirable features for rehabilitation serious-games presented in the related research works. From this development, we present implementations guidelines for developing serious-games as motivational tool for rehabilitation therapies. The experiments performed in previous works validate that the interacting design issues defined help motivation in therapy and that they are adequate in rehabilitation therapy.

Improving Vision-Based Motor Rehabilitation Interactive Systems for Users with Disabilities Using Mirror Feedback

Observation is recommended in motor rehabilitation. For this reason, the aim of this study was to experimentally test the feasibility and benefit of including mirror feedback in vision-based rehabilitation systems: we projected the user on the screen. We conducted a user study by using a previously evaluated system that improved the balance and postural control of adults with cerebral palsy. We used a within-subjects design with the two defined feedback conditions (mirror and no-mirror) with two different groups of users (8 with disabilities and 32 without disabilities) using usability measures (time-to-start (T s) and time-to-complete (T c)). A two-tailed paired samples t-test confirmed that in case of disabilities the mirror feedback facilitated the interaction in vision-based systems for rehabilitation. The measured times were significantly worse in the absence of the users own visual feedback (T s = 7.09 (P < 0.001) and T c = 4.48 (P < 0.005)). In vision-based interaction systems, the input device is the users own body; therefore, it makes sense that feedback should be related to the body of the user. In case of disabilities the mirror feedback mechanisms facilitated the interaction in vision-based systems for rehabilitation. Results recommends developers and researchers use this improvement in vision-based motor rehabilitation interactive systems.

A Process Framework for Serious Games Development for Motor Rehabilitation Therapy

Nowadays the development of serious games for rehabilitation therapy is gaining popularity thanks to the motivational advantages of this type of computer software. Consequently, the need for a process framework for the development of this category of software applications has become more evident. The final goal is to guarantee that these software products are developed and validated following a systematic and coherent approach that supports the development of reliable serious games. In this work we introduce a design proposal for a methodological framework for the development of serious games for motor rehabilitation therapy.

PROGame: A process framework for serious game development for motor rehabilitation therapy

Serious game development for rehabilitation therapy is becoming increasingly popular because of the motivational advantages that these types of applications provide. Consequently, the need for a common process framework for this category of software development has become increasingly evident. The goal is to guarantee that products are developed and validated by following a coherent and systematic method that leads to high-quality serious games. This paper introduces a new process framework for the development of serious games for motor rehabilitation therapy. We introduce the new model and demonstrate its application for the development of a serious game for the improvement of the balance and postural control of adults with cerebral palsy. The development of this application has been facilitated by two technological transfer contracts and is being exploited by two different organizations. According to clinical measurements, patients using the application improved from high fall risk to moderate fall risk. We believe that our development strategy can be useful not only for motor rehabilitation therapy, but also for the development of serious games in many other rehabilitation areas.

Analysis of Blood Cell Morphology in touch-based devices using a CAPTCHA

In this paper, we present an experimental system for controlling human access to information systems. Also, the system allows analyzing the morphology of red blood cells of microscope images of patients with sicklemia.

Fall Prevention Serious Games for Elderly People Using RGBD Devices

Falls are a serious problem among older adults. Many research studies have reported that risk falls can be minimized with exercising and physical activity. This paper proposes two prototype games that include tasks for balance and postural control for elderly people. It can be integrated in rehabilitation programs in both clinics and home settings. The physiotherapist has preliminarly validated the proposed games and a clinical trial to determine their effectiveness is planned as a further work.

Balance Clinical Measurement Using RGBD Devices

RGBD capture devices have been proven as an ICT realistic approach for clinical prevention of falls. RGBD devices facilitate the capture of human movement and are known because of its low cost. According to that, its use is widespread and has been validated in different interactive applications for balance rehabilitation. In this type of rehabilitation, it is very important to have information on clinical patient outcomes. Moreover, it would be helpful to use RGBD devices in case the patient performs the rehabilitation treatment at home because the physiotherapist could use the RGBD devices to assess the balance. This paper demonstrates that the Microsoft Kinect device is reliable and adequate to calculate the standard functional reach test (FRT); one of the most widely used balance clinical measurements. To do so, an experiment was performed on 14 healthy users to compare the FRT calculation manually and using a RGBD device. The results show an average absolute difference of 2.84 cm (\(\pm 2.62\)), and there are no statistically significant differences applying a paired t-student test for the data.