Much has been discussed since the release of the Kinect about its accessibility for wheelchair users or those with a disability.
Early on Ablegamers.com published two articles - links below, that present the current issues and presented the hardware as it was back then. They present the issues clearly and honestly, highlighting some potential developments that were hoped would influence game development, with the disabled user in mind.
Kinect and the disabled part 1
Kinect and the disabled part 2
So where are we now? The Kinect is now established as a motion controller, both for the Xbox itself and with a PC. Whilst the Xbox Kinect games continue to cater for the commercial gaming population, the PC setup is slowly turning to address the more bespoke needs of those engaged in therapy or rehabilitation. The main influential factor over the success of any of these newly emerging Therapy games/software is that Microsoft endorse it and have done so by releasing its 'Service Development Kit (SDK)' for anyone to use and develop software with - something Nintendo never did.
This means that anyone with an idea and money to develop can put together a piece of software that will potentially cater for, and address, the needs of a patient and therapist. Software, such as SeeMe Rehabilitation, already demonstrates the potential that the Kinect/PC combination can offer.
There are still limitations though. The Kinect recognises skeletal points in order to work effectively but can still become very confused. Patients who present with hemiplegia, limited active movement in one arm or other similar postural deformities may find that the Kinect does not 'see' them. Equally whilst someone using a self propelled wheelchair will be recognised straight away, someone else using a powered wheelchair, with joystick control for example, may find themselves struggling to be noticed and registered within the game.
Showing posts with label xbox. Show all posts
Showing posts with label xbox. Show all posts
Thursday, 4 July 2013
Wednesday, 2 January 2013
Physiologic Responses and Energy Expenditure of Kinect Active Video Game Play in Schoolchildren.
Stephen R. Smallwood, MSc; Michael M. Morris, MSc; Stephen J. Fallows, PhD; John P. Buckley, PhD
Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine. 2012;166(11):1005-1009.
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Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine. 2012;166(11):1005-1009.
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Tuesday, 1 January 2013
Exergames for the elderly: towards an embedded Kinect-based clinical test of falls risk.
Stud Health Technol Inform. 2012;178:51-7.
Garcia JA, Felix Navarro K, Schoene D, Smith ST, Pisan Y.
University of Technology Sydney, FEIT, Australia.
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Abstract
Falls are the leading cause of disability, injuries or even death among older adults. Exercise programmes that include a balance component reduce the risk of falling by 40%. However, such interventions are often perceived as boring and drop-out rates are high. The characteristics of videogames may overcome this weakness and increase exercise adherence. The use of modern input devices, such as the Microsoft Kinect, enables quantification of player performance in terms of motor function while engaging with games. This capability has just started to be explored. The work presented in this paper focuses on the development of a Kinect-based system to deliver step training while simultaneously measuring parameters of stepping performance that have shown to predict falls in older people.
Click here for link
Garcia JA, Felix Navarro K, Schoene D, Smith ST, Pisan Y.
University of Technology Sydney, FEIT, Australia.
+/- Click for more/less
Abstract
Falls are the leading cause of disability, injuries or even death among older adults. Exercise programmes that include a balance component reduce the risk of falling by 40%. However, such interventions are often perceived as boring and drop-out rates are high. The characteristics of videogames may overcome this weakness and increase exercise adherence. The use of modern input devices, such as the Microsoft Kinect, enables quantification of player performance in terms of motor function while engaging with games. This capability has just started to be explored. The work presented in this paper focuses on the development of a Kinect-based system to deliver step training while simultaneously measuring parameters of stepping performance that have shown to predict falls in older people.
Click here for link
Tuesday, 10 July 2012
Burn Calories on Kinect, Track Them With Kinect PlayFit
July 10, 2012
REDMOND, Wash
Kinect PlayFit is a new fitness dashboard on Xbox LIVE that lets players track the calories they burn while having fun with Kinect. The new dashboard joins a growing number of titles and experiences that use Kinect as a fitness tool.
Microsoft today unveiled Kinect PlayFit, a new Kinect fitness dashboard on Xbox LIVE that lets players track calories burned across multiple Kinect games. Available as a free download from the Xbox LIVE Marketplace, the app calculates and aggregates the calories players burn so they can track their progress over time, see how they rank against friends, and earn Xbox achievements.
The goal of the app is to motivate families to get off the couch and reward them for having fun, said Chuck Frizelle, executive producer for Kinect PlayFit.
“We’re trying to show that Kinect is not only fun but healthy for you, too,” he said. “Ultimately, Kinect PlayFit is a motivational tool. We want to motivate people to change their behavior and be more active.”
Kinect PlayFit will track fitness progress across a dozen games at first, with more titles to come later, Frizelle said. The dashboard lets players view their daily, weekly, monthly, and overall calorie burn totals, and Xbox leaderboards offer the chance to compare progress with friends and the overall Xbox LIVE community. Players can also earn up to 20 Xbox achievements, including bonus avatar awards, and post them on Facebook.
