Serious Games for Post-Stroke Rehabilitation Using Microsoft Kinect

Traditional rehabilitation is a tedious task which typically reduces the patient’s motivation to perform rehabilitation exercises. Patients therefore need a program that can entice them to do rehabilitation exercises continuously. The proposed game includes two different types of game and three different types of movement for interacting with the game. The game was designed and developed based on the elements of a rehabilitation game and the types of movement in rehabilitation exercises. The interface was developed with the aim of increasing the motivation of players, and the design was based on an analysis of the technology constraints faced by post-stroke patients. Since these patients experience physical limitations, Microsoft Kinect was used for interaction in this game. Using Kinect, the patient is not bound by the controller to interact with the game.  Therefore, rehabilitation exercise games that support multi-player will provide a higher motivation than the single-player. Since most stroke patients suffer from cognitive impairment, cognitive challenge levels are also the key factors in the design of the game so that it does not become an obstacle for the recovery process.  This research develops a prototype of a rehabilitation exercise game that contains aspects of the social context, the type of movement and cognitive challenges. It also provides usability in game design, according to a post-stroke stage so that they can perform recovery activities based on their ability. In addition, this study highlights technology and rehabilitation exercise games in Malaysia.The game also adds a social context that gives patients the opportunity to have a friend to play either by competition or cooperation. The contribution of this research is to measure the effectiveness of Microsoft's Kinect game console and this game can help in recovery the post-stroke patients do additional exercises at home without the supervision of therapist

Interactive Games Using Hand-Eye Coordination Method for Autistic Children Therapy

Recent studies have found that imbalanced motor skills (hand-eye coordination) among autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or autistic children cause lower efficiency in daily routines. Autistic children need long-term rehabilitation programs to improve their abilities. However, problems with a lack of motivation to participate in conventional therapy and the high cost of therapy sessions arise over time. Autism children need to do repetitive activities every time therapy sessions been done. Repetitive activities cause children having less interest to participate ongoing therapy sessions. Other than that, the therapy process usually requires a long time to be implemented that cause the relatively high cost had to be paid by the patient's family. The use of technology is seen more effective and less boring for child with autism. However, the use of games technology require gamer to hold game controller. Proposals for motion-based touchless games using NUI technology, such as the Kinect Xbox 360, to be used in rehabilitation are exciting for patients, but the design elements do not meet the requirements of autistic people. Hence, this research proposes a Kinect game based on design elements for autistic rehabilitation. The objective of this research is to identify symptom of eye-hand coordination problem and develop serious game using Kinect technology as the solution for the problem faced by autism children. This technology provides a low-budget solution costs of therapy and games base on 3D sensor without the use of control equipment which must be hold or touch by hand. Moreover, Kinect does not need a controller or additional body-worn attachment during play time. A game prototype was developed and measured, and an evaluation resulted in positive feedback from the user and therapists, thus meeting the objective of this study

Teknik pencarian maklumat dalam teknologi pengimejan perubatan

Bidang perubatan pada masa kini adalah satu contoh inovasi dalam bidang teknologi maklumat yang dapat memberi manfaat kepada doktor dan pesakit dan juga peralatan perubatan bagi mencegah penyakit. Antara contoh inovasi dalam bidang teknologi maklumat adalah seperti teknologi pengimejan perubatan, teknologi laser dan nanoteknologi. Teknologi pengimejan perubatan adalah penting kerana dapat membantu pakar perubatan menjalankan pemeriksaan ke atas pesakit.Format teknologi imej perubatan dikenali sebagai DICOM. Format DICOM adalah unik kerana bukan hanya mengandungi gambar pesakit, tetapi juga mengandungi maklumat yang berkaitan dengan pesakit. Makalah ini menunjukkan proses pembangunan perisian bagi mendapat maklumat daripada gambar sinar-x digital (DICOM). Perisian dibangun dengan mengguna Netbeans dan perpustakaan yang diguna ialah DICOM Standard perpustakaan. Perisian pencarian maklumat ini diuji dengan sejumlah data pesakit dan dibanding dengan kaedah pencarian maklumat mengguna pustaka pixelmed.Keputusan menunjukkan perisian dapat mencari maklumat yang terkandung dalam sinar-x pesakit dengan tepat

Comparative study of 3D reconstruction methods from 2D sequential images in sports

