“Elements: Art and Play in a Multi-modal Interactive Workspace for Upper Limb Movement Rehabilitation.” presented by Duckworth, Wilson, Mumford, Eldridge, Thomas, et al. …
Symposium:
Session Title:
- Between Art and Science 1
Presentation Title:
- Elements: Art and Play in a Multi-modal Interactive Workspace for Upper Limb Movement Rehabilitation.
Presenter(s):
Venue(s):
Abstract:
This paper will discuss the aims and outcomes of an arts and science research collaboration to design a multi-modal interactive media art work titled Elements. The Elements environment aims to aid clinicians rehabilitate upper-limb movement in patients with Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) attending Epworth Hospital, Melbourne. TBI refers to a cerebral injury caused by external physical force. The physical trauma can lead to a variety of physical, cognitive, emotional and behavioral deficits for TBI patients. These four deficits can combine to create psychosocial problems that may have long lasting and devastating consequences for the victims and their families. The use of interactive screen based technology in movement rehabilitation presents a number of creative challenges, and may assist TBI patients to regain basic mobility skills through action and play.
With the emergence of mobile computing and Tangible User Interfaces (TUIs), digital environments are able to transcend the “flat world” of the computer display screen and become part of the user’s physical space. Our conceptual approach has blended (ecological) motor learning theory with an embodied view of interaction design to inform the way we conceive of the relationship between performer and workspace. By focusing on the patients perceived affordances for action and play our design seeks to provide an interaction aesthetic coupled to perception, participation, control and response as durable aspects of agency.
The Elements environment consists of a horizontal tabletop graphics display, a vision-based passive marker tracking system, and Tangible User Interfaces (TUIs) as a means of integrating performance and play. The TUIs incorporate low cost sensor technology to track movement that in turn, mediates the form of interaction between performer and environment. Each TUI design provides tactility, texture, and audio visual feedback to entice patients to explore there own movement capabilities in a self directed fashion.