Kinect PlayFit joins a growing number of games and experiences such as “ Kinect Sports ,” “ Zumba Fitness ,” and the upcoming “Nike+ Kinect Training” that highlight how Kinect is bringing fitness into the living room, said Dave McCarthy, general manager for Kids and Lifestyle Entertainment in Microsoft Studios.
“With our new fitness dashboard, we are acknowledging that Kinect games are a legitimate part of an active lifestyle,” he said. “If you just want to be active and celebrate that, and maybe have fun and compete with your friends, Kinect PlayFit really opens up a whole different world for you.”
he device’s impact on health is spreading beyond entertainment as Kinect for Windows pushes the platform beyond the living room. Developers are now tapping the Kinect capabilities for a wide range of health scenarios, including home physical therapy and remote patient monitoring, which could play a role in the ongoing discussion around healthcare reform.
Click here for full article
REDMOND, Wash
Kinect PlayFit is a new fitness dashboard on Xbox LIVE that lets players track the calories they burn while having fun with Kinect. The new dashboard joins a growing number of titles and experiences that use Kinect as a fitness tool.
Microsoft today unveiled Kinect PlayFit, a new Kinect fitness dashboard on Xbox LIVE that lets players track calories burned across multiple Kinect games. Available as a free download from the Xbox LIVE Marketplace, the app calculates and aggregates the calories players burn so they can track their progress over time, see how they rank against friends, and earn Xbox achievements.
The goal of the app is to motivate families to get off the couch and reward them for having fun, said Chuck Frizelle, executive producer for Kinect PlayFit.
“We’re trying to show that Kinect is not only fun but healthy for you, too,” he said. “Ultimately, Kinect PlayFit is a motivational tool. We want to motivate people to change their behavior and be more active.”
Kinect PlayFit will track fitness progress across a dozen games at first, with more titles to come later, Frizelle said. The dashboard lets players view their daily, weekly, monthly, and overall calorie burn totals, and Xbox leaderboards offer the chance to compare progress with friends and the overall Xbox LIVE community. Players can also earn up to 20 Xbox achievements, including bonus avatar awards, and post them on Facebook.
Kinect PlayFit joins a growing number of games and experiences such as “ Kinect Sports ,” “ Zumba Fitness ,” and the upcoming “Nike+ Kinect Training” that highlight how Kinect is bringing fitness into the living room, said Dave McCarthy, general manager for Kids and Lifestyle Entertainment in Microsoft Studios.
“With our new fitness dashboard, we are acknowledging that Kinect games are a legitimate part of an active lifestyle,” he said. “If you just want to be active and celebrate that, and maybe have fun and compete with your friends, Kinect PlayFit really opens up a whole different world for you.”
he device’s impact on health is spreading beyond entertainment as Kinect for Windows pushes the platform beyond the living room. Developers are now tapping the Kinect capabilities for a wide range of health scenarios, including home physical therapy and remote patient monitoring, which could play a role in the ongoing discussion around healthcare reform.
Click here for full article
Tuesday, 19 June 2012
Kinect imaging lets surgeons keep their focus.
17 May 2012 by MacGregor Campbell
New Scientist
THE surgeon enters the operating theatre, covered in sterile blue scrubs. Machines beep and hiss. Nurses wait, tools at the ready: scalpel, forceps, bandage, Xbox... Xbox?
On Tuesday last week, a surgeon at Guy's and St Thomas' hospital in London began trials of a new device that uses an Xbox Kinect camera to sense body position. Just by waving his arms the surgeon can consult and sift through medical images, such as CT scans or real-time X-rays, while in the middle of an operation.
Maintaining a sterile environment in the operating room is paramount, but scrubbing in and out to scroll through scan images mid-operation can be time-consuming and break a surgeon's concentration or sense of flow. Depending on the type of surgery, a surgeon will stop and consult medical images anywhere from once an hour to every few minutes. To avoid leaving the table, many surgeons rely on assistants to manipulate the computer for them, a distracting and sometimes frustrating process.
"Up until now, I'd been calling out across the room to one of our technical assistants, asking them to manipulate the image, rotate one way, rotate the other, pan up, pan down, zoom in, zoom out," says Tom Carrell, a consultant vascular surgeon at Guy's and St Thomas', who led the operation on 8 May to repair an aneurism in a patient's aorta. With the Kinect, he says, "I had very intuitive control".
Click here for more
New Scientist
THE surgeon enters the operating theatre, covered in sterile blue scrubs. Machines beep and hiss. Nurses wait, tools at the ready: scalpel, forceps, bandage, Xbox... Xbox?
On Tuesday last week, a surgeon at Guy's and St Thomas' hospital in London began trials of a new device that uses an Xbox Kinect camera to sense body position. Just by waving his arms the surgeon can consult and sift through medical images, such as CT scans or real-time X-rays, while in the middle of an operation.
