ElderGames to Stimulate Aging Mental Skills

Multiple cameras are mounted on risers at the corners of the table and players use special handheld pointers that indicate their moves or choices. The cameras and pointers allow real players to interact naturally with the virtual world on the display.

The result is a comfortable table with graceful bays on all sides which make it easy for players to reach anywhere on the large plasma or LCD display that makes up most of the table’s surface.

Different Games for Different Skills

Working with a variety of experts, they homed in on a set of important mental abilities that are most affected by ageing:

• The ability to maintain and direct one’s attention
• Executive functions such as planning, problem-solving and decision-making
• Fine motor skills
• Memory

They analyzed hundreds of games to find ones that engage key mental skills, that could be played interactively, and that were challenging and enjoyable enough to entice players to play again.

The result is a suite of 20 games that seniors or caregivers can select, which together exercise all of the targeted skills.

The researchers also developed software that tracks the functioning of each player over time, with the aim of providing caregivers with an early warning of potentially serious cognitive changes.

Trials have shown that the ElderGames system benefits seniors in a variety of ways such as promoting active, healthy aging.

Play and Leisure = Life Satisfaction

Monitoring and Assessment for Professionals

Even though the elderly players know that their performance is being tracked, they are relaxed and responding naturally, in contrast to their performance in anxiety-provoking clinical testing situations.

Read more at: www.sciencedaily.com

ElderGames Project
Malena Fabregat / Francisco Ibáñez
Phone: +34 965554475
Fax: +34965554490
e-mail: eldergames@aiju.info
www.eldergames.org