Computer Games For Stroke Rehabilitation
Researchers at the University of Ulster have been carrying out trials of specially designed computer games to help rehabilitate stroke sufferers.
Ulster’s School of Computing and Information Engineering in Coleraine has collaborated on the project with fellow researchers at the Health and Rehabilitation Sciences Institute at the Jordanstown campus.
The Games for Rehabilitation project, which has been funded by the Department of Employment and Learning over three years, focuses on rehabilitation of the upper limbs and involves the player using their hands and arms to touch targets which move around the screen.
Read the full article here.
I can see the point, but I’ve never been someone for computer games. On the other hand, I’ve had some good physiotherapy in both Hong Kong and Addenbrookes. The stuff that I liked had an element of play in it. Especially, when you were playing with an attractive twenty-year-old or so ypung Chinese woman. Addenbrookes were also using a Nintendo Wii.
The Anonymous Widower 
I use certain websites to help me to with hand eye co-ordination and mouse control, less now than I did, but I guess the one I used most was http://www.jigzone.com which has some very complicated jigsaw cuts available. I cant manage a normal jigsaw very well as the pieces are so small. It also helped my concentration. I am thinking about a Wii Fit as apparently it can help balance, but I am not into computer games at all. Apart from Tetris on the Game Boy. Which is my guilty secret!
Comment by Liz P | July 2, 2010 |
The HandTutor is a rehabilitation glove and software which offers impairment oriented training and augmented feedback. The HandTutor provides repetitive customized isolated or inter joint co-ordinated finger and wrist hand exercises and rehabilitates fine movements of the hand and wrist. At the same time the dedicated rehabilitation software motivates the patient to continue intensive repetitive exercises by providing challenging games that have been designed around both neurological and Orthopedic conditions.
The HandTutor works on the concept of repetitive fine motor, finger and wrist, isolated and combined exercises. The dedicated rehabilitation software allows the therapist to customize the games to the patients. All aspects of the exercise task can be customized such as difficulty and time to play for the game. This prevents overuse injuries however at the same time the physiotherapy and occupational therapy designed games are motivating and challenging for the patient.
Comment by Alan Waterman | July 4, 2010 |
See Game Forward’s article on MediTouch and the HandTutor. Hope you like it!
http://gamefwd.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=333:meditouch-fine-tunes-rehabilitation&catid=10:health&Itemid=8
Comment by Alan Waterman | July 4, 2010 |
I’ve read about the Hand Tutor and it certainly looks interesting. My route is different, in that I want to mske it impossible to hit the wrong keys, so you get more confidendence. Microsoft have created part of solution, but didn’t go far enough.
Keep up the good work! I’d like to see one. Where can I do that?
Comment by AnonW | July 4, 2010 |