Gaming for therapy in a healthcare smart ambient

Abstract

Games elements are transcending the usual boundaries of their medium to enhance user experience and user engagement in non-game applications. Therapeutic serious gaming allows a patient to execute specific exercises while engaging with a game, trying to achieve its goals related to therapeutic activities. A ubiquitous therapeutic game corresponds to adding these elements into a context-aware smart ambient. This paper presents a proposal towards the use of therapeutic serious games in a pervasive healthcare assistive ambient. We are implementing these games to be used in the rehabilitation of both cognitive and motor deficits, taking advantage of the infrastructure developed for assisting and monitoring elderly and disabled people. The work's research will also be used on studies to improve the system's effectiveness through personalization. © 2012 Springer-Verlag.