Gamers against all odds

Abstract

The goal of the project presented in this paper is to enable motor rehabilitation to stroke patients in their home environment and to utilise game enjoyment to achieve frequent training. Stroke patients have an average age above 70 years, which implies that they typically do not belong to a gaming generation. In addition, these patients suffer from motor, and many times cognitive impairments, which make traditional games extremely difficult to use. Nearly all work in this area has been conducted in a clinic environment where it is possible to overcome some of these difficulties by letting professionals assist and guide patients. In this paper, we present the challenges faced, the system itself and the result from a study where five patients were equipped with a game console in their homes for five weeks. The focus of this paper is on analysing the gaming behaviour of patients, which includes the amount of time they spent, the type of games they selected and their comments on the gaming experience. The conclusion from this analysis is that their behaviour resembles that of gamers. They spent significant voluntary time, and it has been possible for patients, with no prior experience of computer games, to enjoy gaming in their homes where they had no professional assistance. © 2009 Springer Berlin Heidelberg.