How can fun and engaging exercises be included into a ābalance-and-fall programmeā that is designed to prevent and reduce falls among the elderly? Four engineering students were tasked to take up a challenge statement posed by theĀ Metta Welfare Association.
In Semester 2 of AY2020, Shanmugam Sangeetha, Foong Zi Ning Anthea, Ayshath Zaseela and Low Li Ting ventured into the field of gerontechnology to rethink rehabilitation for the elderlies.
The team members, who are all in their final year, came up withĀ TACGO* ā a multi-player game system that combines Tic-Tac-Toe and Bingo. Using a simple gaming process, the game has four different components to gamify a rehabilitative treatment.
*TACGO is coined by combining Tic-TAC-Toe and BinGO
How TACGO works
Each player is equipped with their individual TACGO Board, resistance band vest, foot pedal and a ball dispenser which are all connected but placed apart. The player pedals until a coloured ball is produced by the ball dispenser. The player will then engage their core muscles to go against the resistance band vest to acquire the ball and match it to the correct colour on the TACGO board. This stimulates the playerās cognitive abilities and trains their hand eye coordination. The first player to match three in a row wins.
Constructing and Testing the Prototype
Supported by OSAāsĀ Community Engagement Fund (CEF), the team procured and developed the different components of TACGO. They then conducted multiple rounds of adjustments after consulting their professor and the physiotherapists at theĀ Metta Day Rehabilitation Centre for the ElderlyĀ to ensure that the game was safe for the elderly.
The prototype was very well received by the seniors at the rehabilitation centre as it was a strategic and fast-paced game. āOverall, it is a game that is simple yet thrilling enough. It was enjoyable to have something different and new to offer a different perspective into rehabilitation,ā commented the staff from Metta. They also expressed their interest in getting more TACGO units at the centre, thereby proving its effectiveness and entertainment value.
āIt has been a very humbling yet exciting journey for the organising committee and we definitely met our learning objectives,ā Sangeetha reflected after seeing how the teamās theoretical knowledge was incorporated into a full working product usingĀ Design Thinking.
Together with Anthea, the Engineering duo are currently further developing their prototype under the Department of Biomedical Engineering (BME) Community Engagement Initiative, bGood, so that they can share it with more non-profit organisations in Singapore.
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Office of Student Affairs,Ā Community Engagement
