RE-Play: An exploration of game induced exercise promotion in clinical use

Children with motor deficiencies often find themselves unable to take part in physical activities with their peers. As a result of this, these children will often become less active overall than neurotypical children, which can in turn cause additional health problems. The Roessingh Centre for Revalidation provides these children the opportunity to take part in a group-based rehabilitation program, where the children can play and be active during weekly therapy sessions. Outside of these weekly sessions, however, the children often remain inactive. This research is aimed at investigating the opportunities provided by combining wearable sensors with an interactive playground, to create a system that can respond to the physical activity measured during the week before the therapy session in such a way that it can be used during the therapy sessions to evaluate and encourage physical activity. Two existing games have been adapted to better suit these therapy sessions, in addition to a new third game being developed. This new game can analyse and respond to data recorded by the wearable sensors during the week prior to the therapy session, and reward players for achieving their activity goals for that week.