Serious games for the autonomous measurement of balance and its rehabilitation are offered for research or technical cooperation agreements.

A Spanish research team experienced in the field of serious games and its application for rehabilitation, has developed an interactive system for measuring one of the most used balance tests in clinics, and performing rehabilitation exercises using RGBD devices (colour and depth cameras). For its actual deployment at home, the team is looking for companies in the field of technology and healthcare or elderly care to make a prototype based on a research or a technical cooperation agreement.

The research team proposes a solution that consists of changing the traditional way of conducting clinical measurement tests and rehabilitation exercises. Instead of using traditional procedures for clinical measurements (manually) or performing repetitive exercises that can become boring, the patient can clinically measure their progress and perform their rehabilitation exercises while playing serious video games (in this case taking advantage of the fun and entertainment of video games with the serious goal of clinical measurement and rehabilitation), through an interactive system that captures their movements in real time. The user interacts with the system through their body movements and the system guides the user to perform the measurement and rehabilitation.

This improvement of the current procedure will allow the creation of a new device for the autonomous measurement of balance by the user or patient from home. By analogy with an existing device, the aim is to create a balance but instead of calculating a person’s weight it will measure their balance, and subsequently offers exercises and games to improve it.

In particular, the research team has designed and developed serious games to improve balance and postural control of people with balance problems. The feasibility and effectiveness of these games have been tested in an elderly home and they have been proven to minimize the risk of falls of elderly people. The team has also transferred one of the most common clinical tests used for balance measurement among old people (Functional Reach Test) into an interactive system that uses commercial RGBD devices.
The final goal is to offer the users a package for balance assessment and rehabilitation from home that includes both the hardware and software; a commercial camera that tracks the movements of the user, the serious games for rehabilitation, and clinical tests for balance measurement.

Companies in the field of elderly care or technology and healthcare, but more specifically with experience in physical rehabilitation, interested in developing a prototype, with capabilities in software and hardware integration are being sought for a research or technical cooperation agreement.

Advantages & innovations

With the development of the desired prototype, the user will have a complete solution for assessing and improving his/her balance from home. The games and exercises can be customized for each user by a therapist. The whole system will be entertaining and fun, which increases the adherence to rehabilitation programs, and any balance problems that the user might develop or have can be detected and treated at an early stage.

Stage of development

Field tested/evaluated

Partner sought

In the context of a Research Cooperation or Technical Cooperation Agreement: the research team is looking for collaborations with industrial companies that have experience in making prototypes to build together a complete solution (hardware and software) for assessing and improving balance from home. The team is also open for collaborations with companies or start-ups that have a similar product and want to include the test and the games in their current product.

Contact/ source: Enterprise Europe Network (europa.eu)