Experience with a 3D Kinect Exergame for Elderly

Ellen Brox, Gunn Evertsen, Heidi Åaheim-Olsen, Santiago Hors-Fraile, James Browne

2015

Abstract

Physical activity is important for all, but for the elderly balance and sufficient strength is vital to function in daily life. It can be difficult for all of us to find motivation to exercise at home, and seniors are no exception. We have experienced that exergaming can be motivational for elderly since it is fun, but most commercial games are not optimal for elderly due to speed, required movements, colours, the amount of information, etc. In a project we designed an exergame specifically with the elderly in mind based on user requirements both for specific needs for elderly, for games in general and for good exercises. A first prototype of an online 3D exergame using KinectTM was developed and tested on a group of six seniors. KinectTM was chosen since after our experience users in the target group can handle exergaming with this technology, and also it is possible to control that the exercises are performed correctly. Our aim was to investigate how seniors would react to a 3D first person environment before we continued the development. A user centred method was applied in the design and development, and the user test is part of that. The results are encouraging.

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Paper Citation


in Harvard Style

Brox E., Evertsen G., Åaheim-Olsen H., Hors-Fraile S. and Browne J. (2015). Experience with a 3D Kinect Exergame for Elderly . In Proceedings of the International Conference on Health Informatics - Volume 1: HEALTHINF, (BIOSTEC 2015) ISBN 978-989-758-068-0, pages 231-238. DOI: 10.5220/0005165602310238


in Bibtex Style

@conference{healthinf15,
author={Ellen Brox and Gunn Evertsen and Heidi Åaheim-Olsen and Santiago Hors-Fraile and James Browne},
title={Experience with a 3D Kinect Exergame for Elderly},
booktitle={Proceedings of the International Conference on Health Informatics - Volume 1: HEALTHINF, (BIOSTEC 2015)},
year={2015},
pages={231-238},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0005165602310238},
isbn={978-989-758-068-0},
}


in EndNote Style

TY - CONF
JO - Proceedings of the International Conference on Health Informatics - Volume 1: HEALTHINF, (BIOSTEC 2015)
TI - Experience with a 3D Kinect Exergame for Elderly
SN - 978-989-758-068-0
AU - Brox E.
AU - Evertsen G.
AU - Åaheim-Olsen H.
AU - Hors-Fraile S.
AU - Browne J.
PY - 2015
SP - 231
EP - 238
DO - 10.5220/0005165602310238