Maintaining a sterile environment in the operating room is paramount, but scrubbing in and out to scroll through scan images mid-operation can be time-consuming and break a surgeon's concentration or sense of flow. Depending on the type of surgery, a surgeon will stop and consult medical images anywhere from once an hour to every few minutes. To avoid leaving the table, many surgeons rely on assistants to manipulate the computer for them, a distracting and sometimes frustrating process.
"Up until now, I'd been calling out across the room to one of our technical assistants, asking them to manipulate the image, rotate one way, rotate the other, pan up, pan down, zoom in, zoom out," says Tom Carrell, a consultant vascular surgeon at Guy's and St Thomas', who led the operation on 8 May to repair an aneurism in a patient's aorta. With the Kinect, he says, "I had very intuitive control".
Click here for more
Sunday, 13 May 2012
The Xbox Kinect in healthcare - a winning combination
Already a popular fitness tool, the Xbox Kinect is now being integrated into the healthcare industry and could modernise patient-doctor communications
Games consoles like the Nintendo Wii and Xbox Kinect have revolutionised at-home fitness, filtering into the exercise industry with their hugely popular workout games. Although they have proved a hit with tech-savvy consumers, there are hopes such technology could find a day-to-day use in the healthcare industry. Microsoft Research is one of the teams facilitating the integration of gaming technology into the healthcare industry and the Xbox Kinect is one of the main tools in its arsenal.
Read More
Games consoles like the Nintendo Wii and Xbox Kinect have revolutionised at-home fitness, filtering into the exercise industry with their hugely popular workout games. Although they have proved a hit with tech-savvy consumers, there are hopes such technology could find a day-to-day use in the healthcare industry. Microsoft Research is one of the teams facilitating the integration of gaming technology into the healthcare industry and the Xbox Kinect is one of the main tools in its arsenal.
Read More
Sunday, 6 May 2012
Friday, 27 April 2012
Kinect Effect
Microsoft are keen to promote the Kinects application within healthcare. The following website explains more!
http://www.xbox.com/en-GB/Kinect/Kinect-Effect
http://www.xbox.com/en-GB/Kinect/Kinect-Effect
Thursday, 26 April 2012
Xbox Kinect helps stroke patients recover.
By Laura McCardle
August 30, 2011
A state-of-the-art games console is being used to help patients regain mobility and balance after suffering a brain injury.
For the last six weeks Niamh Cronin, a clinical engineering student, has been using the innovative treatment as part of a project with occupational therapists on the Neurological Rehabilitation Unit at Royal Berkshire Hospital (RBH).
Fundraising by the hospital’s League of Friends helped the unit to buy an Xbox Kinect, a hands-free games console which is operated by sensors that detect players’ movements rather than using controls.
The unit already uses a Nintendo Wii console but patients with severe impairments found it hard to use because it is controlled by a hand-held wand.
Click for more info
August 30, 2011
A state-of-the-art games console is being used to help patients regain mobility and balance after suffering a brain injury.
For the last six weeks Niamh Cronin, a clinical engineering student, has been using the innovative treatment as part of a project with occupational therapists on the Neurological Rehabilitation Unit at Royal Berkshire Hospital (RBH).
Fundraising by the hospital’s League of Friends helped the unit to buy an Xbox Kinect, a hands-free games console which is operated by sensors that detect players’ movements rather than using controls.
The unit already uses a Nintendo Wii console but patients with severe impairments found it hard to use because it is controlled by a hand-held wand.
Click for more info
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Abstract
OBJECTIVE To evaluate the physiologic responses and energy expenditure of active video gaming using Kinect for the Xbox 360.
DESIGN Comparison study.
SETTING Kirkby Sports College Centre for Learning, Liverpool, England.
PARTICIPANTS Eighteen school children (10 boys and 8 girls) aged 11 to 15 years.
MAIN EXPOSURE A comparison of a traditional sedentary video game and 2 Kinect activity-promoting video games, Dance Central and Kinect Sports Boxing, each played for 15 minutes. Physiologic responses and energy expenditure were measured using a metabolic analyzer.
MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Heart rate, oxygen uptake, and energy expenditure.
RESULTS Heart rate, oxygen uptake, and energy expenditure were considerably higher (P < .05) during activity-promoting video game play compared with rest and sedentary video game play. The mean (SD) corresponding oxygen uptake values for the sedentary, dance, and boxing video games were 6.1 (1.3), 12.8 (3.3), and 17.7 (5.1) mL · min-1 · kg-1, respectively. Energy expenditures were 1.5 (0.3), 3.0 (1.0), and 4.4 (1.6) kcal · min-1, respectively.
CONCLUSIONS Dance Central and Kinect Sports Boxing increased energy expenditure by 150% and 263%, respectively, above resting values and were 103% and 194% higher than traditional video gaming. This equates to an increased energy expenditure of up to 172 kcal · h-1 compared with traditional sedentary video game play. Played regularly, active gaming using Kinect for the Xbox 360 could prove to be an effective means for increasing physical activity and energy expenditure in children.
Click here for link