Physiotherapy through pseudo- competitive games (hardware setup)

• Main Author: Mohamed Namis
• Other Authors: Lim Meng Hiot
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2017
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Electrical and electronic engineering
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/71787
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

In addition to reducing their muscular pain, the main reason a person goes through physiotherapy is to assist in their recovery of a lost function due to health problems or injury. Physiotherapy is essential so that a person can effectively carry out everyday tasks and improve their quality of life and level of independence. Most of the studies carried out involving games in physiotherapy concentrate on patients of all ages with specific health problems but limited studies have been made to relate the engagement levels of patients of specific age groups rather than specific health problems. This project was carried out to determine the engagement levels in patients of specific age groups undergoing physiotherapy, via pseudo-competitive games. Two different age groups were evaluated during the experiment. They were, adults aged between 21 and 54 and elderly aged between 55 and 75. Participants had to play a game by controlling a robot with their gestures. While doing so, they are also doing exercises used in physiotherapy sessions. The participants are then asked to complete a questionnaire (see Appendix C) to evaluate their engagement and enjoyment levels during this session as compared to a traditional physiotherapy session. All participants went through this experiment under similar conditions. Based on the completed questionnaires and experiments conducted, it was found that people were more willing to go through physiotherapy sessions which integrates games and had fun. This showed that with games integrated into physiotherapy sessions, more people would want to go though it as it brings an excitement aspect to their sessions. Although this project aims to determine if physiotherapy sessions through games are more engaging as compared to traditional sessions, improvements can be done to add in more features such as exercises for back pain, shoulder injuries and so on. In addition, the study can also be made on patients with amputations.