The Games Institute acknowledges that we are living and working on the traditional territory of the Attawandaron (also known as Neutral), Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee peoples. The University of Waterloo is situated on the Haldimand Tract, the land promised to the Six Nations that includes six miles on each side of the Grand River.
IMMERSe
Brief Bio
Alvaro Uribe holds has a degree in Mechatronics Engineering from Mil. Nueva Granada University, Bogotá, Colombia and a Master's and PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Universidade Estudal de Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil.
Through his academics and research career he has focused on virtual reality medical applications for physical training and simulation of various training scenarios. His postdoctoral research focuses on design and implementation of game mechanics in medical scenarios with the IMMERSE network. Which includes a reflex measurement using a car simulator, upper limb exergame for shoulder and elbow, and a lower limb exergame.
Sample Projects
Reflex measurement using a car simulation
This project's goal was to develop a parking and obstacle track simulator for improving driving knowledge. The tracks were developed with Unity and allow the user to drive a car from first person perspective and get traffic law information as it drives along the track. The game gets user information in terms of measuring reflexes at stop traffic sign or street lights.
Student: David Ballesteros, 2013
Co-supervisor: Byron Pérez
Development of an upper limb exergame for shoulder and elbow
The use of gaming in non-entertainment scenarios have proven to be a topic of interest applied in other contexts such as learning, therapy, exercising and training among many others. In terms of occupational health care, the feedback from the exercises is achieved through surveys and medical examination to determine the people's condition. This assessment provides subjective feedback based on what the person understood from sessions, graphics and the multimedia material available. This work presents the development of a shoulder and elbow protype of serious game for the exercising, the using body motion capture as a complimentary tool to traditional means of occupational health care and exercising.
Student: Wlson Nava and César Ramos - March 2015
Lower limb exergame design
In this project a lower limb exergame was designed based on the characteristics of common physical therapies. The goal of this project was to design a game that encourages the user into engaging in physical activity within an interactive environment with scores and motion tracking.
Student: Sergio Valdivia Trujillo, 2013
Co-supervisor: Byron Pérez
Sample Publications and Presentations
ALVARO JOFFRE URIBE QUEVEDO, SERGIO ALEJANDRO VALDIVIA, ELIANA PRADA, BYRON ALFONSO PEREZ GUTIERREZ, "Lower Member Game for Exercising Using Affordable 3DUIs", Communications In Computer And Information Science ISSN: 1865-0929 ed: Springer-Verlag Berlin/Heidelberg, v.435 fasc.N/A p.376 - 380, 2014
Exercising requires the execution of repetitive activities with commitment and motivation that may not be present in all cases. Currently, the advances in mechanical, electronics and computer sciences have resulted in the development of several affordable 3DUIs used in entertainment such as the Wiimote, the Play Station Move, the Kinect and the newer trends like the MYO and the Epoc Emotive. 3DUIs have opened several possibilities of application in the wellbeing area outside physical rehabilitation; applications in entertainment, in exercising and even occupational healthcare are being developed. This project explores the development of game application for encouraging lower member exercises with game mechanics and affordable 3DUIs for impacting most users, whereas they are owners or newcomers to these technological trends. The proposed system integrates a gaming 3DUI with a smartphone for offering a portable and flexible solution that allows monitoring and motivating the user for performing preventive or corrective exercises.
ALVARO JOFFRE URIBE QUEVEDO, BYRON ALFONSO PEREZ GUTIERREZ, SILAS ALVES DOS REIS, "Video Game interfaces for Interactive Lower and Upper Member Therapy", Studies In Health Technology And Informatics ISSN: 0926-9630 v.184 fasc. p.465 - 467, 2013
With recent advances in electronics and mechanics, a new trend in interaction is taking place changing how we interact with our environment, daily tasks and other people. Even though sensor based technologies and tracking systems have been around for several years, recently they have become affordable and used in several areas such as physical and mental rehabilitation, educational applications, physical exercises, and natural interactions, among others. This work presents the integration of two mainstream videogame interfaces as tools for developing an interactive lower and upper member therapy tool. The goal is to study the potential of these devices as complementing didactic elements for improving and following user performance during a series of exercises with virtual and real devices.
CESAR GUERRERO, ALVARO JOFFRE URIBE QUEVEDO, "Kinect-based Posture Tracking for Correcting Positions during Exercise", Studies In Health Technology And Informatics ISSN: 0926-9630 v.184 fasc. p.158 - 160, 2013
The Kinect sensor has opened the path for developing numerous applications in several different areas. Medical and health applications are benefiting from the Kinect as it allows non-invasive body motion capture that can be used in motor rehabilitation and phobia treatment. A major advantage of the Kinect is that allows developing solutions that can be used at home or even the office thus, expanding the user freedom for interacting with complementary solutions to its physical activities without requiring any traveling. This paper present a Kinect-based posture tracking software for assisting the user in successfully match postures required in some exercises for strengthen body muscles. Unlike several videogames available, this tool offers a user interface for customizing posture parameters, so it can be enhanced by healthcare professionals or by their guidance through the user.
For more information and to contact him, see his personal website.
Affiliation:
University of Waterloo