Title: Assessing the Kinect technology acceptance/diffusion into healthcare (the case of physical therapy)

Authors: Noshad Rahimi; Julie Golzarian

Addresses: Department of Engineering and Technology Management, Portland State University, P.O. Box 751, Portland, OR 97207, USA ' Department of Engineering and Technology Management, Portland State University, P.O. Box 751, Portland, OR 97207, USA

Abstract: Ludic engagement provides opportunity to gain from available gaming innovations to efficiently enhance mobility, reduce cost and error, and improve quality of life, particularly for patients suffering from stroke or other traumas left with reduced mobility and access to physical therapy often needed for long periods of time. Early clinical trials and implementations have provided promising evidences to the feasibility of using sensors, speech, voice recognition and visual interaction functionality of gaming consoles for assessing and improving physical performance of patients. This paper studies the cause and effect interplay of the salient derivers in the acceptance of ludic engagement. It reports on the conducted literature review and by performing ethnographic interviews creates a combined map of users' mental landscape using fuzzy cognitive map (FCM). Then using FCM simulation, the scenario of financial stimulation is identified as the most successful path to the timely adoption of ludic engagement.

Keywords: technology adoption; fuzzy cognitive maps; FCMs; technology acceptance model; TAM; ludic engagement; Kinect technology; medical engineering; informatics; healthcare technology; reduced mobility; physical therapy; sensors; speech; voice recognition; visual interaction functionality; gaming consoles; patient performance; literature review; ethnography; simulation; financial stimulation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMEI.2015.070130

International Journal of Medical Engineering and Informatics, 2015 Vol.7 No.3, pp.269 - 292

Received: 19 Mar 2014
Accepted: 16 Sep 2014
Published online: 27 Jun 2015 *

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