Games Applied to Children with Motor Impairment using the Myo Wearable Device

Abstract

The characteristic of immersion, involvement and motivation have made serious games an important tool to be used in the medical field. However, there are people that, having some sort of physical disability, are not able to, or do not feel motivated to play. This work presents a strategy to support human-computer interactions for children with a disability in their upper limbs through a wearable device, with the objective of improving access to digital games for the target audience. For the development of this work, the wearable device Myo was used to control a puzzle game as a means of providing the interaction between the individual and the game. In this context, the game is controlled with the movement of the user's upper limb that presents the disability, through the Myo device. For the validation of this research, the game developed was made available for individuals presenting a disability in the upper limbs, from an age range between five and fifteen years old, of the Association of Assistance to the Disabled Child (AACD). Soon, it was noticed that the participants of the research soon could play while utilizing the deficient limb with Myo's support and felt more motivated to play. On the long run, it is expected to contribute to the motivation of patients through technological innovation, so that the process of body consciousness is made more interactive.

Upper Limb Physical Rehabilitation Using Serious Videogames and Motion Capture Systems: A Systematic Review

“…In this case, the purpose was to use the bracelet and videogames in the experiment to identify the recruitment rate of 8–18 year old patients with cerebral palsy and their continuity in home therapy for one month. The Myo bracelet was also used by children with upper limb disabilities in [ 13 ] to evaluate a game developed and adapted to be controlled with the bracelet. According to the results, they identified that the participants felt comfortable and were able to interact with the game and, therefore, there was high acceptance due to the fun that was experienced.…”

“…Using Unity 3D and the C# programming language, [ 13 ] developed and evaluated a videogame involving a jigsaw puzzle with three levels of difficulty, adapted to be used with the Myo bracelet. In the game, the gestures perceived by electromyography such as double touch, shake the hand to the right and the left, close fist, and separate the fingers, were the commands to interact with the videogame and put together the jigsaw puzzle, contributing to motor recovery, as well as to cognitive aspects of the patient.…”

“…Commercial video games were used in [ 7 , 12 , 19 , 20 , 21 ], which, despite encouraging the execution of physical activity and supporting the player’s motivation, were not adapted to the particular characteristics of physical rehabilitation. For this reason, most of the studies proposed active video games specifically for rehabilitation, to increase motivation and adherence to therapies [ 8 , 11 , 13 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 22 , 23 , 25 ], in some cases associated with a configuration module allowing the health professional to adjust the characteristics of the game according to the diagnosis and progress of the patient in treatment [ 9 , 10 , 14 , 24 ]. In the particular case of commercial rehabilitation products, such as ArmeoSenso, Bimeo, or JRS Wave, they respond adequately to such requirements in the area of physical rehabilitation, although the additional costs involved must be taken into account.…”

“…In this sense, out of the works included in this review only five presented home rehabilitation systems that allow the therapist to remotely adjust and monitor the configuration of the game according to the patient’s rehabilitation objectives, incorporating the recording of information in an associated computer system. Out of these, in [ 8 ], IMUs are used, in [ 9 , 13 , 20 ] the Kinect sensor was used, and two of the three works analyzed in [ 23 ] used the 5DT Data Glove Ultra and the Nintendo Wiimote. Moreover, in four of these five works, videogames developed specifically for rehabilitation were proposed.…”