Tuesday 10 July 2012

Burn Calories on Kinect, Track Them With Kinect PlayFit

July 10, 2012
REDMOND, Wash

Kinect PlayFit is a new fitness dashboard on Xbox LIVE that lets players track the calories they burn while having fun with Kinect. The new dashboard joins a growing number of titles and experiences that use Kinect as a fitness tool.

Microsoft today unveiled Kinect PlayFit, a new Kinect fitness dashboard on Xbox LIVE that lets players track calories burned across multiple Kinect games. Available as a free download from the Xbox LIVE Marketplace, the app calculates and aggregates the calories players burn so they can track their progress over time, see how they rank against friends, and earn Xbox achievements.

The goal of the app is to motivate families to get off the couch and reward them for having fun, said Chuck Frizelle, executive producer for Kinect PlayFit.

“We’re trying to show that Kinect is not only fun but healthy for you, too,” he said. “Ultimately, Kinect PlayFit is a motivational tool. We want to motivate people to change their behavior and be more active.”

Kinect PlayFit will track fitness progress across a dozen games at first, with more titles to come later, Frizelle said. The dashboard lets players view their daily, weekly, monthly, and overall calorie burn totals, and Xbox leaderboards offer the chance to compare progress with friends and the overall Xbox LIVE community. Players can also earn up to 20 Xbox achievements, including bonus avatar awards, and post them on Facebook.

Kinect PlayFit joins a growing number of games and experiences such as “ Kinect Sports ,” “ Zumba Fitness ,” and the upcoming “Nike+ Kinect Training” that highlight how Kinect is bringing fitness into the living room, said Dave McCarthy, general manager for Kids and Lifestyle Entertainment in Microsoft Studios.

“With our new fitness dashboard, we are acknowledging that Kinect games are a legitimate part of an active lifestyle,” he said. “If you just want to be active and celebrate that, and maybe have fun and compete with your friends, Kinect PlayFit really opens up a whole different world for you.”

he device’s impact on health is spreading beyond entertainment as Kinect for Windows pushes the platform beyond the living room. Developers are now tapping the Kinect capabilities for a wide range of health scenarios, including home physical therapy and remote patient monitoring, which could play a role in the ongoing discussion around healthcare reform.

Click here for full article

Tuesday 3 July 2012

SeeMe Rehab software review

SeeMe is a virtual reality software that encourages a variety of physical skills that are commonly incorporated within general therapy sessions.  It is a specially designed rehabilitative software that uses a PC/laptop and a Kinect.  In a nut shell the programme is well thought out and aimed specifically at therapists for use with patients who are working on balance skills, alongside problem solving, reaction speed, proprioception and upper limb co-ordination skills.

The software offers control over the range and quality of the movement required to play the games along with control over the period of time played, level of difficulty and the colour of back drops to maximise the patients success based on both preference, accessibility and ability.

The games included in the software are listed on the developers website along with details of what each game entails.  Whilst the game doesn't list the conditions the software can be used with, the general aim of most of the games revolve around balance, with a bilateral stance, and or upper limb range of movement.  By choosing different games and using the flexible settings, it is possible to set the games up to be used with a wide range of patients presenting with a spectrum of physical abilities or limitations.

The following video demonstrates an overview of the software.



The flexibility that the programme offers easily enables the therapist and patient to set achievable goals and therefore the ability to start the games at a level that encourages motivation and enables success.  Progression towards goals is easy to monitor, follow and document with the programme recording and allowing results to be saved.

Below explains what data is recorded/measured from each game, giving an idea of the possible outcome measures that can be obtained from the games in isolation or collectively.

For SeeMe Ball the programme collects information regarding accuracy, activity (left and right) aswell as the positive and negative actions produced during game play.

SeeMe Cleaner reports statsitcs of efficiency and left/right activity.

SeeMe React collects information and data about the accuracy of the players choices and about the activity in general which includes the movement time, positive and negative actions on each upper limb.

SeeMe Raft collects data on the accuracy, the activity and the number of positive and negative actions occuring during the game.

SeeMe Maze collects and presents information regarding accuracy, activity and the blocks movement, which can be interpreted as the number of box moves in a certain time.

SeeMe Space similarly collects accuracy and left/right activity information.

SeeMe Sorter collects data on the eficiency of the play along with activity of left and right side.

Print outs of the data is easily achieved with full control of which statistics to be printed being given to the therapist.  Print outs can compare previous sessions - reporting all collected statistics or just comparing one. Examples of the different reports are found within the demo or by clicking on the following links.



From the above list of available statistics is possible to recognise the potential of this piece of software to record patient activity and progression. 

The programme in its full edition allows multiple therapists to sign in and use the software, allowing them to each record patient details on file.  The patient records are saved alongside their game setup - saving precious time each session and allowing for patients to start new sessions exactly where the left off, which is often difficult to achieve with other console games.

There a very few negative comments about this programme.  Firstly though, on the positive side, it is very therapy friendly.  Its easy to install and navigate around.  The setup of each game is easy to master due to the simple layout of controls.  The recording of patient results and the ability to print out their progress is an important attribute, providing its own outcome recording system.  The ability to use a projector and have the screens split, so that the set up screen is on the laptop and the 'play screen' is on the projector, means that distractions possible from the setup screen is minimal.

The downsides are really only two fold.  One - it is quite expensive.  With the setup of the hardware including access to a PC/laptop (which most therapists already have) and a Kinect camera at a cost of around £100 (at time of writing), the programme comes in at $3999.  The only other downside that was met during testing was that the Kinect doesn't always pick up the skeletal points when someone is sat in a wheelchair with a head rest.  It was fairly intermittent and not a failure of the software - more of the Kinect itself (which has the same problem to a more noticeable degree when being used with the Xbox).  Unfortunately it hasn't been possible to identify exactly when and why wheelchair users or use of equipment does/doesn't register - this is ongoing with regards to trial and error.  The software does work with basic walking aids, standing slings, sitting on a normal chair or the edge of a plinth - enabling many patients to benefit without any problems at all.

A demo version is available on the website and if you have access to a PC/laptop and Kinect camera then I would strongly recommend trialling the programme.  If this is a taste of the quality of programmes set to be available with the use of the Kinect camera, then therapy is in for a real treat.

For more information from the developers website - click here