Ambient Videogames for Health Monitoring in Older Adults

Abstract

Ambient videogames can be used for frequent continuous monitoring of older adults in order to detect early signs of frailty. In this paper we propose a general architecture for health monitoring through ambient videogames and illustrate its instantiation with the development of two ambient casual games that have been designed to measure arm muscle strength utilizing a custom-designed interaction device that provides a natural user interface for the games. The games are designed to be used frequently and for short periods of time. We conducted a formative evaluation of the games with 5 older adults to assess ease of use and their interest in playing them. We compare the results of traditional measures of muscle strength using a clinical dynamometer with those obtained using the videogame.