A child taking their first steps is a monumental accomplishment in any family, even more so when that child has a physical disability limiting their ability to balance and coordinate.  This story hits home to me, as I have Cerebral Palsy and spent many hours in the physiotherapy gym learning to walk and strength train.  Students from Rice University were given a challenge to create a fun game environment for children with balance impairments that would encourage them to walk without the use of their balance aids for under $5000.  The students say that the Wii Balance Board was the obvious solution, but that the handrails had to be engineered specifically.   “All we were given was a problem and we had to come up with the solution ourselves.” Said Drew Berger of the Equiliberator Team “From the very beginning it seemed fairly clear we would be using the Wii Balance boards for the balance in their feet but we had to come up with a solution all on our own for the balance in their hands.  We went back to the basics… and designed a completely novel sensor box that can give us all three dimensions of force.”

“The rules of game design still apply” Said Jesus Cortez.  The Equiliberator team wanted to design a game that was therapeutic and fun to play.  It incorporates game fundamentals such as encouraging the user to achieve a high score while at the same time helping to strengthen their core.

The Equiliberator uses five linked Wii Balance Boards and two pressure-sensitive handrails which are linked via Bluetooth and the information is transmitted to a PC based game where children smash monsters by walking forwards and backwards along the boards.  The game, much like other video games, increases in difficulty as the player’s skill increases.  What makes this extremely unique is the fact that it is also constantly determining how much the player is relying on the handrails during gameplay and the score reflects this to motivate children to increase their balance without support.  The Equiliberator team best puts it: “Tracking of progress will be seen in the form of force and torque by the physician, but in the form of new levels, points, and higher scores for the user.”

All this in mind, I wanted to get the input from someone who I know has made an impact in my life.  I was able to talk to John Cumberbirch, the man responsible for giving me physiotherapy when I was just a child, and I wanted to get his opinion on this technology. John says, “Motivation is key with our kiddos.  If a client can practise walking by smashing monsters and beating his friend’s score, then more power to us.” He points out that the game would have to engageable in a way which would be inclusive to all and variable in complexity.

For more information on the development of the Equiliberator, check out visit: http://oedk.rice.edu/Equiliberators/