People with motor disabilities have a limitation or a loss of capacity carrying out activities considered as normal for human beings. This may incline the relationship with the society and thus it is essential for these people to undergo therapeutic treatments. However, rehabilitation is a tedious process that often fails due to that patients drop treatment. For this reason, this thesis investigates if music in a serious game for rehabilitation can make the experience to become more engaging and, accordingly, whether positive experiences from playing such a game can encourage the rehabilitation process of a patient i.e. to make the rehabilitation process less tedious for the patient. The results, based on a pilot study conducted in a rehabilitation center, indicates that this is the case and further research on the matter is suggested.

Home-based rehabilitation has evolved in recent years as a cost-effective and convenient alternative to traditional clinical rehabilitation. Researchers have developed various types of sensors-based rehabilitation systems that incorporate Virtual Reality games aimed to offer the patient an entertaining and beneficial training experience from the comfort of home. This has consequently created the need to design reliable assessment and adaptation mechanisms that are able to measure and analyze the patient's performance and condition, and to accordingly make proper adjustments that conform to the abilities of the patient during the training. In this dissertation, we introduce our context-based adaptive home-based rehabilitation framework (CAHR) that offers the patients a rehabilitation environment that can adapt based on their physical, physiological, and psychological context, while taking into consideration the environmental conditions that may hinder their progress. CAHR is a generic framework that can be implemented to fit any of the upper or lower extremity rehabilitation. However, in this dissertation, we base our modeling and analysis mainly on the wrist. In CAHR, the physical condition of the patient is assessed by a fuzzy logic-based mechanism that uses the various kinematics captured during the training to provide a quantified value which reflects the Quality of Physical Performance of the patient. The rehabilitation task adaptation is achieved based on a special algorithm that defines how the physical training, psychophysiological responses, and environmental conditions must be manipulated in order to match the desired performance target parameters set by the therapist. The simulation results have shown that the proposed adaptation engine can properly adjust the rehabilitation environment based on different simulated performance behavior that might be produced by a patient. In addition, training with a special game that has been designed based on the developed framework has shown improvement in the physical capabilities of two patients suffering from upper extremity impairments.

The development of serious games, requires the participation and collaboration of several disciplines; as in the following thesis, showing the collaboration between physiotherapists and developers. Obviously good collaboration and understanding requires a tool that allows passage of information from one discipline to another. One example of such a tool is the concept of patterns. The concept has been adopted in many communities, one of which is game design where they have been called game design patterns, to offer the same advantages with additional benefits. In the following thesis we use game design patterns in order to translate the requirements of physiotherapists into a serious game. Or more precisely, the aim is to satisfy the requirements of physiotherapists as movements, motivation, and other features and map them into patterns and translate them in a serious game. The validation of the mapping was carried out in three different ways: with the physiotherapists, patients, and finally with game designers. The work carried out, shows an example of how game design patterns can be used to satisfy the requirements of physiotherapists in a game for rehabilitation.

Home-based rehabilitation has evolved in recent years as a cost-effective and convenient alternative to traditional clinical rehabilitation. Researchers have developed various types of sensors-based rehabilitation systems that incorporate Virtual Reality games aimed to offer the patient an entertaining and beneficial training experience from the comfort of home. This has consequently created the need to design reliable assessment and adaptation mechanisms that are able to measure and analyze the patient's performance and condition, and to accordingly make proper adjustments that conform to the abilities of the patient during the training. In this dissertation, we introduce our context-based adaptive home-based rehabilitation framework (CAHR) that offers the patients a rehabilitation environment that can adapt based on their physical, physiological, and psychological context, while taking into consideration the environmental conditions that may hinder their progress. CAHR is a generic framework that can be implemented to fit any of the upper or lower extremity rehabilitation. However, in this dissertation, we base our modeling and analysis mainly on the wrist. In CAHR, the physical condition of the patient is assessed by a fuzzy logic-based mechanism that uses the various kinematics captured during the training to provide a quantified value which reflects the Quality of Physical Performance of the patient. The rehabilitation task adaptation is achieved based on a special algorithm that defines how the physical training, psychophysiological responses, and environmental conditions must be manipulated in order to match the desired performance target parameters set by the therapist. The simulation results have shown that the proposed adaptation engine can properly adjust the rehabilitation environment based on different simulated performance behavior that might be produced by a patient. In addition, training with a special game that has been designed based on the developed framework has shown improvement in the physical capabilities of two patients suffering from upper extremity impairments.

