Rehabilitation Exercise Game Model for Post-stroke using Microsoft Kinect Camera

The purpose of rehabilitation is to improve the movement of stroke patients so that they can independently perform daily tasks on their own. Conventional therapy is a tedious exercise which usually reduces the motivation of the patient to do the exercises. Video game is a way that can motivate and help patients recover their motor skills, and also act as a deterrent pain. Video games have been used in physiotherapy, occupational therapy, and psychotherapy. In order to increase mental satisfaction and physical vitality in rehabilitation therapy, some therapists have tried to use the off-the-shelf digital game devices in rehabilitation and have found effective treatment outcomes in addition to enhancing patients' treatment motivation. Although many studies have been done in this field, there is still lacking the existing recovery game, because too many different demands must be met for each type of therapy. There is one disadvantage at the beginning of the game because patients have difficulty understanding how to use it. The current recovery games are less fun and participative for the user, while the popular games have fewer components to use in rehabilitation training. Furthermore, post-stroke patients find it difficult to get a friend to play or spend time with them every day, which will make them feel isolated. Therefore, rehabilitation exercise games that support multi-player will provide a higher motivation than the single-player. Since most stroke patients suffer from cognitive impairment, cognitive challenge levels are also the key factors in the design of the game so that it does not become an obstacle for the recovery process. Therefore, this study develops a prototype of a rehabilitation exercise game that contains aspects of the social context, the type of movement and cognitive challenges. It also provides usability in game design, according to a post-stroke stage so that they can perform recovery activities based on their ability. In addition, this study highlights technology and rehabilitation exercise games in Malaysia.