Games and Videogames

This project aims to explore the role of social robots in mediating the interaction between intergenerational dyads of parents or grandparents with children while playing an ancient puzzle game. In this case, Pepper, a humanoid robot empowered with multiple sensors and actuators is used to foster collaboration and maximize engagement in a multiplayer game. The project included activities for collaborative re-design of the game Tangram, exploratory research with intergenerational dyads about the potential role of Pepper in gameplay as well as a careful game design process to bring a rich narrative inspired by the "Grandfather Tang's Story". The result is an augmented game experience that allows dyads to solve puzzle challenges using the conventional Tangram game whereas Pepper mediates all the interaction and helps dyads with clues and previsualizations of the solution when asked for.

A comprehensive and extensive user-centered design process was conducted involving participants with stroke, clinicians, exercise professionals, designers and developers to create contextually-enriched virtual reality games for upper limb rehabilitation. User archetypes of Colombian adults and older adults were created and surveys were used to inquiry on game preferences such as environment, type of game and motivators. Game developers from Unity Pereira helped us to iteratively build the games and prepare the system to be evaluated with end-users (ongoing study), whereas two clinical experts guided the game design process to guarantee the therapeutic validity of our approach.

Description

A suite of immersive virtual reality (VR) Exergames has been designed to promote exercise therapy in people living with dementia and mild cognitive impairment. Through a carefully planned user-centered design process and by a close collaboration with VR Vision, a company doing VR customizable applications for health and training, Seas the Day proposes an engaging exercise program for those living with dementia. The system uses state-of-the-art VR headsets and modified game mechanics to make the interaction more suitable for the targeted population (1 Minute Pitch Video, Gameplay Video).

Articles: Research during COVID19, Brainstorming techniques.

Description

The Force Defense videogame is created for upper limb rehabilitation using wearable superficial Electromyography (sEMG) signals by means of the Myo Armband. A Biocybernetic adaptation strategy is used to detect muscle fatigue and deliver a virtual training in a skill-challenge balanced mode. The goal is to stress the muscle fibers without over-exercising them, therefore increasing the potential benefits of the therapy.

Description

By using the Biocybernetic Loop construct combined with an aerobic training method called target heart rate zone, this Exergame is able to persuade players to exert in their individual optimal zone by using real-time adaptations relying on heart rate measurements. We used 55 % of the heart rate reserve (HRmax - HRresting) as threshold to keep older adults in their targeted zone aiming at optimize the aerobic exercise sessions with the Exerpong.

Description

The Virtual Tour in Portugal is a set of four Exergames that contains autochthonous elements from different regions, which recreates very touristic activities. After an iterative and contextualized design process, a multidisciplinary research team developed a functional fitness-training program based on Exergaming activities for the older population. The concept of a virtual tour in Portugal attempts to create a particular sense of familiarity in the final users with the graphical elements of the games. The Douro Region, Porto, Lisbon and Madeira were chosen to carry out a list of predefined exercises masked in: stomp grapes, row and navigate in boats, play traditional music and control a sledge car in the mountains. Design Process (Slides) - Exergame Jam - User Personas (Skeptic, Curious, Enthusiastic). See AHA Project website to know more about the Augmented Human Assisted Project.

Description

In the EmoCat Rescue game, the player embodies a cat-rescuer who has the mission to find a little cat which is lost in the woods. The player is situated in the middle of a forest with mountains, trees and shrubs and the in-game navigation inside the 3D environment. During the first interaction minute, the EmoCat Rescue game collects the heart rate (HR) values of players using a smartwatch and establishes a threshold to trigger events. Specifically, the physiological trigger will start a meow of the cat using stereoscopic sound. We used 5% of the first-minute HR average as a physiological activator in the game. Thus, players are challenged to regularize their heartbeats by decreasing the HR below the threshold in order to activate the cat’s meow. EmoCat Rescue displays in-game messages in order to encourage users to carry out breathing exercises to effectively reduce the heartbeats.

Description

Using Icarus VR you can transform a stationary bike in a flying adventure in the renaissance using a low cost virtual reality glasses. The player uses a mobile phone in the glasses and the videogame uses the embedded sensors to measure the pedaling velocity.

