Development and verification of the game “locomo de balamingo”

Efforts to maintain elders’ health and reduce their medical care costs are being made in response to the aging of the population. In 2012, in conjunction with Nagao Hospital, we developed a series of Kiritsu no mori rehabilium digital rehabilitation healthcare games. One game we developed is Locomo de Balamingo to help prevent locomotive syndrome. In this game, participants stand on one leg with their eyes open and maintain their balance for 60 seconds; this posture is repeated three times. The game uses Microsoft Windows and Kinect for motion sensing. The highest score is achieved by standing with an erect posture. The game is played three times in succession and the participants use both hands during the second and third times. To motivate the participants, we display their titles and ranks based on their scores at the end of the game. We studied the effects of the exercise on 13 young adults and 14 elders by comparing them with and without the game. We conducted a comparative survey of the sway of the center and subjective evaluations of motivation and fatigue when their eyes were open and they were standing on one leg in the training game, with and without the game, and with and without a mirror. The results found a significant difference in young adults with and without the game and with and without a mirror. There was a lot of momentum in the game. Playing the game had a positive response because subjective feelings of fatigue decreased, which led to an increase in momentum without a feeling of fatigue. Regarding the elders, no significant differences were observed and the point of fatigue had a significant tendency with the game and with a mirror. These results suggest that the differences are related to the elders’ lack of digital gaming experience. We also conduct the Locomo de Balamingo exercise circle for elders at our university twice a month. We obtain feedback from about 20 people on ways to improve the quality of the game. The experiment can then be done at the participants’ homes and we can monitor their uses, scores, and rankings using cloud technology. Health promotion using ICT continues to be widespread and it contributes to elders’ health around the world