Design and Evaluation of an Interactive Exercise Coaching System for Older Adults: Lessons Learned

Although the positive effects of exercise on the well-being and quality of independent living for older adults are well accepted, many elderly individuals lack access to exercise facilities, or the skills and motivation to perform exercise at home. To provide a more engaging environment that promote...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE journal of biomedical and health informatics 2016-01, Vol.20 (1), p.201-212
Main Authors: Ofli, Ferda, Kurillo, Gregorij, Obdrzalek, Stepan, Bajcsy, Ruzena, Jimison, Holly Brugge, Pavel, Misha
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Atmospheric measurements
Automation
Biomedical measurement
Cameras
Durability
Elderly people
Endurance
Exercise
Exercise Therapy - instrumentation
Exercise Therapy - methods
Feedback
Female
Fitness application
Geriatrics
gerontechnology
Humans
Informatics
Interactive
interactive exercise
Kinect
Male
Old people
older adults
online coaching
Particle measurements
Physical fitness
Pilot Projects
Position measurement
Real-time systems
Risk
User-Computer Interface
Video Games
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Summary:Although the positive effects of exercise on the well-being and quality of independent living for older adults are well accepted, many elderly individuals lack access to exercise facilities, or the skills and motivation to perform exercise at home. To provide a more engaging environment that promotes physical activity, various fitness applications have been proposed. Many of the available products, however, are geared toward a younger population and are not appropriate or engaging for an older population. To address these issues, we developed an automated interactive exercise coaching system using the Microsoft Kinect. The coaching system guides users through a series of video exercises, tracks and measures their movements, provides real-time feedback, and records their performance over time. Our system consists of exercises to improve balance, flexibility, strength, and endurance, with the aim of reducing fall risk and improving performance of daily activities. In this paper, we report on the development of the exercise system, discuss the results of our recent field pilot study with six independently living elderly individuals, and highlight the lessons learned relating to the in-home system setup, user tracking, feedback, and exercise performance evaluation.
ISSN:2168-2194
2168-2208
DOI:10.1109/JBHI.2015.2391671