Video games will help patients in Cali, Colombia with their physical therapy

For many physical therapy patients, therapeutic exercises can be repetitive, monotonous and even painful, such that they can generate lack of motivation causing deterioration of health.

To solve this problem, a group of undergraduate students from the Faculty of Engineering from the Universidad del Valle (Univalle) have combined their passion for video games and programming skills to produce the 15 mini-games of the proyecto PLAYTHERAPY.

The global market size for gamification (i.e. moving game mechanics into the educational-professional realm) in the healthcare sector was $3.3 billion USD in 2021, according to a market report.

In addition, Professor Maria Trujillo, director of the Computer Vision and Multimedia Research Group, at the School of Systems and Computer Engineering (EISC), the group responsible for the project, explained that the group's motive is not to sell the solution.

"Years ago, undergraduate students were very excited to program video games, but they were motivated to develop a game with a social purpose," Professor Trujillo said.

Video: Click for an explanation of PLAYTHERAPY project. Credit: PLAYTHERAPY

The Research

At the beginning of the project, Playtherapy was led by Edwin Gamboa, now a graduate of the Systems Engineering program and the Master of Engineering, Emphasis Area: Computer and Systems Engineering and currently a research assistant at the Technische Universität Ilmenau.

"The students want to work on video games, and Professor Trujillo said if we're going to do it, let's do something serious," said Gamboa, referring to Serious Games, which are games designed with a purpose beyond entertainment.

The research group contacted the Hospital Universitario del Valle in Cali and began working together. 

"There was already a history of using hand movement detectors in therapy," Gamboa said.

The various videogames of PLAYTHERAPY use the Kinect, a motion-sensing device originally developed for Xbox 360 video games for full-body gaming; and another device called Leap Motion for tracking hand movements. 

In a 2020 paper, “Advantages and Limitations of Leap Motion from a Developers', Physical Therapists', and Patients' Perspective” in the journal Methods of Information in Medicine, the researchers examined the potential and limitations of this technology in the therapeutic context. 

The students developed several mini-games, with the aim of using them with patients under the supervision of physiotherapists. 

For example, in the Rails mini-game, players have to perform a short jog to move forward, crouch and jump to avoid obstacles while collecting as many coins as possible. In this way, the patient is practicing jumping, squatting, jogging and sideways walking.

In the Free Throw mini-game, players must keep a ball in the air using their legs, which aids in hip flexion and extension therapy.

The researchers explained that each of the mini-games supports rehabilitation processes of different body part movements such as trunk, upper limbs, lower limbs, as well as fine movements, such as hand movements. 

On the health professional side, each mini-game has a parameter screen where the physiotherapist configures and customizes the parameters of the mini-game before starting a session as a game mode; selection of angles, joints and movements.

For the patient, there is a tutorial that includes a set of instructions telling a patient the rules of the game and the movements to perform using everyday vocabulary. After playing, when the performance has been excellent the player will get three stars.

Juan Pablo Castro Vasquez, software developer of the project explained that there is also a tutorial for parameter configuration, oriented to the therapist.

The tool was designed so that the therapies are guided by the healthcare professional, who, according to the need of the therapy, configures the game parameters, making it even more adaptable," said Castro.

Read more from Univalle’s school of Computational and Systems Engineering:  Researchers and designers are bringing poetry to life for the visually impaired in Cali, Colombia

Photo: The parameter screen is then intended to be configured by a physiotherapist. Credit: PLAYTHERAPY

The Future

"The pandemic disrupted the implementation of clinical validation," Andres Serrato Gomez, an information systems technologist at Universidad del Valle and software developer on the project, said.  

Castro added that clinical validation is necessary to verify the accuracy of devices and tools, according to certain criteria important in physical rehabilitation therapies.

"We already made software and validated the software, but then there needs to be clinical validation," explained Professor Trujillo, adding that she hopes they can start again, with physical therapy students.

"Since it is a free application, we are not thinking of commercializing it, but we hope it will be used," professor Trujillo said.

If you are interested in contacting the researcher or learning more about the project, please write to the Communications Office, Faculty of Engineering: comunicaingenieria(at)correounivalle.edu.co.

Cover photo: Rails mini-game Credit: PLAYTHERAPY.