Abstract:

Fine motor development is generally defined by visual-manual skills, which allow children to perform basic tasks helping their independence and developing their self-esteem. When detecting weaknesses in the development of motor skills, children have to undergo a traditional physical therapy made up of a set of sessions where they perform exercises in order to improve the range of movement of certain regions of the body. However, this therapy can become repetitive and boring. Therefore, the patient’s attention is not captured, which causes distractions and interruptions during the execution of the established exercises. This paper has as purpose to present a prototype of an immersive environment making use of augmented reality in order to support the development of fine motor therapy. For this is carried out the design of 3D scenarios based on the identification, description and analysis of traditional therapy, where it is interacted by means of a gestural control device such as a Leap Motion, in order to be able to manipulate environment’s elements. Preliminary results have shown that, through the use of this type of scenarios, can obtained an increase in the disposition, attention, motivation and interest by the child when performing the fine motor therapeutic exercises, as support within a training scenario. Finally, conclusions and future works aimed at the development of therapy through immersive scenarios and non-invasive brain-computer interfaces are presented.

Keywords:

Augmented reality, fine motor, physical therapy, Leap Motion, 3D scenario, immersive environment, neurodevelopment.