O aumento da população senescente no Brasil e no mundo implica ações específicas para satisfazer às necessidades e preferências do público idoso. Diversas áreas do conhecimento dedicam-se aos estudos relacionados ao envelhecimento humano com a finalidade de garantir a autonomia, independência, qualidade de vida e expectativa de vida saudável das pessoas com mais de 60 anos. Nesse contexto, novas tecnologias de intervenção baseadas nos jogos digitais têm sido utilizadas para promover a prá-tica de atividade física com o propósito de prevenir o declínio funcional em indivíduos idosos. Sendo assim, o objetivo desta pesquisa consiste em estabelecer um conjunto de requisitos de projeto para apoiar o desenvolvimento de jogos digitais que utilizam a interface natural, a partir da perspectiva dos usuários idosos caidores, a fim de contribuir para a melhora na qualidade de vida. Para tanto, realizou-se uma intervenção no projeto de extensão do Centro de Estudos de Lazer e Atividade Física do Idoso (Celari) da Escola de Educação Física (ESEF) da Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), em um período de oito semanas, com duas sessões semanais. Os instrumentos de avaliação aplicados na pesquisa foram dois questionários, incluindo questões fechadas, com delineamento pré e pós-intervenção. Além disso, utilizou-se a observação direta com o intuito de recolher informações acerca da amostra. O instrumento de intervenção adotado na pesquisa foi o console Xbox One® com o sensor de movimento Kinect 2.0® e sete jogos digitais. Estabeleceram-se, então, os requisitos de usuá-rios com base nas necessidades e preferências exigidos pelos participantes da pesquisa durante a inter-venção. Em uma etapa posterior, empregou-se o método do Desdobramento da Função Qualidade (QFD) para converter os requisitos de usuários em um conjunto de requisitos de projeto sistematizados de acordo com grau de importância atribuído pelos usuários. Com isso, pretendeu-se oferecer um con-junto de requisitos de projeto para, eventualmente, orientar o desenvolvimento de um jogo digital uti-lizando a interface natural, com vistas a melhorar a qualidade de vida, o equilíbrio e reduzir o risco de quedas das pessoas idosas. / The increase in the elderly population in Brazil and in the world implies specific actions to meet the needs and preferences of the elderly. Several areas of knowledge are involved with studies related to human aging in order to ensure autonomy, independence, life quality and healthy life expectancy of people over 60 years of age. In this context, new digital game-based intervention technologies have been used to promote the practice of physical activity aiming at preventing functional decline in the elderly. Thus, this research aims to establish a set of project requirements to support the development of digital games using the natural user interface from the perspective of elderly faller users in order to contribute for the improvement in life quality. Therefore, an intervention was accomplished in the extension project of the Center of Studies of Leisure and Physical Activity for the Elderly (Celari) from the School of Physical Education (ESEF), Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), during a period of eight weeks, two sessions/week. The assessment tools used in the research were two questionnaires, with closed questions, pre- and post- test design. In addition, it was also used the direct observation in order to gather information about the sample. The intervention tool adopted in the research was the Xbox One® console with Kinect 2.0® motion sensor and seven digital games. Then, it was established the user’s requirements based on the needs and preferences required by the participants of the research during the intervention. At a later stage, it was used the Quality Function Deployment (QFD) method to convert the user requirements into a set of project requirements system-atized according to the degree of importance assigned by the users. Thus, it was intended to offer a set of requirements for the project in order to, possibly, orientate the development of a digital game using the natural user interface, aiming to improve the elderly’s life quality, balance as well as decrease their risk of falls.

O aumento da população senescente no Brasil e no mundo implica ações específicas para satisfazer às necessidades e preferências do público idoso. Diversas áreas do conhecimento dedicam-se aos estudos relacionados ao envelhecimento humano com a finalidade de garantir a autonomia, independência, qualidade de vida e expectativa de vida saudável das pessoas com mais de 60 anos. Nesse contexto, novas tecnologias de intervenção baseadas nos jogos digitais têm sido utilizadas para promover a prá-tica de atividade física com o propósito de prevenir o declínio funcional em indivíduos idosos. Sendo assim, o objetivo desta pesquisa consiste em estabelecer um conjunto de requisitos de projeto para apoiar o desenvolvimento de jogos digitais que utilizam a interface natural, a partir da perspectiva dos usuários idosos caidores, a fim de contribuir para a melhora na qualidade de vida. Para tanto, realizou-se uma intervenção no projeto de extensão do Centro de Estudos de Lazer e Atividade Física do Idoso (Celari) da Escola de Educação Física (ESEF) da Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), em um período de oito semanas, com duas sessões semanais. Os instrumentos de avaliação aplicados na pesquisa foram dois questionários, incluindo questões fechadas, com delineamento pré e pós-intervenção. Além disso, utilizou-se a observação direta com o intuito de recolher informações acerca da amostra. O instrumento de intervenção adotado na pesquisa foi o console Xbox One® com o sensor de movimento Kinect 2.0® e sete jogos digitais. Estabeleceram-se, então, os requisitos de usuá-rios com base nas necessidades e preferências exigidos pelos participantes da pesquisa durante a inter-venção. Em uma etapa posterior, empregou-se o método do Desdobramento da Função Qualidade (QFD) para converter os requisitos de usuários em um conjunto de requisitos de projeto sistematizados de acordo com grau de importância atribuído pelos usuários. Com isso, pretendeu-se oferecer um con-junto de requisitos de projeto para, eventualmente, orientar o desenvolvimento de um jogo digital uti-lizando a interface natural, com vistas a melhorar a qualidade de vida, o equilíbrio e reduzir o risco de quedas das pessoas idosas. / The increase in the elderly population in Brazil and in the world implies specific actions to meet the needs and preferences of the elderly. Several areas of knowledge are involved with studies related to human aging in order to ensure autonomy, independence, life quality and healthy life expectancy of people over 60 years of age. In this context, new digital game-based intervention technologies have been used to promote the practice of physical activity aiming at preventing functional decline in the elderly. Thus, this research aims to establish a set of project requirements to support the development of digital games using the natural user interface from the perspective of elderly faller users in order to contribute for the improvement in life quality. Therefore, an intervention was accomplished in the extension project of the Center of Studies of Leisure and Physical Activity for the Elderly (Celari) from the School of Physical Education (ESEF), Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), during a period of eight weeks, two sessions/week. The assessment tools used in the research were two questionnaires, with closed questions, pre- and post- test design. In addition, it was also used the direct observation in order to gather information about the sample. The intervention tool adopted in the research was the Xbox One® console with Kinect 2.0® motion sensor and seven digital games. Then, it was established the user’s requirements based on the needs and preferences required by the participants of the research during the intervention. At a later stage, it was used the Quality Function Deployment (QFD) method to convert the user requirements into a set of project requirements system-atized according to the degree of importance assigned by the users. Thus, it was intended to offer a set of requirements for the project in order to, possibly, orientate the development of a digital game using the natural user interface, aiming to improve the elderly’s life quality, balance as well as decrease their risk of falls.

