A toolkit for motion authoring and motor skill learning in serious games

Trainers and therapists provide critical support and guidance as individuals undergo long-term exercise programs. Unfortunately, without this guidance, individuals who undergo home therapy or training are unable to determine whether or not they are making meaningful progress, and, as a result, many give up prior to completion of their programs. To address these issues, the authors propose a toolkit for the design of games that support motor skill learning and relearning consisting of three main components: (1) an “intelligent stick” hardware interface, (2) motion authoring software for the design of new motion patterns, and (3) a framework for mapping elements of game design to skill learning. Prototypes for the first two components have been developed, and results from an initial usability study involving 9 participants are presented and discussed.