A new system for helping recovering stroke victims was unveiled at Nottingham’s GameCity Squared festival, based on computer games.

Key to the festival’s Interactive Technologies seminars was the Nintendo Wii. Its technology allows innovators to create devices for use in post-stroke rehabilitation, and Nottingham Trent University Professor Stephen Battersby has done just that with his ‘Wii Glove’ – a hand-mounted peripheral that uses the hardware from a Wiimote controller and fingertip-mounted LED ‘Finger Mice’ to track the movement of a patients hand.

The idea behind the Wii Glove was initiated in the simple theory of making interactive rehabilitation systems at a low cost. ‘Current systems use sophisticated and expensive equipment. Can we use conventional game systems for the same benefits?’ asked Battersby. The answer is clearly yes, as Battersby’s software (based on the .xna platform) is a breakthrough in grasp/release rehabilitation exercises, with the hardware costs being little more than that of a Wiimote – just £35. Whilst more man hours and money has to go into dismantling and re-engineering the Glove from the components of the Wii hardware, this is still significantly cheaper than expensive bespoke medical systems, and more importantly could be used at home.

With stroke victims often being of an older age, the designers were quizzed by the audience as to if computer games were a suitable mode of rehabilitation. The team were quick to respond, saying of their trial patients: ‘They love using the technology; I don’t see that as a limiting factor’.