Development of a Kinect-based exergaming system for motor rehabilitation in neurological disorders

ESTEPA, A.; SPONTON PIRIZ, S.; ALBORNOZ, E. M.; MARTÍNEZ, C. E.

San Nicolás de los Arroyos, Buenos Aires

Congreso; XX Congreso Argentino de Bioingeniería y IX Jornadas de Ingeniería Clínica (SABI); 2015

SABI

The development of videogames for physical therapy, known as exergames, hasgained much interest in the last years. In this work, a sytem for rehabilitation and clinical evaluation of neurological patients is presented. The Microsoft Kinect device is used to track the full body of patients, and three games were developed to exercise and assess different aspects of balance and gait rehabilitation. The system provides visual feedback by means of an avatar that follows the movements of the patients, and sound and visual stimuli for giving orders during the experience. Also, the system includes a database and management tools for further analysisand monitoring of therapies. The results obtained show, on the one side, a great reception and interest of patients to use the system. On the other side, the specialists considered very useful the data collected and the quantitative analysis provided by the system, which was then adopted for the clinical routine.