Rehafox – A therapeutical approach developing a serious game to support rehabilitation of stroke patients using a leap motion controller

Abstract

The consequences of stroke are often severe and result in the need for rehabilitation of different regions in the body for a defined period. Rehabilitation exercises are often monotonous and quickly become boring, therefore serious games try to include gaming aspects into the rehabilitation process, which was previously shown can support the overall process. To support wrist and hand rehabilitation, the authors propose a new and innovative serious game, which relies only on the Leap Motion Controller together with a PC combining cognitive and physical rehabilitation. The development was based on a user-centred design approach divided into 3 consecutive phases focusing on the therapeutical point of view. In Phase 1, requirements for such a solution were identified and validated in cooperation with one therapist. Phases 2 and 3 pose additional changes gathered from interviews together with four more therapists and one stroke patient to develop a highly sophisticated and flexible prototype. Different and easily adaptable levels were developed in which the patient needs to perform specific movements with one or two hands and wrists to control the avatar throughout a jump-and-run game. Additionally, it includes memory aspects for additional and combined cognitive training. In the end, overall 44 requirements were identified and the gathered feedback during the iterations showed a positive acceptance and massive potential of the proposed solution. These requirements should also pose a good starting point for the development and research of new serious games in that domain as well.