O aumento da população senescente no Brasil e no mundo implica ações específicas para satisfazer às necessidades e preferências do público idoso. Diversas áreas do conhecimento dedicam-se aos estudos relacionados ao envelhecimento humano com a finalidade de garantir a autonomia, independência, qualidade de vida e expectativa de vida saudável das pessoas com mais de 60 anos. Nesse contexto, novas tecnologias de intervenção baseadas nos jogos digitais têm sido utilizadas para promover a prá-tica de atividade física com o propósito de prevenir o declínio funcional em indivíduos idosos. Sendo assim, o objetivo desta pesquisa consiste em estabelecer um conjunto de requisitos de projeto para apoiar o desenvolvimento de jogos digitais que utilizam a interface natural, a partir da perspectiva dos usuários idosos caidores, a fim de contribuir para a melhora na qualidade de vida. Para tanto, realizou-se uma intervenção no projeto de extensão do Centro de Estudos de Lazer e Atividade Física do Idoso (Celari) da Escola de Educação Física (ESEF) da Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), em um período de oito semanas, com duas sessões semanais. Os instrumentos de avaliação aplicados na pesquisa foram dois questionários, incluindo questões fechadas, com delineamento pré e pós-intervenção. Além disso, utilizou-se a observação direta com o intuito de recolher informações acerca da amostra. O instrumento de intervenção adotado na pesquisa foi o console Xbox One® com o sensor de movimento Kinect 2.0® e sete jogos digitais. Estabeleceram-se, então, os requisitos de usuá-rios com base nas necessidades e preferências exigidos pelos participantes da pesquisa durante a inter-venção. Em uma etapa posterior, empregou-se o método do Desdobramento da Função Qualidade (QFD) para converter os requisitos de usuários em um conjunto de requisitos de projeto sistematizados de acordo com grau de importância atribuído pelos usuários. Com isso, pretendeu-se oferecer um con-junto de requisitos de projeto para, eventualmente, orientar o desenvolvimento de um jogo digital uti-lizando a interface natural, com vistas a melhorar a qualidade de vida, o equilíbrio e reduzir o risco de quedas das pessoas idosas. / The increase in the elderly population in Brazil and in the world implies specific actions to meet the needs and preferences of the elderly. Several areas of knowledge are involved with studies related to human aging in order to ensure autonomy, independence, life quality and healthy life expectancy of people over 60 years of age. In this context, new digital game-based intervention technologies have been used to promote the practice of physical activity aiming at preventing functional decline in the elderly. Thus, this research aims to establish a set of project requirements to support the development of digital games using the natural user interface from the perspective of elderly faller users in order to contribute for the improvement in life quality. Therefore, an intervention was accomplished in the extension project of the Center of Studies of Leisure and Physical Activity for the Elderly (Celari) from the School of Physical Education (ESEF), Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), during a period of eight weeks, two sessions/week. The assessment tools used in the research were two questionnaires, with closed questions, pre- and post- test design. In addition, it was also used the direct observation in order to gather information about the sample. The intervention tool adopted in the research was the Xbox One® console with Kinect 2.0® motion sensor and seven digital games. Then, it was established the user’s requirements based on the needs and preferences required by the participants of the research during the intervention. At a later stage, it was used the Quality Function Deployment (QFD) method to convert the user requirements into a set of project requirements system-atized according to the degree of importance assigned by the users. Thus, it was intended to offer a set of requirements for the project in order to, possibly, orientate the development of a digital game using the natural user interface, aiming to improve the elderly’s life quality, balance as well as decrease their risk of falls.