3 research outputs found
Augmenting patient therapies with video game technology
PhD ThesisThere is an increasing body of work showing that video games can be used for more
than just entertainment, but can also facilitate positive physical and mental changes.
For people suffering debilitating side-effects from illnesses such as stroke, there is
need to deliver and monitor effective rehabilitative physical therapies; video game
technologies could potentially deliver an effective alternative to traditional rehabilitative
physical therapy, and alleviate the need for direct therapist oversight.
Most existing research into video game therapies has focussed on the use of offthe-
shelf games to augment a patient’s ongoing therapy. There has currently been
little progress into how best to design bespoke software capable of integrating with
traditional therapy, or how to replicate common therapies and medical measurements
in software.
This thesis investigates the ability for video games to be applied to stroke rehabilitation,
using modern gaming peripherals for input. The work presents a quantitative
measurement of motion detection quality afforded by such hardware. An
extendible game development framework capable of high quality movement data
output is also presented, affording detailed analysis of player responsiveness to a
video game delivered therapy for acute stroke. Finally, a system by which therapists
can interactively create complex physical movements for their patients to replicate
in a video game environment is detailed, enabling bespoke therapies to be developed,
and providing the means by which rehabilitative games for stroke can provide
an assessment of patient ability similar to that afforded by traditional therapies
Advances in Robot Navigation
Robot navigation includes different interrelated activities such as perception - obtaining and interpreting sensory information; exploration - the strategy that guides the robot to select the next direction to go; mapping - the construction of a spatial representation by using the sensory information perceived; localization - the strategy to estimate the robot position within the spatial map; path planning - the strategy to find a path towards a goal location being optimal or not; and path execution, where motor actions are determined and adapted to environmental changes. This book integrates results from the research work of authors all over the world, addressing the abovementioned activities and analyzing the critical implications of dealing with dynamic environments. Different solutions providing adaptive navigation are taken from nature inspiration, and diverse applications are described in the context of an important field of study: social robotics
Actas de las XXXIV Jornadas de Automática
Postprint (published version