Caitlin Kelleher

Towards customizable games for stroke rehabilitation

Stroke is the leading cause of long term disability among adults in industrialized nations. The partial paralysis that stroke patients often experience can make independent living difficult or impossible. Research suggests that many of these patients could recover by performing hundreds of daily repetitions of motions with their affected limbs. Yet, only 31% of patients perform the exercises recommended by their therapists. Home-based stroke rehabilitation games may help motivate stroke patients to perform the necessary exercises to recover. In this paper, we describe a formative study in which we designed and user tested stroke rehabilitation games with both stroke patients and therapists. We describe the lessons we learned about what makes games useful from a therapeutic point of view.

Stencils-based tutorials: design and evaluation

Users of traditional tutorials and help systems often have difficulty finding the components described or pictured in the procedural instructions. Users also unintentionally miss steps, and perform actions that the documentations authors did not intend, moving the application into an unknown state. We introduce Stencils, an interaction technique for presenting tutorials that uses translucent colored stencils containing holes that direct the users attention to the correct interface component and prevent the user from interacting with other components. Sticky notes on the stencils surface provide necessary tutorial material in the context of the application. In a user study comparing a Stencils-based and paper-based version of the same tutorial in Alice, a complex software application designed to teach introductory computer programming, we found that users of a Stencils-based tutorial were able complete the tutorial 26% faster, with fewer errors, and less reliance on human assistance. Users of the Stencils-based and paper-based tutorials attained statistically similar levels of learning.

Stroke Therapy through Motion-Based Games: A Case Study

In the United States alone, more than five million people are living with long term motor impairments caused by a stroke. Recently, video games with affordable motion-based input devices have been proposed as a part of therapy to help people recover lost range of motion and motor control. While researchers have demonstrated the potential utility of therapeutic games through controlled studies, relatively little work has explored their long-term home-based use. We conducted a six-week home study with a 62-year-old woman who was seventeen years post-stroke. She played therapeutic games for approximately one hour a day, five days a week. Over the six weeks, she recovered significant motor abilities, which is unexpected given the time since her stroke. We explore detecting such improvements early, using game logs for daily measurements of motor ability to complement the standard measurements that are taken less often. Through observations and interviews, we present lessons learned about the barriers and opportunities that arise from long-term home-based use of therapeutic games.

Stroke therapy through motion-based games: a case study

In the United States alone, more than five million people are living with long term motor impairments caused by a stroke. Video game-based therapies show promise in helping people recover lost range of motion and motor control. While researchers have demonstrated the potential utility of game-based rehabilitation through controlled studies, relatively little work has explored longer-term home-based use of therapeutic games. We conducted a six-week home study with a 62 year old woman who was seventeen years post-stroke. She played therapeutic games for approximately one hour a day, five days a week. Over the six weeks, she recovered significant motor abilities, which is unexpected given the time since her stroke. Through observations and interviews, we present lessons learned about the barriers and opportunities that arise from long-term home-based use of therapeutic games.

Non-programmers identifying functionality in unfamiliar code: strategies and barriers

Source code on the web is a widely available and potentially rich learning resource for non-programmers. However, unfamiliar code can be daunting to end-users without programming experience. This paper describes the results of an exploratory study in which we asked non-programmers to find and modify the code responsible for specific functionality within unfamiliar programs. We present two interacting models of how non-programmers approach this problem: the Task Process Model and the Landmark-Mapping model. Using these models, we describe code search strategies non-programmers employed and the barriers they encountered. Finally, we propose guidelines for future programming environments that support non-programmers in finding functionality in unfamiliar programs.

Learnable programming: blocks and beyond

New blocks frameworks open doors to greater experimentation for novices and professionals alike.

Reducing compensatory motions in video games for stroke rehabilitation

Stroke is the leading cause of long-term disability among adults in industrialized nations; approximately 80% of people who survive a stroke experience motor disabilities. Recovery requires hundreds of daily repetitions of therapeutic exercises, often without therapist supervision. When performing therapy alone, people with limited motion often compensate for the lack of motion in one joint by moving another one. This compensation can impede the recovery progress and create new health problems. In this work we contribute (1) a methodology to reliably sense compensatory torso motion in the context of shoulder exercises done by persons with stroke and (2) the design and experimental evaluation of operant-conditioning-based strategies for games that aim to reduce compensatory torso motion. Our results show that these strategies significantly reduce compensatory motions compared to alternatives.

Growing up programming: democratizing the creation of dynamic, interactive media

Young people interact with games, animations, and simulations all of the time. But few of them are able to create interactive media. The obstacle: traditional programming languages are too difficult to learn and understand. This panel brings together a group of researchers, developers, and educators who are aiming to democratize the activity of programming. They are developing a new generation of programming environments that enable children and teens to create their own interactive games, stories, animations, and simulations. Panelists will discuss and critique their programming environments, then set up interactive demonstration stations for focused exploration and small-group discussion. Audience members will also have the opportunity to download the environments onto their own laptops, so that they can experiment in greater depth.

Use of computer games as an intervention for stroke.

Abstract Current rehabilitation for persons with hemiparesis after stroke requires high numbers of repetitions to be in accordance with contemporary motor learning principles. The motivational characteristics of computer games can be harnessed to create engaging interventions for persons with hemiparesis after stroke that incorporate this high number of repetitions. The purpose of this case report was to test the feasibility of using computer games as a 6-week home therapy intervention to improve upper extremity function for a person with stroke. One person with left upper extremity hemiparesis after stroke participated in a 6-week home therapy computer game intervention. The games were customized to her preferences and abilities and modified weekly. Her performance was tracked and analyzed. Data from pre-, mid-, and postintervention testing using standard upper extremity measures and the Reaching Performance Scale (RPS) were analyzed. After 3 weeks, the participant demonstrated increased upper extremity range of motion at the shoulder and decreased compensatory trunk movements during reaching tasks. After 6 weeks, she showed functional gains in activities of daily living (ADLs) and instrumental ADLs despite no further improvements on the RPS. Results indicate that computer games have the potential to be a useful intervention for people with stroke. Future work will add additional support to quantify the effectiveness of the games as a home therapy intervention for persons with stroke.

Automatically generating tutorials to enable middle school children to learn programming independently

Enabling middle school children to learn from code shared on the internet may provide computer science learning opportunities to those who would not otherwise have them. We augmented a programming environment designed for middle school children to automatically generate tutorials from code snippets in order to help users learn new programming skills. In our new system, users select code snippets from a program shared on the web and then complete an automatically generated tutorial in order to re-create that snippet within their own program. To evaluate the potential learning gains from our generated tutorials, we conducted a between-subjects study in which we evaluated the performance of children introduced to new programming constructs through automatically generated tutorials. Participants who used the automatically generated tutorials performed 64% better on a near transfer task compared to participants without generated tutorials.