Authors:
Ellen Brox
1
;
Gunn Evertsen
1
;
Heidi Åaheim-Olsen
2
;
Santiago Hors-Fraile
1
and
James Browne
1
Affiliations:
1
Norut (Northern Research Institute), Norway
;
2
Norwegian Centre for Integrated care and Telemedicine, Norway
Keyword(s):
Exergames, Serious Games, Senior Gamers, User Centred Design, Elderly, Kinect, 3D
Related
Ontology
Subjects/Areas/Topics:
Biomedical Engineering
;
Cloud Computing
;
e-Health
;
e-Health for Public Health
;
Health Information Systems
;
ICT, Ageing and Disability
;
Platforms and Applications
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 fir
st 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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