From gaming to training

- Games for training. Inspired by games such as GameBoy and Nintendo, Danish researchers have developed a new system for rehabilitation of patients after illness and surgery. Photo: Jan Fredrik Frantzen

Patients who have had illnesses or surgery need to exercise to regain their fitness, and they need follow-up from a physiotherapist to ensure that they do the movements correctly. But the physiotherapist cannot be everywhere all the time.

- "We needed to develop a new tool to rehabilitate patients and get them into activity," explains Tonny Jæger from Funen Hospital in Fyn, Denmark.

Uses light signals

The solution was to create an "intelligent" mat, which consists of lightweight tiles. It is easy to lay this mat on the floor and attach it to the wall. It emits light signals to show where patients should press — or tramp — to activate the muscle groups.

And the technology is inspired by handheld games such as Gameboy and Nintendo. If you can use games to get young people moving, could the same approach work for rehabilitation patients as well?

- "The idea is to combine play and training and get users to activate their whole body, not just their legs, as with other types of training mats."

Motivated by competition

The mat emits light signals showing where patients should put their foot or press with their hands. The lights also change colour when they detect that the patient is applying more pressure to the light signal.

- "We add to the fun for patients by introducing competition in the training," said Jæger, who also shared a demonstration video showing two patients competing to touch the lights first.

The mat records all the patient's movements, and the physiotherapist receives this information to guide patients in what they should do during the next session. And tests show that the system works.

- "We will develop this further so that it becomes easier for patients to use, but we can see that this is good exercise for fitness, balance and coordination," concludes Jæger.

For more information, please contact the Head of Information, Hilde Pettersen, mobile telephone +47 991 03 794.

Facts about TTeC 2007:

The Tromsø Telemedicine and eHealth Conference takes place from 11 to 13 June 2007. This is the seventh time that the Norwegian Centre for Telemedicine in Tromsø is organizing the conference, which gathers several hundred participants from 20 countries over three days. This year's conference focuses on new, non-traditional possibilities for improving the efficiency of the care service and reducing the burden on the public health service when the grey wave begins in earnest within a few years.