MobileQuiz: A Serious Game for Enhancing the Physical and Cognitive Abilities of Older Adults

The ageing process involves physical and cognitive challenges. It is a known fact that outdoor physical activity can help to counter these issues and improve the quality of life. One way to motivate older adults doing exercises are serious games. They embody the concept of game-based learning and exercising, and they are designed to solve a problem along with providing and engaging training experience. Based on recent research, we have developed a concept of an outdoor serious game, which has been designed to keep older adults mobile and enhance their cognitive abilities at the same time. We have developed a prototype and evaluated it in a user study with elderly participants. The results show a high acceptance by the test participants, indicating that this kind of game is interesting for the target group. The usability of the prototype has also been evaluated and shows good average scores.

[1]  James R. Lewis,et al.  IBM computer usability satisfaction questionnaires: Psychometric evaluation and instructions for use , 1995, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Interact..

[2]  Mary Zajicek,et al.  Interface design for older adults , 2001, WUAUC'01.

[3]  Christof Lutteroth,et al.  Mobile games for elderly healthcare , 2010, CHINZ '10.

[4]  Mariano Alcañiz,et al.  Eldergames: videogames for empowering, training and monitoring elderly cognitive capabilities , 2008 .

[5]  Arthur I. Karshmer,et al.  Living assistance systems: an ambient intelligence approach , 2006, ICSE.

[6]  Kyung-Sik Kim,et al.  Development of a walking game for the elderly using controllers of hand buttons and foot boards , 2012, 2012 17th International Conference on Computer Games (CGAMES).

[7]  M. Griffin,et al.  The mental and physical health outcomes of green exercise , 2005, International journal of environmental health research.

[8]  R LewisJames IBM computer usability satisfaction questionnaires , 1995 .

[9]  Luis Fernández-Luque,et al.  Exergames for elderly: Social exergames to persuade seniors to increase physical activity , 2011, 2011 5th International Conference on Pervasive Computing Technologies for Healthcare (PervasiveHealth) and Workshops.

[10]  Krassie Petrova,et al.  Mobile Gaming - A Serious Business! , 2012, 2012 IEEE Seventh International Conference on Wireless, Mobile and Ubiquitous Technology in Education.

[11]  Abdenour Bouzouane,et al.  Serious games in cognitive training for Alzheimer's patients , 2011, 2011 IEEE 1st International Conference on Serious Games and Applications for Health (SeGAH).

[12]  Sri Hastuti Kurniawan,et al.  Older people and mobile phones: A multi-method investigation , 2008, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud..

[13]  Darryl Charles,et al.  Serious Games for Upper Limb Rehabilitation Following Stroke , 2009, 2009 Conference in Games and Virtual Worlds for Serious Applications.

[14]  Geraldo Xexéo,et al.  SmartRabbit: A Mobile Exergame Using Geolocation , 2011, 2011 Brazilian Symposium on Games and Digital Entertainment.

[15]  Martin Kampel,et al.  Exergame Design Guidelines for Enhancing Elderly’s Physical and Social Activities , 2013 .

[16]  Chek Tien Tan,et al.  AUGMENTED REALITY GAMES: A REVIEW , 2010 .

[17]  Jakob Nielsen,et al.  Estimating the number of subjects needed for a thinking aloud test , 1994, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud..

[18]  J. B. Brooke,et al.  SUS: A 'Quick and Dirty' Usability Scale , 1996 .

[19]  Kathrin Maria Gerling,et al.  Exergame design for elderly users: the case study of SilverBalance , 2010, Advances in Computer Entertainment Technology.