Multi-scale entropy analysis of body sway for investigating balance ability during exergame play under different parameter settings

Abstract

The goal of this study was to investigate the parameters affecting exergame performance using multi-scale entropy analysis, with the aim of informing the design of exergames for personalized balance training. Test subjects' center of pressure (COP) displacement data were recorded during exergame play to examine their balance ability at varying difficulty levels of a balance-based exergame; the results of a multi-scale entropy-based analysis were then compared to traditional COP indicators. For games involving static posture frames, variation in posture frame travel time was found to significantly affect the complexity of both the anterior-posterior (MSE-AP) and medio-lateral (MSE-ML) components of balancing movements. However, in games involving dynamic posture frames, only MSE-AP was found to be sensitive to the variation of parameters, namely foot-lifting speed. Findings were comparable to the COP data published by Sun et al., indicating that the use of complexity data is a feasible means of distinguishing between different parameter sets and of understanding how human design considerations must be taken into account in exergame development. Not only can this method be used as another assessment index in the future, it can also be used in the optimization of parameters within the virtual environments of exergames.