Developing Wii Balance Games to Increase Balance: A Multi-Disciplinary Approach

Persons older than 75 years of age are more susceptible to falls and are a greater burden to the healthcare system than their younger counterparts. While devices like the Nintendo Wii can potentially increase balance control, virtual reality games available for the Wii are not designed as exercise therapy programmes for older people. Targeted therapies are more likely to increase function and decrease falls risk. An interdisciplinary approach that integrates the knowledge of engineers with clinicians can enable the development of a virtual reality home-based exercise programme with off-theshelf equipment. Two targeted exercise therapy games have been developed to encourage at home exercise using novel software with Wii balance boards. One requires stability and balance in a standing position, while the other trains stepping reactions. Ethics approval was obtained to evaluate and pilot these games with older participants. These games were shown to be effective during user testing in that five individuals have provided feedback for further improvement and are interested in participating in a longer balance and exercise programme using these games. One participant was also involved in testing the device in his home environment over the course of a few days. Initial testing in the home environment exposed issues that were not present in the laboratory environment which supports the need for user testing at a very early stage in the prototype development.