The process of 3D reconstruction is a basic problem in Computer Vision. However, recent researches have been successfully addressed by motion capture systems with body worn markers and multiple cameras. To recover 3Dreconstruction from fully-body human pose by single camera still remains a challenging problem. For instance, noisy background, variation in human appearance and self-occlusion were among these challenges. This thesis investigated methods of 3D reconstruction from monocular image sequences in dynamic activities such as sports. Six recent methods were selected based on they focused on recovery fully automated system for estimating 3D human pose for 2D joint location. These researches have been developed the algorithm that be able to solve illposed problem. Evaluation of the methods was divided in two sections. First, the theoretical and comparative study of each method was disclosed to identify the technique used, the problems that enquired and the results achieved in their approach. After that, the advantages and disadvantages of each method were listed. Also, several factors such as accuracy, self-occlusion and so on have been compared amongst these methods. In Second stage, based on the advantages found in the first stage of evaluation, three methods were chosen to be evaluated using specific data set. Initially, the codes of the three methods on PennAction dataset (tennis) were run and the performance of the methods in 3D reconstruction is showed. Then, the methods were tested on a mixed activities sequence from the CMU motion capture database. The novel of this study is evaluation of recent methods based on the accuracy of their performance on the specific dataset of tennis player. Also, we proposed a technique which combining specific advantages of each method to create a more efficient method for 3D reconstruction of 2D sequential images in the context of outdoor activities

Use of Instagram® to Educate Adolescents on Nutrition Labelling: A Feasibility Study in Selangor, Malaysia

This study was undertaken to assess the demand and acceptance of an Instagram-based nutrition labelling education (Info-Nutriteen®) among adolescents. In this quasi-experimental study, a series of educational messages was developed and was uploaded on Instagram for 12 weeks. Participants were recruited and randomized into the intervention group or control group. Feasibility was assessed through participants' demand and acceptance of the program. Changes in nutrition knowledge and Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices (KAP) on nutrition labels were measured at pre- and post-intervention. A total of 125 participants completed the program. Overall, 92.7% of the participants reported positive acceptance towards Info-Nutriteen®. In terms of demand, they suggested using current and trending songs for the videos and bright colours for the info-graphics. The study showed good demand and acceptance of the Instagram based education for adolescents. The Info-Nutriteen® program also effective to improve their attitude and practice on nutrition labels. Thus, this approach is feasible. Nevertheless, Info-Nutriteen®should be improved further to enhance its impact on nutrition labels knowledge and usage among adolescents

Model for Educational Game Using Natural User Interface

Natural User Interface (NUI) is a new approach that has become increasingly popular in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). The use of this technology is widely used in almost all sectors, including the field of education. In recent years, there are a lot of educational games using NUI technology in the market such as Kinect game. Kinect is a sensor that can recognize body movements, postures, and voices in three dimensions. It enables users to control and interact with game without the need of using game controller. However, the contents of most existing Kinect games do not follow the standard curriculum in classroom, thus making it do not fully achieve the learning objectives. Hence, this research proposes a design model as a guideline in designing educational game using NUI. A prototype has been developed as one of the objectives in this study. The prototype is based on proposed model to ensure and assess the effectiveness of the model. The outcomes of this study conclude that the proposed model contributed to the design method for the development of the educational game using NUI. Furthermore, evaluation results of the prototype show a good response from participant and in line with the standard curriculum

A Game System for Cognitive Rehabilitation

Brain injury such as traumatic brain injury (TBI) and stroke is the major cause of long-term disabilities in many countries. The increasing rate of brain damaged victims and the heterogeneity of impairments decrease rehabilitation effectiveness and competence resulting in higher cost of rehabilitation treatment. On the other hand, traditional rehabilitation exercises are boring, thus leading patients to neglect the prescribed exercises required for recovery. Therefore, we propose game-based approach to address these problems. This paper presents a rehabilitation gaming system (RGS) for cognitive rehabilitation. The RGS is developed based on a proposed conceptual framework which has also been presented in this paper

Reka bentuk implan sendi pinggul dan penggunaannya dalam persekitaran digital (Design of hip joint implan and its use in digital environmental)

Bidang ortopedik pada masa kini menjadi semakin penting kerana bilangan pesakit yang menghidapi penyakit ‘osteoporosis’ meningkat setiap tahun. Cara pengecaman secara konvensional masih digunakan untuk mencari implan yang sesuai bagi pesakit. Oleh itu satu kaedah secara digital perlu dibangunkan supaya proses pengecaman saiz implan dapat dilaksanakan dengan berkesan. Kertas ini menunjukkan bagaimana implan sendi pinggul direka bentuk untuk digunakan dalam persekitaran digital. Templat implan yang digunakan secara manual oleh pihak PPUKM telah digunakan sebagai asas kepada reka bentuk implan sendi pinggul. Templat ini direka bentuk semula dengan menggunakan perisian AutoCad 2008. Templat yang dihasilkan dalam format AutoCAD ditukarkan ke format imej JPEG supaya ia boleh digunakan dalam perisian Photoshop untuk tujuan pewarnaan dan penskalaan. Implan digital ini kemudiannya telah diuji dengan menggunakan imej sinar-X pesakit yang disediakan oleh PPUKM. Keputusan menunjukkan implan sendi pinggul digital yang dihasilkan sangat sesuai dan boleh digunakan dalam persekitaran digital