Bibliographic details and abstracts are available to all. Downloads of full-text dissertations are restricted to University of Portsmouth members who must login. MPhils may be accessed by all.

Abstract

This project investigates use of games technologies in five motor and cognitive therapy areas and has included a literature review, a case study on learning and behavioural conditions of childhood, work experience in a leading neurotherapeutics research laboratory and a survey to collect evidence from practitioners on the effectiveness of games technology in therapies in hospital, clinical and educational settings.
There is strong supporting evidence that games technology enables increased therapy time per patient, increases patient engagement, improves patient outcomes, lowers therapy cost, makes the therapy easier to access for the patient and easier to administer for the therapist. Commercial games hardware and software plus therapy using game design principles enable home therapy. Mobile technologies facilitate general health and well-being therapies whilst development of web-based apps for specific conditions extend their global reach.
Current research utilising the capabilities of immersive VR technology indicates an opportunity to revolutionise mental healthcare. VR on low-cost HMDs offers further opportunities for holistic healing using virtual restorative environments, for pain management and to bring outside world experiences into the hospital ward to aid patient recovery. However, there is some mismatch in timescales between technology development and the pace of adoption in bringing successful new VR therapy into widespread use. The promise of new generation VR based therapies is huge. Collaborative initiatives to generate centralised thinking on creation and validation of interventions in this field and promote collaboration on large-scale research efforts, together with university research group joint ventures with spinout companies and therapy technology start-ups, will assist delivery of the promise.

Course: Computer Games Technology - BSc (Hons) - C1671

Date Deposited: 2019-11-18

URI/permalink: https://library.port.ac.uk/dissert/dis13406.html