It has never been imagined before that video games could once be an elderly thing. Indispensable in the circles of entertainment of children, teenagers and young adults. Digital games are part of the reality of childhood and associated with it is pleasant and fun. Playing video games has never been a third age thing. But to everyone's surprise the use of digital games and virtual reality has led beyond fun and entertainment world.
Virtual reality is already part of strategies for improving education, patient rehabilitation, improving engagement in brain machine interface tasks, as well as, therapeutic strategy for the elderly group. Companies such as the young Rendever have been focusing on improving the quality of life and well-being of older people living in nursing home through virtual reality.
One of the major problems associated with the elderly population is the isolation and depression. Many older people, after leaving their jobs, have a very different routine than before. Which leads to depression, isolation and health problems. To help overcome this issue, some strategies that has been applied is the use of virtual reality to allow elderly people to reconnect to the world.
Without the need to expend money with tiring trips, within the virtual environment, seniors can explore places which they have never seen before. They can relive memories, connect with other users, develop other skills (such as learning to paint, drive, fly, dive), as well as play games that can improve memory performance and motor coordination.
Games developed for purpose that goes beyond entertainment are named as serious game. They allows the elderly brain get more active and thus improve their cognitive ability, as well as promoting satisfaction, happiness and greater engagement in their tasks.
Researchers have developed a virtual reality game that is able to identify early Alzheimer's symptoms as well as prevent them. The game called Sea Hero Quest aims to navigate the sea defeating sea monsters while circling through a maze. To be successfully, its users need to use memory for spatial location.
The world population is aging and more health-related care for the elderly is fundamental for the development of society. Bringing technology together in medicine has proven to be an important alternative.
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