-
When I was growing up, I really
liked playing hide-and-seek a lot.
-
One time, though, I thought climbing
a tree would lead to a great hiding spot,
-
but I fell and broke my arm.
-
I actually started first grade
with a big cast all over my torso.
-
It was taken off six weeks later,
but even then, I couldn't extend my elbow,
-
and I had to do physical therapy
to flex and extend it,
-
100 times per day, seven days per week.
-
I barely did it, because
I found it boring and painful,
-
and as a result, it took me
another six weeks to get better.
-
Many years later, my mom
developed frozen shoulder,
-
which leads to pain
and stiffness in the shoulder.
-
The person I believed for half of my life
to have superpowers
-
suddenly needed help
to get dressed or to cut food.
-
She went each week to physical therapy,
but just like me,
-
she barely followed the home treatment,
-
and it took her
over five months to feel better.
-
Both my mom and I
required physical therapy,
-
a process of doing a suite
of repetitive exercises
-
in order to regain the range of movement
lost due to an accident or injury.
-
At first, a physical therapist
works with patients,
-
but then it's up to the patients
to do their exercises at home.
-
But patients find physical therapy
boring, frustrating, confusing
-
and lengthy before seeing results.
-
Sadly, patient noncompliance
can be as high as 70 percent.
-
This means the majority of patients
don't do their exercises
-
and therefore take
a lot longer to get better.
-
All physical therapists agree
that special exercises
-
reduce the time needed for recovery,
-
but patients lack
the motivation to do them.
-
So together with three friends,
all of us software geeks,
-
we asked ourselves,
-
wouldn't it be interesting if patients
could play their way to recovery?
-
We started building MIRA,
A P.C. software platform
-
that uses this Kinect device,
a motion capture camera,
-
to transform traditional exercises
into video games.
-
My physical therapist has already set up
a schedule for my particular therapy.
-
Let's see how this looks.
-
The first game asks me
to fly a bee up and down
-
to gather pollen to deposit in beehives,
-
all while avoiding the other bugs.
-
I control the bee by doing
elbow extension and flexion,
-
just like when I was seven years old
after the cast was taken off.
-
When designing a game,
we speak to physical therapists at first
-
to understand what movement
patients need to do.
-
We then make that a video game
-
to give patients simple,
motivating objectives to follow.
-
But the software is very customizable,
-
and physical therapists can also
create their own exercises.
-
Using the software, my physical therapist
-
recorded herself performing
a shoulder abduction,
-
which is one of the movements
my mom had to do
-
when she had frozen shoulder.
-
I can follow my therapist's example
on the left side of the screen,
-
while on the right, I see myself
doing the recommended movement.
-
I feel more engaged and confident,
-
as I'm exercising alongside my therapist
-
with the exercises my therapist
thinks are best for me.
-
This basically extends the application
for physical therapists
-
to create whatever exercises
they think are best.
-
This is an auction house game
for preventing falls,
-
designed to strengthen muscles
and improve balance.
-
As a patient, I need to do
sit and stand movements,
-
and when I stand up,
-
I bid for the items I want to buy.
-
(Laughter)
-
In two days, my grandmother
will be 82 years old,
-
and there's a 50 percent chance
for people over 80
-
to fall at least once per year,
-
which could lead to a broken hip
or even worse.
-
Poor muscle tone and impaired balance
are the number one cause of falls,
-
so reversing these problems
through targeted exercise
-
will help keep older people
like my grandmother
-
safer and independent for longer.
-
When my schedule ends,
MIRA briefly shows me
-
how I progressed throughout my session.
-
I have just shown you
three different games
-
for kids, adults and seniors.
-
These can be used with orthopedic
or neurologic patients,
-
but we'll soon have options
for children with autism,
-
mental health or speech therapy.
-
My physical therapist
can go back to my profile
-
and see the data gathered
during my sessions.
-
She can see how much I moved,
how many points I scored,
-
with what speed I moved my joints,
-
and so on.
-
My physical therapist can use all of this
to adapt my treatment.
-
I'm so pleased this version is now in use
-
in over 10 clinics
across Europe and the U.S.,
-
and we're working on the home version.
-
We want to enable physical therapists
to prescribe this digital treatment
-
and help patients play their way
to recovery at home.
-
If my mom or I had a tool like this
when we needed physical therapy,
-
then we would have been more successful
following the treatment,
-
and perhaps gotten better a lot sooner.
-
Thank you.
-
(Applause)
-
Tom Rielly: So Cosmin, tell me
what hardware is this
-
that they're rapidly putting away?
-
What is that made of,
and how much does it cost?
-
Cosmin Milhau: So it's
a Microsoft Surface Pro 3 for the demo,
-
but you just need a computer
and a Kinect, which is 120 dollars.
-
TR: Right, and the Kinect is the thing
that people use for their Xboxes
-
to do 3D games, right?
-
CM: Exactly, but you don't need the Xbox,
you only need a camera.
-
TR: Right, so this is less
than a $1,000 solution.
-
CM: Definitely, 400 dollars,
you can definitely use it.
-
TR: So right now, you're doing
clinical trials in clinics.
-
CM: Yes.
-
TR: And then the hope is to get it
so it's a home version
-
and I can do my exercise remotely,
-
and the therapist at the clinic
can see how I'm doing and stuff like that.
-
CM: Exactly.
-
TR: Cool. Thanks so much.
CM: Thank you.
-
(Applause)