Validação do sensor Leap Motion Controller para o desenvolvimento de um jogo sério para a reabilitação virtual do antebraço humano

Abstract

Rehabilitation therapy is the treatment of people with physical disabilities through continuous exercises, assisting them in their quality of life. However, the repetitive nature of these exercises can be interpreted as boring or discouraging, and patient motivation plays a key role in their recovery because it makes the process more tolerable. The virtual rehabilitation, which is therapy based on the use of serious games, came up with the goal of providing a local or remote intervention, through virtual reality devices. Serious games, whose primary purpose is not entertainment, have been widely used in therapies motivating patients and making the entire therapeutic process more enjoyable. The Leap Motion Controller is a device capable of tracking the user's hands and has been the object of study in several researches in the field of virtual rehabilitation. This dissertation presents the development of a serious game with the focus on virtual rehabilitation of the human forearm. Initially the experimental validation of the device was made in order to verify the feasibility of its use in rehabilitation therapy. From the observed results, considerations were made about its use in a serious game for this purpose. Following are the stages of the development of the serious game "You Can Cook Again", starting from its motivation, conception, showing the mechanisms developed for the best use of the game by the patient.