Researchers use Xbox One’s Kinect to help kids with cerebral palsy
If we're being honest with ourselves (and we should), Kinect for Xbox One has been something of a dud. The games integrating the motion-control tech have been so-so and the voice recognition is still noticeably lacking.
Scientists at Canada's Bloorview Research Institute, though, might have found a way to make it an extraordinarily useful peripheral by using it to help kids with cerebral palsy regain lost motor function.The games being used, reports Polygon, were originally created for the Xbox 360's Kinect. However, kids (being kids) found that they could use that system's lack of precision tocheat. The original Kinect also couldn't discern if a child was in a wheelchair.
Xbox One's more precise Kinect will take care of those issues.
The games promote exercise that requires kids to extend their wrists and elbows, functions we take for granted, but those with the disease find difficult. By subtly encouraging repetition of these exercises in the game, it can increase motor function in the patients.
"Rehabilitation is driven by repetitive practice, and that can be boring for kids to do the same thing over and over again," said researcher Elaine Biddiss. "But when you put it in a game environment with rewards and points, that helps to motivate kids. ... We recognize that games are a fantastic way to get kids to engage in these therapies, and there are a lot of elements to video games that are fundamental to neuroplasticity."
The games, which are only playable at clinics at the Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital near Toronto, includes one based on the game Hole in the Wall. Related to the Japanese game show (which wasbrought to the U.S. for a short period), it tasks players with contorting their bodies to fit into various shapes.
