Browsing by Author "Vieira, Catarina Matos"
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- Serious games for physical rehabilitation: aesthetic discrepancies between custom-made serious games and commercial titles used for healthcarePublication . Kunz, Sahra; Vieira, Catarina MatosSerious games are videogames that are used with purposes that go beyond the mere entertainment of the player. Among their many applications, healthcare is one of the most prominent ones, as serious games can have a wide range of applications within this field. One of the core uses of serious games in this area is for physical rehabilitation of patients. For this purpose, both custom-made serious games as well as commercial entertainment titles, such as those for Nintendo Wii, can be used. However, while custom-made serious games appear to be more clinically effective, patients seem to prefer the gaming experience of playing a commercial title. This paper aims to compare the game goals as well as the aesthetics of Wii Sports (a commercial title commonly used in the context of physical rehabilitation) with the visual aesthetic and goals of custom-made serious games that have obtained clinically significant results in upper limb rehabilitation, in order to try and understand what can be done in terms of videogame graphics and aesthetics to bridge the gap between these two approaches.
- Study and development of custom “serious games” for patients and usersPublication . Vieira, Catarina Matos; Perrotta, André Venturoti; Novais, JoãoVideo games are part of our culture and permeate several segments of society, from casual entertainment to serious purposes. This research work focuses on the latter, more specifically on the use of Serious Games in the healthcare context. In this sense, Serious Games have been researched through clinical studies, implemented to improve several conditions and have already proved to be efficient and valid, especially due to their ability to captivate and motivate the patient. With this in mind, this research explored the use of Serious Games for physical rehabilitation of stroke impaired patients and how this approach could be implemented in the Portuguese healthcare system. The research started with a thorough literature review of the validity and effectiveness of the use of Serious Games for this type of patients. Then, through surveys and interviews with healthcare professionals and game developers, the main barriers to the implementation and development of Serious Games for physical rehabilitation were accessed. Posteriorly, the feasibility of implementing a business model for this specific niche (in Portugal) was evaluated through a market analysis, abridging social, economic, political and technological aspects that culminated in the design of several hypothetical scenarios that envisioned the possibility of making this approach work. This research allowed to achieve an understanding of what needs to be overcome in order for this technique to be successful: Serious Games are still widely unknown among healthcare professionals and there is an underlying stigma against video games that clouds the possible benefits of using Serious Games. Moreover, the social context of future users will also determine their acceptance and compliance. Nevertheless, the research has evidenced that the implementation of this paradigm is economically viable as it would indirectly allow the monetization of rehabilitation therapies by making them available to a larger slice of the disabled population, which is of utmost importance, mainly during the times we currently live in.
- Understanding anime - visual iconography as a mirror of Japanese culturePublication . Kunz, Sahra; Vieira, Catarina MatosAnime is commonly known as a Japanese animation style pervaded with a particular visual language and iconography that is frequently used to convey emotions, thoughts, feelings, moods or needs – in short, subtext. In order to get a full understanding of anime, it is imperative to become familiar with this non-verbal language. This visual language was born from various elements that shaped Japanese culture, as well as etiquette and how one should express one’s emotions or innermost thoughts. We will attempt to understand the cultural aspects behind the emergence of this iconography as well as how the Japanese position themselves when it comes to expression of emotions or feelings, and how these beliefs transfer to the non-verbal language of anime, through the analysis of examples of where this iconography is used. We also aim to explore the meaning behind the most common stylized expressions found in anime characters, analyzing a broad range of examples from anime of different genres and three different decades, exploring the way how they have evolved over the years while to trying to understand why they are still relevant nowadays.