A Smart Floor Device of an Exergame Platform for Elderly Fall Prevention: *Note: Sub-titles are not captured in Xplore and should not be used

Abstract

The high risk of falls in the elderly and their severe consequences makes research to prevent them an important priority for public health. Technologies that enable exercise in the form of games (exergames) can improve both cognitive and physical functions, which is a prerequisite to reduce fall risk. However, the key question is whether such tools are easy to use by the elderly. In this work, the development of a smart floor device for exergames that can motivate elderly to perform physical exercises is presented. The underlying hypothesis is that technologies that do not require the use of a complex user interaction environment such as the proposed smart floor are more suitable for the elderly to use for improving their physical and cognitive functions. The design and development of the smart floor leverages on features from the Internet of Things domain and follows the design principles for system composability using artifact tiles as building blocks. The tile mounting and circuit diagrams are discussed as well as the microcontroller selection to support both distributed and centralized game development models. Recurring training programs with stepping exercises can be deployed in the smart floor as appropriate interventions for fall prevention. Furthermore, the inherent ability to evaluate measures that can predict the risk of falling, such as the choice stepping reaction time, can promote the smart floor as a diagnostic tool. A qualitative assessment was performed with positive results on the perceived usefulness of the proposed exergame device.