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Sensors in Serious Games for Health

A special issue of Sensors (ISSN 1424-8220). This special issue belongs to the section "Biomedical Sensors".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (9 December 2022) | Viewed by 19998

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
2Ai-School of Technology IPCA, 4750-810 Barcelos, Portugal
Interests: biomedical applications; medical sensors; medical imaging; artificial intelligence and robotics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
University of Wollongong, Dubai, United Arab Emirate
Interests: Cognitive Systems; Computational Thinking; Health Games

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Guest Editor
2Ai—Polytechnic Institute of Cávado and Ave, Barcelos, Portugal
Interests: image processing; pattern recognition; computer graphics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
University of Wollongong, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Interests: Computer Science; information behaviour; virtual/e-community; e-government; teleworking; community networks

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Guest Editor
1. INESC TEC, Porto, Portugal
2. 2Ai—School of Technology, IPCA, Barcelos, Portugal
Interests: cognitive systems; informatics; serious games
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Serious games are a relevant research field in several domains, with related applications mainly in health and healthcare, including rehabilitation, medical training and patient re-education. When pure digital games were initially proposed, the user feedback was limited, reducing the willingness of patients to accept this therapy/treatment option. To mitigate this limitation, the synergy between sensors and virtual and/or augmented reality is now a strong research topic. The aim of this Special Issue is to present the current developments in sensors for serious games. New prototypes, proof of concept of specific practical examples and exhaustive validation studies are of particular interest.

Authors of proceedings papers of SeGAH 2021, which will be held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, are therefore invited to submit extended versions of their papers with new input/angles to the Special Issue “Sensors in Serious Games for Health” of the journal Sensors—(ISSN 1424-8220; CODEN: SENSC9) with Impact Factor of 3.275. However, authors interested in extending their conference papers must be aware that the final submitted manuscript must provide a minimum of 50% new content and not exceed 30% copy/paste from the proceedings paper.

Prof. Dr. Pedro Morais
Prof. Dr. Hock Chuan Lim
Prof. Dr. João L. Vilaça
Prof. Dr. Duarte Duque
Prof. Dr. Shafiz Affendi Mohd Yusof
Prof. Dr. Nuno Dias
Prof. Dr. Nuno Rodrigues
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sensors is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • medical sensors
  • serious games
  • haptic feedback
  • virtual reality
  • augmented reality

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

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14 pages, 2124 KiB  
Article
Augmented Reality-Assisted Ultrasound Breast Biopsy
by Nuno Costa, Luís Ferreira, Augusto R. V. F. de Araújo, Bruno Oliveira, Helena R. Torres, Pedro Morais, Victor Alves and João L. Vilaça
Sensors 2023, 23(4), 1838; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/s23041838 - 07 Feb 2023
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2052
Abstract
Breast cancer is the most prevalent cancer in the world and the fifth-leading cause of cancer-related death. Treatment is effective in the early stages. Thus, a need to screen considerable portions of the population is crucial. When the screening procedure uncovers a suspect [...] Read more.
Breast cancer is the most prevalent cancer in the world and the fifth-leading cause of cancer-related death. Treatment is effective in the early stages. Thus, a need to screen considerable portions of the population is crucial. When the screening procedure uncovers a suspect lesion, a biopsy is performed to assess its potential for malignancy. This procedure is usually performed using real-time Ultrasound (US) imaging. This work proposes a visualization system for US breast biopsy. It consists of an application running on AR glasses that interact with a computer application. The AR glasses track the position of QR codes mounted on an US probe and a biopsy needle. US images are shown in the user’s field of view with enhanced lesion visualization and needle trajectory. To validate the system, latency of the transmission of US images was evaluated. Usability assessment compared our proposed prototype with a traditional approach with different users. It showed that needle alignment was more precise, with 92.67 ± 2.32° in our prototype versus 89.99 ± 37.49° in a traditional system. The users also reached the lesion more accurately. Overall, the proposed solution presents promising results, and the use of AR glasses as a tracking and visualization device exhibited good performance. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sensors in Serious Games for Health)
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20 pages, 14887 KiB  
Article
Investigating Visual Perception Impairments through Serious Games and Eye Tracking to Anticipate Handwriting Difficulties
by Chiara Piazzalunga, Linda Greta Dui, Cristiano Termine, Marisa Bortolozzo, Matteo Matteucci and Simona Ferrante
Sensors 2023, 23(4), 1765; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/s23041765 - 04 Feb 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1953
Abstract
Dysgraphia is a learning disability that causes handwritten production below expectations. Its diagnosis is delayed until the completion of handwriting development. To allow a preventive training program, abilities not directly related to handwriting should be evaluated, and one of them is visual perception. [...] Read more.
Dysgraphia is a learning disability that causes handwritten production below expectations. Its diagnosis is delayed until the completion of handwriting development. To allow a preventive training program, abilities not directly related to handwriting should be evaluated, and one of them is visual perception. To investigate the role of visual perception in handwriting skills, we gamified standard clinical visual perception tests to be played while wearing an eye tracker at three difficulty levels. Then, we identified children at risk of dysgraphia through the means of a handwriting speed test. Five machine learning models were constructed to predict if the child was at risk, using the CatBoost algorithm with Nested Cross-Validation, with combinations of game performance, eye-tracking, and drawing data as predictors. A total of 53 children participated in the study. The machine learning models obtained good results, particularly with game performances as predictors (F1 score: 0.77 train, 0.71 test). SHAP explainer was used to identify the most impactful features. The game reached an excellent usability score (89.4 ± 9.6). These results are promising to suggest a new tool for dysgraphia early screening based on visual perception skills. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sensors in Serious Games for Health)
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19 pages, 6100 KiB  
Article
A Multimodal Approach for Real Time Recognition of Engagement towards Adaptive Serious Games for Health
by Konstantinos Mitsis, Konstantia Zarkogianni, Eleftherios Kalafatis, Kalliopi Dalakleidi, Amyn Jaafar, Georgios Mourkousis and Konstantina S. Nikita
Sensors 2022, 22(7), 2472; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/s22072472 - 23 Mar 2022
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 2168
Abstract
In this article, an unobtrusive and affordable sensor-based multimodal approach for real time recognition of engagement in serious games (SGs) for health is presented. This approach aims to achieve individualization in SGs that promote self-health management. The feasibility of the proposed approach was [...] Read more.
In this article, an unobtrusive and affordable sensor-based multimodal approach for real time recognition of engagement in serious games (SGs) for health is presented. This approach aims to achieve individualization in SGs that promote self-health management. The feasibility of the proposed approach was investigated by designing and implementing an experimental process focusing on real time recognition of engagement. Twenty-six participants were recruited and engaged in sessions with a SG that promotes food and nutrition literacy. Data were collected during play from a heart rate sensor, a smart chair, and in-game metrics. Perceived engagement, as an approximation to the ground truth, was annotated continuously by participants. An additional group of six participants were recruited for smart chair calibration purposes. The analysis was conducted in two directions, firstly investigating associations between identified sitting postures and perceived engagement, and secondly evaluating the predictive capacity of features extracted from the multitude of sources towards the ground truth. The results demonstrate significant associations and predictive capacity from all investigated sources, with a multimodal feature combination displaying superiority over unimodal features. These results advocate for the feasibility of real time recognition of engagement in adaptive serious games for health by using the presented approach. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sensors in Serious Games for Health)
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Review

