I just finnished reading an article from Which (www.which.co.uk) on the IFA consumer electronics show.  In it they took a look at the Tablet PC space.  There will be a considerable increase in the number of tablet PCs this year.  Which is calling many of them "more advanced" than the iPad.  In light of Apple embracing Flash, perhaps Apple is stepping up to the challenge.  Read the complete article here

Blue Marble Game Co sees extreme value in the iPad and has two titiles, in development, supported by the iPad but we look forward to incorporating other technologies.  What technologies are you using or excited about?

Body Games by Jonah Lehrer unveils the science behind the Wii and "how the Wii turns stupid arcade games into a passionate experience."  As it turns out, surprise surprise - emotion has a great deal to do with the Wii's success.  Click here to read the full article.

We at Blue Marble Game Co are excited to see what game developers do with Microsoft's Kinnect and Sony's Move.  Removing the need to have complicated, hand held controllers serves the rehabilitation community well.

Are any of you developing games for Kinnect or Move?

Breaking news - USA Today reports on Microsoft's Kinect less than 24 hours before E3.

Nintendo started the 'movement' with it's wireless Wii-motes.  Sony took it a step further with Move a video camera that translates physical motion into game play.  Essentially the player's body becomes the controller.  According to http://www.usatoday.com article, Kinect's built-in camera and mocrophone uses voice recognition and facial gesture technology in game play too.

One of the most significant issues in game play with patients working through a stroke or neurological impairment is the ability to activate buttons or grip a controller.  Clinicians have to be creative with velcro or tape to connect their patient's with a controller. 

Should Kinect or Move live up to the marketing specs, the rehabilitation community could enjoy new tools when seeking alternative methods to traditional therapy.

A few members have indicated they will be at E3.  If you can stop by Sony and Microsoft's displays, take pictures and ask questions.  Post your thoughts and let us know what you think here. Also and this is a shameless plug - Blue Marbles's Sheryl Flynn Ph.D. PT will be sharing a booth with Games for Health Ben Sawyer.  Stop by and say hi.

The full story on Microsoft's Kinect, as reported by USA Today is here - http://www.usatoday.com/tech/gaming/2010-06-14-vidgame14_ST_N.htm

 

 

I was just forwarded this link from a collegue. The floor device senses movement of your feet and translates that into actions on a video game, actions on a keyboard.  It looks really cool and would be a wonderful device for foot rehabiliation activities.

Excerpt from: Multitoe floow shows us the logical next step

"Hasso Plattner Institut have put together a multitouch floor that recognizes individual users by their shoe pattern and responds to such universally familiar actions as stomping your feet and tapping your toes."

How would you use this device in your rehabiliation center?

This is a reprint from the www.hometelemed.com web page.  It is an introduction to an amzing device, the Rejoice that shows a great deal of promise in the rehabilitation space.  Imagine your patients having a suite of apparatus like this in their homes. . .

This video was put together by Alberta Innovates and published in mid-March. It features interviews with ReJoyce inventors Dr. Jan Kowalczewski and Dr. Arthur Prochazka, as well as clinical trial investigators Dr. Mary Galea and Su Ling Chong. Ginny Bockman, a study participant, is also featured.

Here’s the transcript:

Dr. Prochazka - “As far as we know, this is the first large-scale study of in-home telerehabilitation in the world. I think this is the first study where we have learned how to interact with people in their homes, take them right through a training program of many weeks, measure the outcome, and then also, of course, develop the technology that allows all of this to happen.”

Dr. Kowalczewski - “I really hope it reaches as many people as it can. The reason why I’m saying this is because we’re seeing such positive results in our studies. I really hope that anyone that’s had a stroke or spinal cord injury can really benefit from this.”

Su-ling Chong - “In conventional therapy, you go to a place and you just do the functional tasks. We sneak the functions into the game, and patients enjoy it. Most of the time I have to tell the person that their hour is up because, usually, they just want to keep going.”

Dr. Galea - “A device like the ReJoyce is useful for people because it can be installed in their own home very simply, and people can use it in the comfort of their own home without needing to travel. The telerehabilitation enables the therapist to keep in touch with them, monitor their progress, and deal with any difficulties they might be having. That is a very important way to of continuing to enable people to continue improving without tying them to the hospital’s apron strings. It allows them to get on with their own lives.”

Mrs. Bockman - “When I woke up in the hospital, I couldn’t move my arms; I couldn’t move my hands and I thought, “how am I going to live my life?” When I started doing this [ReJoyce telerehabilitation], a lot more things started coming back to me. I’m able to hold my brush, with my hand, brush my own hair, brush my own teeth, feed myself. Senses have also gone back to playing with a Sony Playstation. I can kick my husband’s but on a lot of games, and I’m happy with that.”

What do you think about home healthcare is it pertains to physical rehabilitation?

Intel has a system that remotely monitors patients from the comfort of their home.  Data from the monitoring is sent to qualified medical professionals to make an assessment of the data.  If necessary the medical professional can call Mrs. Jones to get amplifying information or recommend that she go see a doctor.

While the devices in use in this article are not associated with rehabilitation, where is the physical rehabilitation community on this subject?  What if we had a video "game" that patients played and data was collected that could determine whether Mrs. Jones gait was deteriorating and indicative of a fall?


Excepts from the Washington Post Article: Medicare spends more than $12 billion a year on "potentially preventable" repeat hospital admissions, according to the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, an independent agency that advises Congress. And that number, according to the commission, is likely to grow, given that the Census Bureau projects that by 2025 there will be nearly 64 million Americans older than age 65, an increase of more than a third over today's total.

The pilot projects are not designed to have doctors diagnose illnesses remotely or to substitute for hands-on care. Instead, they are intended to allow elderly or infirm patients to get ahead of changes in their chronic conditions that could tip them into a medical emergency.

Read the full article here - http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/16/AR2009111602900.html