KiMentia: Kinect based tool to help cognitive stimulation for individuals with dementia

摘要

Exercise the brain and perform physical activities slow cognitive impairment and help optimize brain functions, especially memory and thinking. This tool focuses on therapeutic aspects of both cognitive and physical stimulation of the elderly, that is, it improves the memory by performing mental activities and physical exercise at the same time. To achieve this, a Kinect based Windows application has been developed intended specifically to improve the language area of the brain function. While performing mental activities the user must resolve them by doing various physical motions. KiMentia uses skeletal tracking to capture the body movements, enabling users to control and interact with the computer without any intermediary controller. Furthermore, all the data generated during the session is stored in order to log every rehabilitation activity. Preliminary tests have shown an increase in the users' motivation while using the tool forgetting that it focuses on the cognitive stimulation. In a future research, the results from a long period study will be reported describing the cognitive performance of the patients.