Smartkuber: A Serious Game for Cognitive Health Screening of Elderly Players.

OBJECTIVE: The goal of this study was to design and develop a serious game for cognitive health screening of the elderly, namely Smartkuber, and evaluate its construct, criteria (concurrent and predictive), and content validity, assessing its relationship with the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) test. Furthermore, the study aims to evaluate the elderly players' game experience with Smartkuber. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Thirteen older adults were enrolled in the study. The game was designed and developed by a multidisciplinary team. The study follows a mixed methodological approach, utilizing the In-Game Experience Questionnaire to assess the players' game experience and a correlational study, to examine the relationship between the Smartkuber and MoCA scores. The learning effect is also examined by comparing the mean game scores of the first and last game sessions of each player (Delta scores). RESULTS: All 13 participants (mean age: 68.69, SD: 7.24) successfully completed the study. Smartkuber demonstrated high concurrent validity with the MoCA test (r = 0.81, P = 0.001) and satisfying levels of predictive and content validity. The Delta scores showed no statistically significant differences in scoring, thus indicating no learning effects during the Smartkuber game sessions. CONCLUSIONS: The study shows that Smartkuber is a promising tool for cognitive health screening, providing an entertaining and motivating gaming experience to elderly players. Limitations of the study and future directions are discussed.

Augmented reality cube game for cognitive training: an interaction study.

There is the potential that cognitive activity may delay cognitive decline in people with mild cognitive impairment. Games provide both cognitive challenge and motivation for repeated use, a prerequisite for long lasting effect. Recent advances in technology introduce several new interaction methods, potentially leading to more efficient, personalized cognitive gaming experiences. In this paper, we present an Augmented Reality (AR) cognitive training game, utilizing cubes as input tools, and we test the cube interaction with a pilot study. The results of the study revealed the marker occlusion problem, and that novice AR users can adjust to the developed AR environment after a small number of sessions.

Augmented reality & gesture-based architecture in games for the elderly.

Serious games for health and, more specifically, for elderly people have developed rapidly in recent years. The recent popularization of novel interaction methods of consoles, such as the Nintendo Wii and Microsoft Kinect, has provided an opportunity for the elderly to engage in computer and video games. These interaction methods, however, still present various challenges for elderly users. To address these challenges, we propose an architecture consisted of Augmented Reality (as an output mechanism) combined with gestured-based devices (as an input method). The intention of this work is to provide a theoretical justification for using these technologies and to integrate them into an architecture, acting as a basis for potentially creating suitable interaction techniques for the elderly players.