Development of Serious Game and Integrated Management Service Model for the Cognitive Rehabilitation

Cognitive impairment that can be caused by brain disorders or aging affects quality of life by interfering with abilities to perform activities of daily living (ADL). For this reason, this study developed serious games for the purpose of rehabilitation and proposes an integrated management service model that can recommend the difficulty level of games and manage changes in serious results according to user’s cognitive function ability during rehabilitation. The areas of cognitive training are designed in consideration of game elements in relation to attention, concentration, memory, orientation, executive function and ADL. Based on the analysis results, we established a database for recommendation of game level in the next training session. Attention is further subdivided into selective, sustained and divided attention. Memory is subcategorized into topological memory, associative memory, verbal memory, immediate memory, visual short-term memory, working memory and recall memory. Executive function is classified into inhibitory control, cognitive flexibility and working memory. ADL includes physical ADL and instrumental ADL. This model comprises a total of 19 serious games for cognitive rehabilitation and each game consists of 3 levels of increasing difficulty. Game interface is created with a user-centered design which focuses on visualization for elderly-friendly use. Our integrated management service model for cognitive rehabilitation can provide training on cognitive function in different areas as a single program and recommend the difficulty level of games depending on player’s ability.