Submitted by Jean Medeiros (jeanletras@uepb.edu.br) on 2017-04-06T15:13:33Z No. of bitstreams: 1 PDF - Túlio Henriques Costa.pdf: 16351811 bytes, checksum: a42cb29217d807c2e93d72df0b20c1e1 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Secta BC (secta.csu.bc@uepb.edu.br) on 2017-07-20T11:34:28Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 PDF - Túlio Henriques Costa.pdf: 16351811 bytes, checksum: a42cb29217d807c2e93d72df0b20c1e1 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-07-20T11:34:28Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 PDF - Túlio Henriques Costa.pdf: 16351811 bytes, checksum: a42cb29217d807c2e93d72df0b20c1e1 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-03-30 / The emergence of technologies that promote the users' immersion has pointed the interest of researchers into the healthcare field. These technologies, when combined with electronic games, have obtained good results by being used for therapeutic purposes. Commercial games have been widely used to that end, however, it is still required the supervision of health professionals for a better targeting in the patients' treatment. To decrease the burden of the supervision, tailor-made games with monitoring capabilities have been developed. The problem with this approach is that the quality - in terms of gameplay - of those games is low due to the lack of playfulness. To solve this problem, a good scenario is add monitoring capabilities to the treatments using commercial games. Given the lack of proposals with this approach, it is necessary a mechanism to assist developers in building applications for monitoring patients during the gameplay, according with predetermined characteristics set by health specialists. In this work, we propose the NuSense, a plugin-based framework to support in developing applications for the automatic monitoring of people in environments applied to game-based therapies, motor rehabilitation and physical exercises. / O surgimento de tecnologias que promovem a imersão dos usuários tem despertado o interesse dos pesquisadores da área da saúde. Essas tecnologias, quando aliadas aos jogos eletrônicos, têm obtido bons resultados ao serem utilizadas para fins terapêuticos. Jogos comerciais vêm sendo amplamente utilizados com essa finalidade, contudo, ainda é necessária a supervisão de profissionais de saúde para um melhor direcionamento no tratamento dos pacientes. Para diminuir o nível de supervisão necessário, jogos sob medida, com capacidade de monitoramento, estão sendo desenvolvidos. Porém, a qualidade desses jogos – em termos de jogabilidade – ainda é baixa, devido, muitas vezes, à falta de ludicidade, ou seja, torna-se difícil atrair a atenção do paciente. Para resolver esse problema, o cenário ideal é o uso de jogos comerciais com capacidade de monitoramento. Diante da falta de propostas com esse enfoque, torna-se necessário um mecanismo que auxilie os desenvolvedores na construção de aplicações para o monitoramento de pacientes durante o gameplay, de acordo com características pré-determinadas pelo profissional de saúde. Neste trabalho propõe-se o NuSense, um framework baseado em plug-ins para o auxílio no desenvolvimento de aplicações para o monitoramento automático de pessoas em ambientes aplicados a terapias baseadas em jogos – gameterapia, bem como reabilitação motora e exercícios físicos.

Human wellbeing, in a large component, relies on the harmony between the body and the mind. Unfortunately, we often miss or ignore important signals from our bodies, and sometimes this can negatively impact our health. Therefore, the use of intelligent systems that grasp such signals and convey them in an intuitive manner to our minds can result in great health benefits. In this Thesis, we introduce a family of multimedia technologies and techniques aimed at realizing such systems. We call them: Ubiquitous Biofeedback Multimedia Systems. Although the notion of clinical biofeedback has been around for years, we introduce the concept of Ubiquitous Biofeedback where the biofeedback operation is given geographical and temporal ubiquity attributes. A Ubiquitous Biofeedback reference model is introduced in the Thesis to provide an abstract structural representation of the various components at play in a typical non-clinical biofeedback environment. Two systems that implement the reference model’s components are presented. These systems implement the concept of Ubiquitous Biofeedback through the introduction of innovative stress management methods. An important component of these systems guides users through a relaxation routine. Therefore, a mathematical model is developed in the goal of personalizing the relaxation process. Its objective is to suggest relaxation techniques to a user during a stressful episode based on her or his preferences, history of what worked well and appropriateness for the context. The mental stress monitoring mechanism built into the Ubiquitous Biofeedback systems presented in this Thesis relies on the measurement of Heart Rate Variability (HRV). Therefore, HRV based methods for tracking mental stress accumulation and acute manifestations during long term monitoring have been devised. Also, since HRV signals can be plagued by artifacts, several algorithms are contributed to the effort of correcting such occurrences.