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47 pages, 14949 KiB  
Review
Augmented Reality, Serious Games and Picture Exchange Communication System for People with ASD: Systematic Literature Review and Future Directions
by Haneen Almurashi, Rahma Bouaziz, Wallaa Alharthi, Mohammed Al-Sarem, Mohammed Hadwan and Slim Kammoun
Sensors 2022, 22(3), 1250; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/s22031250 - 07 Feb 2022
Cited by 19 | Viewed by 7034
Abstract
For people with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), using technological tools, such as augmented reality (AR) and serious games remain a new and unexplored option. To attract people with ASD who have communicative, social, emotional and attention deficit disorders to behavioral treatments, an attractive [...] Read more.
For people with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), using technological tools, such as augmented reality (AR) and serious games remain a new and unexplored option. To attract people with ASD who have communicative, social, emotional and attention deficit disorders to behavioral treatments, an attractive environment is needed that ensures continuity during treatment. The aim of the current work is to efficiently examine systematic reviews and relevant primary studies on ASD solutions from 2015 to 2020, particularly those using the traditional Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS), the application of augmented reality and those that propose serious games, thereby providing an overview of existing evidence and to identify strategies for future research. Five databases were searched for keywords that may be included within the broad Autism Spectrum Disorder ‘ASD’ umbrella term, alongside ‘augmented reality’, ‘serious games’ and ‘PECS’. We screened 1799 titles and abstracts, read, and retained 12 reviews and 43 studies. The studies scrutinized in our systematic review were examined to answer four primary and four sub-research questions, which we formulated to better understand general trends in the use of approaches for attracting people with ASD to behavioral therapies. Additionally, our systematic review also presents ongoing issues in this area of research and suggests promising future research directions. Our review is useful to researchers in this field as it facilitates the comparison of existing studies with work currently being conducted, based on the availability of a wide range of studies in three different areas (AR, SG and PECS). Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sensors in Serious Games for Health)
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Other

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9 pages, 2067 KiB  
Brief Report
Can Immersive Virtual Reality Videogames Help Parkinson’s Disease Patients? A Case Study
by Pablo Campo-Prieto, Gustavo Rodríguez-Fuentes and José Mª Cancela-Carral
Sensors 2021, 21(14), 4825; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/s21144825 - 15 Jul 2021
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 5085
Abstract
Video games have proven useful in physical rehabilitation therapy. Accessibility, however, is limited for some groups such as the elderly or patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD). We explore the potential of fully immersive video games as a rehabilitation tool in PD patients. Four [...] Read more.
Video games have proven useful in physical rehabilitation therapy. Accessibility, however, is limited for some groups such as the elderly or patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD). We explore the potential of fully immersive video games as a rehabilitation tool in PD patients. Four patients with mild-moderate PD (3 males:1 female, 53–71 years) participated in the study. Training consisted in two immersive virtual reality video gaming sessions. Outcomes were evaluated using System Usability Scale (SUS), Simulator Sickness Questionnaire (SSQ), Game Experience Questionnaire-post game (GEQ), an ad hoc satisfaction questionnaire and perceived effort. All participants completed the sessions without adverse effects (100%), without SSQ symptoms reported. Post-gaming SUS was >75% in both sessions (range 75–80%). Post-gaming GEQ scores were 3.3–4.0/4 in both sessions. Immersive virtual reality video gaming is feasible in patients with mild-moderate PD, with positive usability and patient satisfaction, and no adverse effects. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sensors in Serious Games for Health)
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