Barron Associates, Inc. was awarded a grant from the National Institute of Health to develop a motion-tracking gaming system that would be used for occupational therapy objectives. The goal was to find an innovative way to help stroke victims relearn how to do everyday activities while tracking the movement made by their limbs. The challenge was to find out how we could use motion-tracking technology with game-based learning to create a fun way of relearning how to complete everyday tasks. Occupational Therapy Simulation was the main target of this effort.
After a detailed analysis and comprehensive partnership put in place, Barron Associates and Designing Digitally, Inc. was up for the challenge of developing an Occupational Therapy Simulation that integrated motion tracking using the Microsoft Kinect. During the development of this project, Barron Associates was responsible for the overall vision, incorporation of clinical objectives (e.g. required range of motion and cognitive difficulty levels), development of Kinect-based motion tracking software, and logging of motor skill and cognitive performance metrics. Designing Digitally built user tracking motion simulations to create a custom simulator to practice during occupational therapy.
VOTA™ was developed in recognition of the need for a game-based learning application for stroke therapy that is fun, accessible, and meaningful in the context of occupational therapy objectives – in other words relearning skills that permit functional independence at home. Task-directed therapy appears to be a critical element in the regeneration of cortical function in regions of the brain responsible for the related neurological activity. The VOTA™ serious game was focused around a 3D scenario system that allows patients to use their arms to put away groceries, cook dinner, and do actions they will face every day.
During the VOTA™ 3D serious game, motion tracking software works behind the scenes to record the detailed motion histories of arm movements during gameplay. These are automatically parsed according to the start and stop events for each subtask and then automatically processed by VOTA™ software to generate metrics that correlate with the level of motor skill and cognitive performance. These measures include sub-task completion time, a normalized speed metric, mean arrest period ratio, and range of motion.