One major issue that office workers face in their daily lives is a large amount of sedentary behavior. To help alleviate this, researchers at Linköping University are developing a collection of motion games to create natural and motivating active breaks named Liopep. This thesis presents the development and evaluation of one new game being added to Liopep called BoatSim. In BoatSim, the player makes real rowing motions in front of a web-camera to row a virtual boat between various islands, where they can grow crops, raise cows, etc. BoatSim was created in the game engine Godot, with a motion controller powered by Mediapipe Pose. The game was evaluated by repeated playtesting where data was gathered to determine how much movement was achieved by a player interacting with the various different parts of the game, and comparing these to each other.

There is some debate about the most effective and least controversial means of sex education in schools. In several states, state law does not require education about Sexually Transmitted Diseases and Human Immunodeficiency Virus Infection/Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (STDs and HIV/AIDS.) There is also debate about the effect and pervasiveness of sexual situations in video games and its effect on the healthy sexual development of adolescents. This research therefore aims to try to solve these two problems and answer the following question: Is it possible to represent sex in a more realistic and educational way through a video game while teaching more medically accurate and necessary information? The completion of this study will be able to provide some insights on the feasibility and benefits of widespread implementation of serious video games for health education in the United States and also point to the necessity of future research into this topic.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-29T14:23:36Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Ana Lucia Nakamura.pdf: 10013747 bytes, checksum: 83e633eb993bd3de603aff1d99d34234 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-05-28 / This bibliographic research aims to identify the exergames contributions in physical, emotional and cognitive aspects. It is based on two main themes: the aging process and the games. The study also identify the elderly preferences about the games and their motivations to play. It describes the aging process and how the elderly use technology, especifically relating to the exergames. The games go beyond the fun when its characteristics are combined with physical exercises. Thus, they can be alternatives for rehabilitation of motor functions, cognitive and improvements in emotional aspects. Through case studies about exergames in reabilitations with Parkinson Disease, Alzheimer, subsyndromic depression, stroke and postural balance, the exergames contributions to the elderly (men and women about 60 to 94 years old from different countries) are shown in this research. This research is based on the games publications of Johan Huizinga, Roger Caillois, Sergio Nesteriuk Gallo, Vicente Mastrcolla and Jenova Chen. The aging process studies are based on publications of Simone de Beauvoir, Beltrina Côrte and Elisabeth F. Mercadante / Esta pesquisa bibliográfica objetiva identificar as contribuições dos exergames para um longeviver melhor, em seus aspectos físicos, emocionais e cognitivos. Para tanto, os estudos foram baseados em dois temais centrais: o processo de envelhecimento e os games. Investiga-se o que os indivíduos com mais de 60 anos jogam, suas preferências e motivações para jogar. A partir das ideias de longeviver e cuidadania busca-se compreender como ocorre o processo de envelhecimento, abordando como as pessoas de 60 anos mais interagem com a tecnologia, em especial com os exergames que vão além da essencial diversão dos jogos digitais, oferecendo possibilidades na reabilitação de funções motoras, cognitivas e melhorias em aspectos emocionais a partir da atividade física proposta em seus jogos. As contribuições dos exergames às pessoas idosas (homens, mulheres com faixa etária entre 60 e 94 anos, de países diversos) são identificadas a partir de estudos de caso sobre pessoas que sofreram um Acidente Vascular Encefálico, indivíduos idosos com Doença de Parkinson, Alzheimer, quadros de depressão leve e disfunções de equilíbrio postural. As contribuições dos exergames descritas são apresentadas também na forma de três mapas mentais, que permitem uma rápida compreensão das informações descritas no capítulo 3. Os estudos de jogos são fundamentados nas obras de Johan Huizinga, Roger Caillois e dos pesquisadores Sergio Nesteriuk Gallo, Vicente Mastrocolla, Jenova Chen. Já os estudos sobre o processo de envelhecimento foram baseados nos trabalhos de Simone de Beauvoir e das pesquisadoras Beltrina Côrte e Elisabeth F. Mercadante

