The recent release and worldwide acceptance and enjoyment of Nintendo® Wii™, Nintendo® WiiFit™, Sony Playstation® 2 EyeToy™, Sony Playstation® 3 MOVE™ and Microsoft® Xbox360 Kinect™ has provided significant evidence for the notion that exercise can be fun, provided it is presented in a manner that is entertaining, motivating and distracting. Off-the-shelf games for commercial gaming consoles have been developed and tested for the purpose of entertainment, however, the games and consoles were not designed as medical devices nor with a primary focus of an adjunct rehabilitation tool. While games on these consoles were not designed with rehabilitation in mind, they have the advantage that they are affordable, accessible and can be used within the home.
Integrating the newest consumer-ready technologies, the Motor Rehab Lab explores and promotes the creation of home-based rehabilitation and exergame applications that do not require the user to hold an interface device or move on a pad as the source of interaction within the game. Instead, the user’s body is the game controller operating in 3D space, and multiple users can be tracked in this fashion for both cooperative and competitive interactive activities. We have integrated the PrimeSense movement tracking system, as well as the USC ICT MxR Group’s FAAST system, to allow our applications to drive any PC-based computer game by emulating standard mouse and keyboard commands, all based on the designated physical activity of the user. This will provide a new dimension for interactive rehabilitation and exergaming in many ways by opening up a multitude of existing game content for full body interaction.
