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When I was growing up,
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I really liked playing hide and seek
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a lot.
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One time, though, I thought that climbing
a tree would lead to a great hiding spot,
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but I fell and broke my arm.
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I actually started first grade
with a big cast all over my torso.
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It was taken off six weeks later,
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but even then, I couldn't extend my elbow,
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and I had to do physical therapy
to flex and extend it,
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100 times per day, seven days per week.
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I barely did it because
I found it boring and painful,
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and as a result, it took me
another six weeks to get better.
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Many years later, my mom
developed frozen shoulder,
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which leads to pain
and stiffness in the shoulder.
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The person I believed for half of my life
to have super powers
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suddenly needed help to get dressed
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or to cut food.
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She went each week to physical therapy,
but just like me,
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she barely followed the home treatment,
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and it took her
over five months to feel better.
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Both my mom and I
required physical therapy,
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a process of doing a suite
of repetitive exercises
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in order to regain the range of movement
lost due to an accident or injury.
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At first, a physical therapist
works with patients,
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but then it's up to the patients
to do their exercises at home.
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But patients find physical therapy boring,
frustrating, confusing, and lengthy
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before seeing results.
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Sadly, patient noncompliance
can be as high as 70 percent.
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This means the majority of patients
don't do their exercises
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and therefore take
a lot longer to get better.
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All physical therapists agree
that special exercises
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reduce the time needed for recovery,
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but patients lack
the motivation to do them.
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So together with three friends,
all of us software geeks,
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we asked ourselves,
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wouldn't it be interesting if patients
could play their way to recovery?
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We started building Mira,
A PC software platform
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that uses this Kinect device,
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a motion capture camera,
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to transform traditional exercises
into video games.
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My physical therapist has already set up
a schedule for my particular therapy.
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Let's see how this looks.
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The first game asks me
to fly a bee up and down
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to gather pollen to deposit in beehives,
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all while avoiding the other bugs.
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I control the bee
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by doing elbow extension inflection,
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just like when I was seven years old
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after the cast was taken off.
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When designing a game,
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we speak to physical therapists at first
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to understand what movement
patients need to do.
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We then make that a video game
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to give patients simple,
motivating objectives to follow.
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But the software is very customizable,
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and physical therapists can also
create their own exercises.
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Using the software, my physical therapist
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recorded herself performing
a shoulder abduction,
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which is one of the movements
my mom had to do
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when she had frozen shoulder.
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I can follow my therapist's example
on the left side of the screen,
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while on the right, I see myself
doing the recommended movement.
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I feel more engaged and confident,
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as I'm exercising alongside my therapist
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with the exercises my therapist
thinks are best for me.
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This basically extends the application
for physical therapists
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to create whatever exercises
they think are best.
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This is an auction house game
for preventing falls,
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designed to strengthen muscles
and improve balance.
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As a patient, I need to do
sit and stand movements,
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and when I stand up,
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I bid for the items I want to buy.
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(Laughter)
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In two days, my grandmother
will be 82 years old,
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and there's a 50 percent chance
for people over 80
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to fall at least once per year,
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which could lead to a broken hip
or even worse.
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Poor muscle tone and impaired balance
are the number one cause of falls,
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so reversing these problems
through targeted exercise
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will help keep older people
like my grandmother
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safer and independent for longer.
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When my schedule ends,
Mira briefly shows me
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how I progressed throughout my session.
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I have just shown you
three different games
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for kids, adults, and seniors.
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These can be used with orthopedic
or neurologic patients,
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but we'll soon have options
for children with autism,
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mental health, or speech therapy.
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My physical therapist can go back
to my profile and see
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the data gathered during my sessions.
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She can see how much I moved,
how many points I scored,
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with what speed I moved my joints,
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and so on.
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My physical therapist can use all of this
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to adopt my treatment.
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I'm so pleased this version is now in use
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in over 10 clinics
across Europe and the U.S.,
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and we're working on the home version.
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We want to enable physical therapists
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to prescribe this digital treatment
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and help patients play their way
to recovery at home.
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If my mom or I had a tool like this
when we needed physical therapy,
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then we would have been more successful
following the treatment,
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and perhaps gotten better a lot sooner.
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Thank you.
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(Applause)
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Moderator: So Cosmin, tell me
what hardware is this
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that they're rapidly playing away.
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What is that made of,
and how much does it cost?
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Cosmin Milhau: So it's
a Microsoft Surface Pro 3 for the demo,
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but you just need a computer and a Kinect,
which is 120 dollars.
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Moderator: Right, and the Kinect is the thing
that people uses for their Xboxes
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to do 3D games, right?
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CM: Exactly, but you don't need the Xbox,
you only need a camera.
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Moderator: Right, so this is less
than a thousand dollar solution.
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CM: Definitely, 400 dollars,
you can definitely use it.
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Moderator: So right now, you're doing
clinical trials in clinics.
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CM: Yes.
Moderator: And then the hope is to get it
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so it's like a home version
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and I can do my exercise remotely,
and the therapist at the clinic
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can see how I'm doing and stuff like that.
CM: Exactly.
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Moderator: Cool. Thanks so much.
CM: Thank you.
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(Applause)