Made available in DSpace on 2015-05-14T12:36:46Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 3225676 bytes, checksum: e3ecb38e47d11f19e58210311279820b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-07-30 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Physical therapy treatment could take advantage of the use of information systems based games to encourage the practice of rehabilitation exercises and monitor therapy. The popularization of devices that capture the motion as Kinect fostered the development of such applications to interact with patients to physical rehabilitation systems, allowing to be used remotely.For these applications could help with physical therapy in the clinic or in the patient s home, remotely, they shall provide motivational characteristics to assist the patient in the correct execution of movements, be adaptable to the needs of patients and help diagnose during the evolution of the treatment. Thus, from research and comparative analysis of published studies, this study aimed to specify and develop the most important elements that a system for physical therapy should include, looking of a complete system-based games. This research resulted in the development of a prototype containing all the desirable characteristics that have been identified and may be used by physical therapists to assist in physical therapy. The features were developed and evaluated by experienced physical therapists from questionnaires to describe the user experience and possible additional needs. The trial and the results of the questionnaire revealed that the system was well accepted among therapists and already could be used to treat various diseases. However, it is still necessary to develop more playful elements in games, to improve motivation; make small corrections in mechanical motion detection and generate a report about the treatment evolution. / O tratamento fisioterapêutico pode se beneficiar da utilização de sistemas de informação baseados em jogos para estimular a prática dos exercícios de reabilitação e gerenciar a terapia do paciente. A popularização de dispositivos de interface natural com o usuário, como o Kinect, fomentou o desenvolvimento destas aplicações, permitindo que o tratamento possa ser gerenciado por tais sistemas. Para que estas aplicações possam contribuir com o tratamento fisioterapêutico na clínica ou no domicílio do paciente, de forma remota, devem apresentar características motivacionais, auxiliar o paciente na execução correta dos movimentos, ser adaptável às necessidades do paciente, auxiliar no diagnóstico e gerenciar a evolução do tratamento. Desta forma, a partir de investigação e análise comparativa de trabalhos publicados na literatura, este trabalho buscou especificar, desenvolver, avaliar e analisar as funcionalidades necessárias para um sistema de informação baseado em jogos para o tratamento fisioterapêutico. O sistema desenvolvido contém todas as características desejáveis para ser utilizado por profissionais de fisioterapia no tratamento fisioterapêutico. A avaliação do sistema foi realizada por profissionais de fisioterapia, a partir de questionários, descrevendo a experiência de utilização. A análise da experimentação revelou que o sistema obteve boa aceitação entre os fisioterapeutas e que poderia ser utilizado no tratamento de diversas patologias. Entretanto, ainda é necessário modificar o comportamento de algumas funcionalidades, como aumentar a quantidade de elementos lúdicos para melhorar a motivação, ajustes dinâmicos na mecânica de detecção de movimentos e gerar relatórios sobre a evolução para um tratamento.

Ein gesundes Alter(n) ist sowohl auf individueller Ebene als auch auf gesellschaftlicher Ebene von großer Relevanz. So wächst die Bedeutung von Prävention und Gesundheitsförderung bis ins hohe Alter – einerseits, um die Autonomie, Selbstbestimmtheit, soziale Teilhabe und Lebensqualität des älteren Menschen aufrecht zu erhalten und andererseits, um den durch den demografischen Wandel bedingten gesundheitspolitischen Herausforderungen begegnen zu können. Dabei weist der gesundheitliche Status im Alter neben hoher Vulnerabilität eine Vielzahl an Ressourcen und somit Ansatzpunkte für präventive und gesundheitsförderliche Interventionen auf. Technische Innovationen bieten hier ein wachsendes Potenzial, um Maßnahmen dieser Art zu stützen. Zur Erschließung des neuartigen Themenfeldes werden die Ergebnisse dreier Einzeluntersuchungen berichtet, in welchen sowohl qualitative als auch quantitative Methoden angewandt werden. Mit Hilfe der Durchführung von Expertinneninterviews werden Bedarf und Potenzial innovativer Technik in Prävention und Gesundheitsförderung für Ältere und erste Anforderungen an eine solche Technik erfasst. Eine innovative Möglichkeit zur Umsetzung präventiver und gesundheitsförderlicher Interventionen bieten digitale Bewegungsspiele. So werden darauffolgend im Rahmen einer quasi-experimentellen Kohortenstudie gesundheitsbezogene Veränderungen durch das Spielen sog. Serious Games im Setting (teil-)stationäres Pflegewohnen evaluiert. Die Ergebnisse zeigen erste gesundheitsförderliche Tendenzen. Innerhalb einer Fokusgruppe werden abschließend drei digitale Bewegungsspielsysteme unter Beachtung zielgruppenspezifischer Bedarfe bewertet und notwendige Ressourcen für den erfolgreichen Einsatz im Anwendungskontext erarbeitet. Um die neugewonnenen Erkenntnisse in nachhaltiger Form nutzbar zu machen, werden diese in einem Anforderungskatalog für die erfolgreiche Implementierung eines digitalen Bewegungsspiels im Kontext der Pflege zusammengefasst. / Being healthy in old age and aging healthily is of great relevance at both the individual and societal level. Thus, the importance of prevention and health promotion even in an old age is growing - on the one hand, to maintain the autonomy, self-determination, social participation and quality of life of the elderly and, on the other hand, to be able to meet the