Creators

XU Jingzhi, Department of Electronic Engineering

ZHOU Guanglei, Department of Electronic Engineering

About the Work

Inspired by traditional hand/finger exercises for the elderly during our visits to elderly training centres, we came up with the idea of developing a game for the elderly, especially those who suffer from dementia. We combined a hand-gesture recognition glove with a music game. Using a rhythm game, we guide the players to make specific gestures (opening and closing the hand, leaving just the thumbs out, etc.), and through the glove we can identify whether the player is performing the gesture correctly. The result is a simple but effective game that helps older people exercise both their hands and brains. We have plans to add extra functionality, such as a co-op mode, which will let multiple players cooperate and play at the same time.

Mechanism

Handance is a music game made in Unity also has a hardware component developed on the Arduino platform. It uses flex sensors embedded in a glove to act as a simple hand gesture recognition device. The device sends the recognised gestures to the connected computer to determine if the game objectives are being fulfilled. It also has an infrared sensor which allows family members or helpers to play along as a second player with simplified actions. The hand gestures implemented in the game are recommended by rehabilitation professionals, and thus we hope the game will be an effective exercise for the elderly with dementia, possibly delaying its progression.