Gaming Platform May Improve Orofacial Mobility in Young Cerebral Palsy
  Patients
From: Medical Design Technology - 03/15/2016

Researchers from UPM and URJC have created a platform made up of diverse
games that will allow children with neurological disorders to rehabilitate
orofacial disorders.

SONRIE is a system of therapy for children with cerebral palsy that has been
developed by a multidisciplinary team of female researchers from Universidad
Politecnica de Madrid (UPM) and Universidad Rey Juan Carlos (URJC). By using
a kinect 360 sensor, they created a set of games in order to detect different
facial gestures: whoosh, eyebrows raised, kiss and smile aiming, firstly, to
achieve greater detection accuracy, and secondly, a therapeutic improvement
in facial movement.

The facial gestures that are stimulated through games on SONRIE are four:
raise eyebrows, blow, kiss and smile. The developed games aim to explore and
then to work with the muscles responsible for each gesture involved, thus
achieving an improvement of the facial movements.

The repetition of these gestures can provide new learning and new patterns of
brain activity. Besides, this tool allows children to be an active part of
the process thus contributing to the improvement of their self-esteem and
personal satisfaction.

Although these games have been developed for children with cerebral palsy,
SONRĶE could adapt to other children with different diseases that affect both
tone and muscle control such as Down syndrome Moebius, syndrome or
dystrophies, among others. In addition, by modifying the virtual system
environment, this tool could also be applied to adults.

People with facial palsy, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, head trauma or
stroke with facial involvement could use this system to improve their
mobility of orofacial musculature contributing to a better quality of life of
these people and their families.

Read the entire article at:
http://www.mdtmag.com/news/2016/03/gaming-platform-may-improve-orofacial-mobility-young-cerebral-palsy-patients