health policy challenges caused by demographic change. Health in old age is not only highly vulnerable but also offers a multitude of resources and starting points for preventive and health-promoting interventions. Technical innovations offer a growing potential to support measures of this kind. In order to open up this new field of research, the results of three individual studies are reported, in which both qualitative and quantitative methods are applied. By conducting expert interviews, the need and potential of innovative technology in prevention and health promotion for the elderly as well as first requirements for such a technology are identified. Digital exercise games offer an innovative possibility for the implementation of preventive and health-promoting interventions. Subsequently, health-related changes caused by playing digital exercise games, so-called serious games, in the setting of nursing care are evaluated within the framework of a quasi-experimental cohort study. The results show first health-promoting tendencies through playing serious games. Last, three digital exercise game systems will be evaluated in a focus group on the basis of the needs of the target group. Additionally, the necessary resources for successful use of such systems in a real application context are developed in a participatory way. In order to make the newly gained knowledge usable in a way that is sustainable and relevant for practical use, it is then summarized in a catalogue of requirements for the successful implementation of a digital exercise game in the nursing environment.

Games are a natural part of many people's everyday lives and have gone from being a divergent interest to become Sweden's biggest cultural export. As a result from this expansion, digital tools had to be further developed and through this progress these tools have reached new areas of usage, which has created new challenges for game developers. The games that offers a higher purpose than pure entertainment goes under the genre serious games. Serious games are used in various application areas such as; in the military, health care, education, business, and psychology, which is the framework of this thesis. By combining and unifying previous research grounded in psychology and game science I want to answer the questions: How can games be used as a therapeutic tool in a child's grieving process? and, Which features should such a game focus on? These questions are answered through the information gathered from two interviews conducted with respondents that have different expertise within the area of this study, this to reach a broader perspective. A child's grieving process can manifest itself in various ways depending on the individual's level of sensitivity. It is therefore difficult to draw any general conclusions on how such a game should be designed. All games have the opportunity to motivate and engage, but this is not unique to a serious game and therefore a measurement function is essential in a digital rehabilitation tool to provide the therapist with valuable information about the patient. The figurative language makes it possible for the child to communicate where the spoken language sometimes has limits. For older children social support can be important as it creates opportunities to meet others in similar situations and together work towards improvement. Grief is a non-linear process and can present itself in many different ways and it is therefore important that the game should offer various turn-outs to make it adaptable for the individual. / Spel är en naturlig del i många människors vardag och har gått från att vara ett mer avvikande intresse till att bli Sveriges största kulturexport. Expanderingen har även lett till att dessa digitala verktyg har fått utvecklats och hitta nya användningsformer som därmed skapar nya utmaningar för spelutvecklare. Spel som har ett högre syfte än den rena underhållningen hamnar under genren serious games och används inom olika användningsområden såsom försvaret, sjukvården, utbildning, affärsrörelser och psykologi vilket är ämnet för denna uppsats. Genom att kombinera och sammanföra tidigare forskning som bottnar sig i psykologin samt spelvetenskapen vill jag besvara frågorna: Hur kan spel användas som ett terapeutiskt verktyg i ett barn sorgeprocess? och Vilka egenskaper bör ett sådant spel fokusera på? Dessa besvaras genom granskning av tidigare forskning samt empiriskt insamlat material från två intervjuer med personer med olika specialistkunskaper för att få ett bredare perspektiv. Barns sorgeprocesser kan te sig väldigt olika beroende på individen och därför är det mycket svårt att dra några generella slutsatser för hur ett sådant spel ska designas. Spel har som möjlighet att motivera och engagera och detta är inget unikt för ett serious game, därför blir en mätningsfunktion avgörande i ett digitalt rehabiliteringsverktyg och ett sätt att förse terapeuten med information om patienten. Det bildliga språket gör det också möjligt för barnet att enklare förmedla sina känslor eftersom det talade språket kan vara en begränsning. För de äldre barnen så kan socialt stöd genom spelet vara viktigt för att kunna träffa andra i samma situation och tillsammans bearbeta sorgen. Sorgen är ingen linjär process och kan visa sig på olika sätt och därför bör spelet erbjuda olika tillägg för att kunna anpassas till den enskilda individen.

