Search for: All records

Training for children who are prescribed myoelectric upper limb prostheses presents unique challenges in maintaining attention, motivation, and ultimately providing an enjoyable experience that is effective in developing the core motor skills required for device operation. From a clinical perspective, patient engagement is critical for maximizing functional outcomes, and from a research perspective, it can be vital to ensuring the quality of collected data. Therefore, our goal was to develop a training and research platform designed to both collect high-quality data from actively engaged participants and to provide them with a fun and engaging way to practice actuating the muscles relevant to myoelectric prosthetic control. “Ice is Nice” is a side scrolling video game that prompts children to perform a variety of movements with their missing hand, and the game is controlled using real-time measurement of their muscular activity. Our system is agnostic to muscle measurement systems, capable of using electromyography, force myography, and ultrasound-based control, among many others. As the game is played, data is logged to capture metrics relevant to game proficiency, human motor learning, and machine learning performance. Therefore, we suggest “Ice is Nice” provides a research and training platform with significant potential to support numerous follow-on studies conducted with children and adults. These studies aim to develop robust prosthetic control strategies, understand the effects of motor learning on prosthetic operation, and examine the functional capabilities of individuals operating upper limb prostheses.