Ageing is often associated with cognitive and motor decline, which affects the quality of life of the elderly. Many previous studies have demonstrated that it is possible to improve cognitive function with the use of dual-task training. Dual-tasking is defined as the combination of motor and cognitive tasks, such as, walking while counting backwards. Naturally, improvements differ with the type of training tasks. While positive results have been reported, more research is required to uncover which types of dual-task training is most effective.
Dual-task training during therapy have tradionally been performed face-to-face during individual or group settings. Due to the advancement in technologies, it is becoming more common to utilise exercise-based computer games, also known as exergames, for dual-task training. If proven effective, this has a lot of potential to be implemented unsupervised, during home-based therapy; Home-based rehabilitation opens the opportunity for a cost-effective and convenient environment for the patients to recover.
In this study, participants were asked to play a computer game with the upper-limb H-MAN robot (with haptic feedback). The game represents a flower shop in which the participants were required to serve a number of customers by retrieving the required item (plant/flower) from a shelf and delivering it to the correct customer. There are two aspects to this exergame:
- cognitive task in which the participant is required to remember the item ordered, as well as the sequence in which the customers arrived.
- motor task in which the participant is required to navigate around the flower shop without colliding with shelves or objects placed throughout the shop.
All participants will undergo:
- initial assessment: play the exergame with zero haptic intervention (ie., no assistance, no challenge)
- trial period: play the exergame with haptic intervention (errorful/errorless mode)
- final assessment: play the exergame with zero haptic intervention
Initial and final assessments will be compared to determine any motor or cognitive improvements.
Thus, one objective here is to investigate the effect of a single haptic intervention in an exergame that combines both cognitive and motor skills training.
Metrics of interest
A service event is defined as the start of the customer order till order delivery by the participant. The basic metrics to determine the performance of the participant are:
- mean speed of movement
- ratio of mean speed over maximum speed
- mean total collision
- mean error rate
| notebook | description |
|---|---|
| extract_data_one | extract data of one trial |
| extract_data_grp | extract data and summarise across several trials of ONE participant |
| plot_trials | plot assessments/trials of ONE participant |
| summary_trials | compare performance in assessment trials of ALL participants |
| summary_imi | incomplete segregation/analysis of IMI scores |
| Tableau | sample dashboard of one participant |
| preprint | preprint of early-stage research |