Mémoire en recherche-création. Master in research-creation / Vers l’âge de 7 ans, les patients atteints de fibrose kystique (FK) sont amenés à suivre une thérapie par pression expiratoire positive (PEP). Celle-ci consiste à réaliser une série d’exercices respiratoires répétitifs et méthodiques. Cependant, ces exercices peuvent être ennuyeux et démotivants pour des jeunes enfants et entrainent un taux d’adhésion quotidien de moins de 50%. Ce faible résultat affecte grandement la qualité et l’espérance de vie à long terme des patients, en plus d’avoir un impact social et familial considérable. Ces derniers utilisent les aspects ludiques et interactifs des jeux vidéo pour motiver et susciter l’engagement des sujets envers l’activité et son contenu. Ils ont déjà faits leurs preuves dans le domaine de la santé et de l’éducation en favorisant l’apprentissage ou la réhabilitation par exemple. Ce projet de recherche-création cherche à valider la possibilité d’utiliser des jeux spécialement conçus pour la thérapie PEP ainsi que l’intérêt des jeunes atteints de FK à les utiliser dans le cadre de leurs exercices thérapeutiques. L’objectif est de favoriser l’adhésion des jeunes envers cette thérapie et faciliter l’apprentissage et l’application des techniques associées. Cette approche ludique vise ultimement à améliorer la qualité de vie des jeunes atteints de FK dans la durée. Grâce à une collaboration entre des étudiants de l’Université de Montréal et des spécialistes en santé de la clinique de FK du CHU Ste-Justine, trois prototypes de jeux et un prototype d’interface électronique, utilisé pour contrôler les jeux et pour être compatibles avec l’appareil PEP le plus utilisé en Amérique du Nord (le PariPEP®), ont été conçus dans le cadre de ce projet. Les prototypes ont été testés sur place, à la clinique FK de l’hôpital pour enfants, dans le cadre d’une étude pilote effectuée auprès de 10 jeunes patients, toutes et tous âgés entre 8 et 10 ans. / At around the age of 7 years old, younger patients diagnosed with cystic fibrosis (CF) are usually prescribed a new therapy using positive expiratory pressure (PEP). For PEP therapy, patients are required to perform a series of repetitive and methodical breathing exercises to improve lung capacity among other health benefits. However, these exercises can be boring and demotivating for young children. As a result, daily adherence rate to PEP therapy is less than 50%. In turn, this affects the quality of life and long-term health of patients as well as directly impacting their families. In the education and health sectors, serious games are already used with children to help them with learning, therapy and even physical rehabilitation. Serious games leverage the fun and interactive aspects of video games to motivate and improve the commitment of the player to learn the targeted material or adhere to a specific health behaviour. This research-creation project seeks to validate the efficacy of using games specially designed to help patients adhere to PEP therapy exercises more regularly. The objective is to encourage them to get involved in their daily exercises and to facilitate the learning and application of the breathing techniques. This playful approach ultimately aims to improve the quality of life of CF children over time. Leveraging a multi and interdisciplinary collaboration between students from University of Montreal and specialists from the CF clinic at CHU Ste-Justine, three games prototypes and an electronic device prototype, used to control the games, were developed for the most popular PEP device in North America (PariPEP®). The games and electronic device prototypes were tested at the CF clinic, within the hospital for children, as part of a pilot study with 10 young patients, aged from 8 to 10 years old.