Demo: Smartwatch-Driven Gaming for Stroke Rehabilitation

Patients surviving a brain stroke often experience an impaired neuro-motor coordination and cognitive capability. Rehabilitation assisted by therapists can help them regain much of this coordination. In recent past, gamified activities have proved to be effective in this regard with enhanced patient engagement. But, they may require special hardware and certain usage restrictions regarding patient's positioning etc. for operating effectively. We have set out to develop a suite of games using a smartwatch to sense arm's motion to eliminate such challenges, supporting customized scoring for different post-stroke mobility stages and focusing on state-of-the-art 3D graphics offering a high realism aimed at better patient engagement and adherence. In this demonstration, we present two of these games. First is a 'Forest Stroll' game where the patient controls heading of an in-game character moving on a forest path, with scoring based on how closely the path is followed, with a few additional arm gestures which can be activated by the therapist optionally. Second is a 'Drumming' game, where the patient controls a virtual drumstick and tries to play a customizable pre-saved pattern involving multiple ranges of motion, scored on how closely the pattern is played, testing both motor and cognitive capabilities.