Games Applied to Children with Motor Impairment using the Myo Wearable Device

Abstract The characteristic of immersion, involvement and motivation have made serious games an important tool to be used in the medical field. However, there are people that, having some sort of physical disability, are not able to, or do not feel motivated to play. This work presents a strategy to support human- computer interactions for children with a disability in their upper limbs through a wearable device, with the objective of improving access to digital games for the target audience. For the development of this work, the wearable device Myo was used to control a puzzle game as a means of providing the interaction between the individual and the game. In this context, the game is controlled with the movement of the user's upper limb that presents the disability, through the Myo device. For the validation of this research, the game developed was made available for individuals presenting a disability in the upper limbs, from an age range between five and fifteen years old, of the Association of Assistance to the Disabled Child (AACD). Soon, it was noticed that the participants of the research soon could play while utilizing the deficient limb with Myo's support and felt more motivated to play. On the long run, it is expected to contribute to the motivation of patients through technological innovation, so that the process of body consciousness is made more interactive.

摘要：沉浸感、参与度与动机性三大特质，令严肃游戏（serious games）成为医疗领域的重要应用工具。然而，部分肢体残疾人群要么无法正常游玩，要么缺乏游玩动机。本研究提出一种基于可穿戴设备的人机交互方案，旨在辅助上肢残疾儿童，提升该目标受众接触数字游戏的可行性。本研究选用可穿戴设备Myo控制一款益智游戏，以此实现用户与游戏的交互。在此方案中，玩家可通过自身残疾上肢的动作，借助Myo设备完成游戏操控。为验证本研究的有效性，研发的游戏面向来自残疾儿童援助协会（Association of Assistance to the Disabled Child, AACD）的5至15岁上肢残疾人群开放试用。试验结果表明，受试儿童可借助Myo设备使用残疾上肢完成游戏操作，且游玩动机显著提升。从长远来看，本研究有望通过技术创新提升患者的游戏参与动机，使身体感知过程更具交互性。