Users are encouraged to test an ancient pedal powered flying machine developed for a renaissance’s inventor. In the videogame, the player have to complete a full-flight session (take off, flight and landing) while they are picking up “objects” to complete the mission. The player is challenged to reach different velocity thresholds in a 5 minutes session in order to make the machine fly, get more points and land. The adventure finalizes when the flying machine lands screening the final score

Description

Space Connection, is an online multiplayer collaborative biofeedback videogame in which players control their partner’s power, and are challenged to solve game puzzles together. During gameplay, each player has to self-regulate his/her own physiological signals in order to enable their partner access to his/her special power, individual powers of telekinesis and time control.

Description

Exerpong was inspired by the classic pong game and it is an exergame adaptation of it. Exerpong was developed as a prototype and experimental game to test sensor integration and therefore does not follow the theme of the national tour.

While Exerpong was not developed with a particular training in mind, it can be used to train agility and lower limbs strength. The game consists on a paddle which lateral position is controlled by the user’s waist, a ball that bounces at walls and the paddle, and blocks that are destroyed by collisions with the ball. The goal of the game is to destroy all the blocks while preventing the ball from dropping from the game area, this is done by intersecting the ball with the paddle when it is coming down.

Description

In this study we investigated the role of multimodal virtual reality (VR) simulations and motor priming (MP) in a motor imagery Brain Computer Interface training. Results show improved BCI performance for VR and MP conditions, as well as the capacity to modulate and enhance brain activity patterns. Our data suggest that both VR and MP can be useful to promote neural activation and neuroplastic changes in the rehabilitation of stroke patients in a motor imagery neurofeedback paradigm.

Description

The Harvest Challenge imagining a proper coffee cultivation in the Colombian coffee region. It is a videogame designed to perform training sessions for the patients with ADHD using 4 fundamental aspects: i) waiting ability, ii) planning ability, iii) ability to follow instructions and iv) ability to achieve objectives. These aspects were identified by the health team members and are centered toward the distinction between non-compliance and incompetence.

The final videogame is presented as a tool for sustained attention training in children with ADHD using as an action mechanism the neuromodulation of Beta and Theta waves through an electrode located in the central part of the front lobe of the brain.

Description

This videogame proposes the hybridization between two types of interaction channels that can be complementary in motor restoration tasks: the videogames based on motion capture systems and the videogames based on brain computer interfaces. This hybrid system allow the interaction inside of a videogames created for the rehabilitation of standing balance in hemiparetic stroke patients through of movements and modulated mental intentions. The Brain Kinect Interface (BKI) is shown as a tool not only for improve the immersivity in serious games for health, but as an instrumental arrangement for recording and analyzing of motion capture signals and electroencephalographic (EEG) signals recorded from the low cost sensors in order to improve the objectivity in analyzing motor recovery process.

Description

The videogame is based on the classic Duck Hunt for Nintendo, in where the user needs to imagine the movements of their right and left hands in order to shoot ducks to the right or left of the screen. The application of rehabilitation programs based on videogames with brain-computer interfaces (BCI) allows to provide feedback to the user with the expectation of stimulate the brain plasticity that will restore the motor control. The use of specific mental strategies such as Motor Imagery (MI) in neuroscientific experiments with BCI systems often requires the acquisition of sophisticated interfaces and specialized software for execution, which usually have a high implementation costs. We present a combination of low-cost hardware and open-source software for the implementation of videogame based on virtual reality with MI and its potential use as neurotherapy for stroke patients. The BCI Duck Hunt videogame

The Karate Rehab recreates a conventional martial art arm strike exercise using motion capture signals from the Kinect V1 sensor. The objective of the game is to break certain number of tables as the game progresses, for this the patient should make a movement of shoulder flexion as widely as possible and from there, generate the extension movement necessary to break the virtual tables. Once the patient is able to break the first table represented as the first level, more tables will be added as the game progresses, adding more complexity to the game. In some instances, the user had to exaggerate his movement to achieve the proposed main objective.