Slide 1Slide 2Slide 3Slide 4Slide 5Slide 6Slide 7Slide 8Slide 9Slide 10Slide 11Slide 12Slide 13Slide 14Slide 15Slide 16Slide 17Computer Games and Virtual Worlds for Health, Assistive Therapeutics, and Performance EnhancementWalt ScacchiCenter for Computer Games and Virtual WorldsSchool of Information and Computer SciencesUniversity of California, Irvine2•Games for Health•Game play devices with possible therapeutic applications•Games for assisted therapeutic rehabilitation and physical performance training•Game-based therapy/rehabilitation protocols•Games and tele-rehabilitation•RecommendationsOverview3SimHealth – A National Health Care System Game4 Wellness game from Health Care Insurer5Quest for the Code: Game for learning about asthma Learning objectives: • Early warning signs and symptoms• Identifying and avoiding asthma triggers• Myths about asthma• How asthma affects the lungs• Proper use of asthma medication devices• Long-term control medicine and quick-relief medicine• Measuring and monitoring peak flow• How to answer questions from peers about asthma6•The design and utility of agame to realize therapeutic value is not obvious.•E. Flores, G. Tobon, et al., Improving Patient Motivation inGame Development for MotorDeficit Rehabilitation, ACM 2008 Intern. Conf. Advances in Computer Entertainment, 381-384.Some findings on Games for Health/Therapeutic Applications7•Four focus areas for enabling human behavior change for health–Increasing physical activity and performance•Mobility/dance exercise; overcoming obesity; increasing agility•Nintendo Wii Sports and Wii Balance Board–Improve self-managed health care•Training or learning games for facilitating patient self-care and understanding purpose of self-care protocols–(Healthy) Lifestyle improvement•Diet; mitigating easily transmitted diseases/ailments–Facilitating therapy•Technology-mediated therapy (games often focus more on evaluating potential of new technology in therapy)•New game play devices are expanding the possibilities for games for healthGames for Health8•Simulated devices–Guitar Hero guitar; Rock Band drum set•Haptic wheels, trackballs, and joysticks •Force-feedback play controllers (racing game wheels, pneumatic bladders)•Multi-sensor play controllers (including video capture, infra-red, accelerometers, neurological sensors, electro-goniometers (SEMG), etc.)–Wii Remote and nunchuk•Multi-jointed, body-worn sensors as play controllers–Data gloves–GypsyMIDIGame play devices with possible therapeutic applications9•Endoscopic surgery training “joysticks”–Simball 4D joystick adapted to therapeutic game play for stroke rehabilitation–http://www.g-coder.com/content/view/7/6/ •3D, real-time video motion captureenabling mixed reality game play spanning physical and virtual worlds–Microsoft Kinect (dance demo)–In-game characters can interactwith human players through gestures and body movements–http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_txF7iETX0 Game play devices with possible therapeutic applications10•Wii Sports (best selling game for Nintendo (better than Super Mario Bros.); 76M copies sold worldwide through January 2011) –Boxing–Bowling–Golf–Tennis –Baseball What's next?Games for sports and assisted performance training11“Gowning” training game, developed at UCI GameLab12•Virtual worlds (like Second Life) can be used to support various kinds of tele-medicine and tele-robotics applications/tasks•“Rehabilitation” tasks supported can include:–Remote observation, tele-consultation, role-playing and identity switching through avatars, device data collection, device software updates, collaborative product/prototype development, and moreGame-based virtual worlds and tele-rehabilitation13Game-based tele-rehabilitation14•From an outsider's perspective, therapeutic or rehabilitation protocols denote specifications for how to achieve some outcome state(s), given inputs, constraints, and set of operations.–Such protocols can be represented computationally, when formalized, and thus the protocols can be treated as “software processes”–Software processes can be enacted through interactive (Web) applications, and empirically measured, assessed and replayed.–Medical protocols can thus be viewed as software, and such software can be designed to operate within other software, such as a computer game, or game-based virtual world–Thus, we can investigate, design, and refine such protocols with online games!–Similarly, we have the potential to design and refine (sports) performance improvement protocols in ways that can be integrated within computer games and associated game play devicesGame-based therapy/rehabilitation protocols15•Prototype and refine multi-skill, multi-level games that can be rapidly tailored for individual capabilities, supported by therapeutic protocols–Via games that are pre-programmed to support diversity of play–Games whose user controls are integrated with therapeutic devices–Alternatively, assess existing games to determine their potential usage–Nintendo Wii Sports?•Develop game-based virtual worlds that provide life-situation tasks for personal accomplishment and improved socialization opportunities–Exoskeleton gowning and user-device service tasks–Multi-player games for that mix players/avatars with varying physical capabilities (including those that may be virtually induced)Recommendations for Therapeutic Games16•Investigate, design, and refine alternative therapeutic rehabilitation schemes using assistive robotics integrated with online game environments–Specify medical protocols as computational specifications–Collect empirical measurements/observations to show performance change•Design, prototype, and refine an online virtual world or massively multi-player online therapeutics learning game (MMO-TLG) world–A virtual world that provides different support services and learning opportunities for all parties involved in facilitating use of assistive therapeutics applications.Recommendations for Therapeutic Games17Baranowski, T., Buday, R., Thompson, D. I., & Baranowski, J. (2008). Playing for real: video games and stories for health-related behavior change. American J. Preventive Medicine, 34(1), 74-82. Lieberman, D.A. (2006). Dance Games and Other Exergames: What the Research Says. http://www.comm.ucsb.edu/faculty/lieberman/exergames.htm , Accessed September