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Serious Games and Extended Reality in Healthcare

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Dear Colleagues,

We are delighted to announce a forthcoming Special Issue in Applied Sciences, focusing on the transformative applications of serious games and extended reality (XR) within the realms of healthcare. In an era characterized by rapid technological advancements, these immersive technologies have shown remarkable potential to revolutionize the way we approach health wellness.

Scope and Focus

In recent years, the landscape of healthcare has been revolutionized by the integration of innovative technologies. Serious games and XR have become pivotal tools that transcend traditional boundaries in healthcare. This Special Issue aims to showcase the latest research, advancements, and innovative implementations of these technologies in addressing various challenges in this sector.

Specifically, these technologies have the potential to engage users, simulate real-world scenarios, and facilitate immersive environments that foster skill development, decision-making, and critical thinking. We welcome original research articles, reviews, case studies, and evaluation studies that shed light on the latest advancements, challenges, and potential solutions within this exciting domain.

This Special Issue provides a unique platform for researchers, healthcare professionals, and technologists to exchange ideas, share their expertise, and shape the future of healthcare through the integration of cutting-edge technologies.

Topics of interest include (but are not limited to) the following:

Applications of serious games: present studies demonstrating the efficacy or validation of serious games for healthcare applications.
Extended reality: examine the integration of XR in healthcare settings, including (but not limited to) its role in patient rehabilitation or medical visualization.
Innovative healthcare: investigate the design, implementation, and assessment of immersive learning experiences through serious games and XR in formal and informal healthcare settings. Some examples include (but are not limited to) the sharing of novel approaches to develop simulations that bridge the gap between theory and practice, fostering experiential learning and clinical training.
Gamification of healthcare: examine the integration of game elements and mechanics in healthcare contexts to enhance engagement, motivation, and knowledge retention. Discuss user interfaces, interaction techniques, and usability aspects within serious games and immersive environments.

We look forward to receiving your contributions that will undoubtedly contribute to the advancement of knowledge at the intersection of serious games and extended reality in healthcare.

Dr. Chen Huei Leo
Guest Editor

Dr. Bina Rai
Guest Editor Assistant

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. Applied Sciences 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 2400 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.

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28 pages, 6881 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Engagement Analysis Using Electroencephalography Signals in Games for Hand Rehabilitation with Dynamic and Random Difficulty Adjustments

by Raúl Daniel García-Ramón, Ericka Janet Rechy-Ramirez, Luz María Alonso-Valerdi and Antonio Marin-Hernandez

Appl. Sci. 2024, 14(18), 8464; https://doi.org/10.3390/app14188464 - 20 Sep 2024

Abstract

Background: Traditional physical rehabilitation involves participants performing repetitive body movements with the assistance of physiotherapists. Owing to the exercises’ monotonous nature and lack of reward, participants may become disinterested and cease their recovery. Games could be used as tools to engage participants in the rehabilitation process. Consequently, participants could perform rehabilitation exercises while playing the game, receiving rewards from the experience. Maintaining the players’ engagement requires regularly adjusting the game difficulty. The players’ engagement can be measured using questionnaires and biosignals (e.g., electroencephalography signals—EEG). This study aims to determine whether there is a significant difference in players’ engagement between two game modes with different game difficulty adjustments: non-tailored and tailored modes. Methods: We implemented two game modes which were controlled using hand movements. The features of the game rewards (position and size) were changed in the game scene; hence, the game difficulty could be modified. The non-tailored mode set the features of rewards in the game scene randomly. Conversely, the tailored mode set the features of rewards in the game scene based on the participants’ range of motion using fuzzy logic. Consequently, the game difficulty was adjusted dynamically. Additionally, engagement was computed from 53 healthy participants in both game modes using two EEG sensors: Bitalino Revolution and Unicorn. Specifically, the theta (θ) and alpha (α) bands from the frontal and parietal lobes were computed from the EEG data. A questionnaire was applied to participants after finishing playing both game modes to collect their impressions on the following: their favorite game mode, the game mode that was the easiest to play, the game mode that was the least frustrating to play, the game mode that was the least boring to play, the game mode that was the most entertaining to play, and the game mode that had the fastest game response time. Results: The non-tailored game mode reported the following means of engagement: 6.297 ± 11.274 using the Unicorn sensor, and 3.616 ± 0.771 using the Bitalino sensor. The tailored game mode reported the following means of engagement: 4.408 ± 6.243 using the Unicorn sensor, and 3.619 ± 0.551 using Bitalino. The non-tailored mode reported the highest mean engagement (6.297) when the Unicorn sensor was used to collect EEG signals. Most participants selected the non-tailored game mode as their favorite, and the most entertaining mode, irrespective of the EEG sensor. Conversely, most participants chose the tailored game mode as the easiest, and the least frustrating mode to play, irrespective of the EEG sensor. Conclusions: A Wilcoxon-Signed-Rank test revealed that there was only a significant difference in engagement between game modes when the EEG signal was collected via the Unicorn sensor (p value = 0.04054). Fisher’s exact tests showed significant associations between the game modes (non-tailored, tailored) and the following players’ variables: ease of play using the Unicorn sensor (p value = 0.009341), and frustration using Unicorn sensor (p value = 0.0466). Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Serious Games and Extended Reality in Healthcare)

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