Fraunhofer Center for Assistive Information and Communication Solutions – AICOS20.9.2018
AICOS’ researcher Eduardo Pereira presented, today, a paper at the IFIP International Conference on Entertainment Computation (IFIP-ICEC), the longest lasting and prime scientific conference in the area of Entertainment Computing.
AICOS was represented by Eduardo Pereira, who co-authored the paper along with Joana Silva, Elsa Oliveira, Dinis Moreira, Francisco Nunes, Martina Caic, and João Madureira.
The paper entitled ‘Design and evaluation of a fall prevention group game for social care institutions’ relates to the FallSensing project, which purpose is to develop a system that integrates fall risk screening with falls prevention programs.
The paper describes the design and evaluation of a multi-player fall prevention game platform to be used in senior care centres. Preventing falls is extremely important today as people live long sedentary lives. Fall prevention platforms can help, by stimulating seniors to perform exercises that improve balance and muscular strength. However, existing platforms for fall prevention mostly target individual users.
For example, during development, researchers found that using an exercising platform in senior care centres was very different from the home interaction context, and it is paramount to take into consideration the role of the care worker during the design stage.
To better meet the needs of end users, researchers at AICOS designed a game inspired by the Otago Exercise Programme and focused the evaluation on biomechanical parameters, game experience, and technology acceptance. Results showed that the game was easy to follow, that seniors performed exercises correctly, and that the game integrated well with the activities of the senior care centres.
The IFIP International Conference on Entertainment Computation (IFIP-ICEC) is the longest lasting and prime scientific conference series in the area of Entertainment Computing. It brings together practitioners, researchers, artists, designers, and industry on the design, creation, development, use, application and evaluation of digital entertainment content and experience systems. The conference series is cross-disciplinary, and stretches over the domains of computer science, human-computer-interaction, content production, digital games, multimedia, media studies, art, and design. The conference took place in Poznan, in Poland.