Medical Design and Outsourcing

  • Home
  • Medical Device Business
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Financial
    • Regulatory
  • Applications
    • Cardiovascular
    • Devices
    • Imaging
    • Implantables
    • Medical Equipment
    • Orthopedic
    • Surgical
  • Technologies
    • Contract Manufacturing
    • Components
    • Electronics
    • Extrusions
    • Materials
    • Motion Control
    • Prototyping
    • Pumps
    • Tubing
  • Med Tech Resources
    • DeviceTalks Tuesdays
    • Digital Editions
    • eBooks
    • Manufacturer Search
    • Medical Device Handbook
    • MedTech 100 Index
    • Podcasts
    • Print Subscription
    • The Big 100
    • Webinars / Digital Events
    • Whitepapers
    • Video
  • 2022 Leadership in MedTech
    • 2022 Leadership Voting!
    • 2021 Winners
    • 2020 Winners
  • Women in Medtech

Gaming Platform May Improve Orofacial Mobility in Young Cerebral Palsy Patients

March 15, 2016 By Universidad Politécnica de Madrid

Researchers from UPM and URJC have created a platform made up of diverse games that will allow children with neurological disorders to rehabilitate orofacial disorders.

SONRÍE is a system of therapy for children with cerebral palsy that has been developed by a multidisciplinary team of female researchers from Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM) and Universidad Rey Juan Carlos (URJC). By using a kinect 360 sensor, they created a set of games in order to detect different facial gestures: whoosh, eyebrows raised, kiss and smile aiming, firstly, to achieve greater detection accuracy, and secondly, a therapeutic improvement in facial movement.

“Sonríe” games: (1) eyebrows raised , (2) kiss, (3) smile and (4) whoosh.

Cerebral palsy is a brain condition essentially characterized by a persistent, though not invariable, disorder of tone, posture and movement. This condition, which appears in early childhood, is a non-evolutionary brain injury that triggers a huge influence on the neurological maturation of the affected subject.

The diverse affections suffered by children with brain palsy make hard, or even impossible, to perform daily activities such as get dressed, tidy up, eat, going to school or even walk or talk. In order to help these children to talk, gesticulate and even eat properly, it is essential to perform facial rehabilitation exercises that allow them to improve the right execution of diverse movements of the face.

Drugs and rehabilitation treatments are increasingly using new technologies, since they allow us to build more attractive solutions for patients. In the case of children, new technologies allow them to play with intuitive, stimulating and therapeutic games.

According to the participating researchers, María Luisa Martín Ruiz and Estefanía Sampedro Sánchez, from UPM, and Nuria Máximo Bocanegra and Laura Luna Oliva, from URJC, “the game is a tool that a kid can use it from birth, both for fun and to learn. The usage of this tool can help children with their physical and neurological development”. In this way, SONRÍE is a set of four games designed for children with brain palsy.

A kinect 360 sensor has been used to develop SONRÍE system. This sensor is a motion capture device manufactured by Microsoft whose initial goal was to play with an Xbox 360 videogame without commanders, and to use a natural user interface that recognizes gestures, voice commands and, what it is more, the human body and facial points.

The facial gestures that are stimulated through games on SONRÍE are four: raise eyebrows, blow, kiss and smile. The developed games aim to explore and then to work with the muscles responsible for each gesture involved, thus achieving an improvement of the facial movements.

The repetition of these gestures can provide new learning and new patterns of brain activity. Besides, this tool allows children to be an active part of the process thus contributing to the improvement of their self-esteem and personal satisfaction.

Although these games have been developed for children with cerebral palsy, SONRÍE could adapt to other children with different diseases that affect both tone and muscle control such as Down syndrome Moebius, syndrome or dystrophies, among others. In addition, by modifying the virtual system environment, this tool could also be applied to adults.

People with facial palsy, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, head trauma or stroke with facial involvement could use this system to improve their mobility of orofacial musculature contributing to a better quality of life of these people and their families. To conclude, combining technology and health is the right way to follow today.

Related Articles Read More >

DeepWell Digital Therapeutics Mike Wilson Ryan Douglas
How DeepWell is developing video games as tools for treating medical conditions
A woman with a small, handheld device in her lap with tubes that look like earphones plugged into her ears.
Ear-puffing device for migraine treatment wins FDA breakthrough designation
Abbott
Abbott launches upgraded digital health app for neurostimulation
Catheter delivery could enable better brain implants: Synchron’s neuroscience chief explains how

DeviceTalks Weekly.

May 13, 2022
Our Pre-Post-DeviceTalks Boston episode, also MedtronicTalks replay with Gastro CMO Austin Chiang
See More >

MDO Digital Edition

Digital Edition

Subscribe to Medical Design & Outsourcing. Bookmark, share and interact with the leading medical design engineering magazine today.

MEDTECH 100 INDEX

Medtech 100 logo
Market Summary > Current Price
The MedTech 100 is a financial index calculated using the BIG100 companies covered in Medical Design and Outsourcing.
DeviceTalks

DeviceTalks is a conversation among medical technology leaders. It's events, podcasts, webinars and one-on-one exchanges of ideas & insights.

DeviceTalks

New MedTech Resource

Medical Tubing

Enewsletter Subscriptions

Enewsletter Subscriptions

MassDevice

Mass Device

The Medical Device Business Journal. MassDevice is the leading medical device news business journal telling the stories of the devices that save lives.

Visit Website
MDO ad
Medical Design and Outsourcing
  • MassDevice
  • DeviceTalks
  • MedTech 100 Index
  • Medical Tubing + Extrusion
  • Drug Delivery Business News
  • Drug Discovery & Development
  • Pharmaceutical Processing World
  • R&D World
  • About Us/Contact
  • Advertise With Us
  • Subscribe to Print Magazine
  • Subscribe to E-newsletter
  • Attend our Monthly Webinars
  • Listen to our Weekly Podcasts
  • Join our DeviceTalks Tuesdays Discussion

Copyright © 2022 WTWH Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Site Map | Privacy Policy | RSS

Search Medical Design & Outsourcing

  • Home
  • Medical Device Business
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Financial
    • Regulatory
  • Applications
    • Cardiovascular
    • Devices
    • Imaging
    • Implantables
    • Medical Equipment
    • Orthopedic
    • Surgical
  • Technologies
    • Contract Manufacturing
    • Components
    • Electronics
    • Extrusions
    • Materials
    • Motion Control
    • Prototyping
    • Pumps
    • Tubing
  • Med Tech Resources
    • DeviceTalks Tuesdays
    • Digital Editions
    • eBooks
    • Manufacturer Search
    • Medical Device Handbook
    • MedTech 100 Index
    • Podcasts
    • Print Subscription
    • The Big 100
    • Webinars / Digital Events
    • Whitepapers
    • Video
  • 2022 Leadership in MedTech
    • 2022 Leadership Voting!
    • 2021 Winners
    • 2020 Winners
  • Women in Medtech