An elderly person performs movements in front of one of the games designed by NaturalPad -

NaturalPad

  • The Medimoov tool, designed by NaturalPad, allows the patient to perform movements, useful for his care, by playing games in front of a television.

  • There is no controller, nor any particular device: Medimoov is based on a Microsoft Kinect, which captures the player's movements via a small camera.

  • The device has already been adopted in France by around a hundred nursing homes, hospitals, centers for disabled people and rehabilitation clinics.

With Medimoov, the Montpellier start-up NaturalPad puts video games at the service of health.

This tool, used by occupational therapists, physiotherapists or psychomotor therapists, offers the patient to perform movements, useful for his care, by playing small games in front of a television: shoot at pirate ships, catch balloons in moving an airplane, picking flowers in a field, or helping a cook prepare his dish by collecting ingredients.

One of the games designed by NaturalPad - NaturalPad

The player has no levers, and has free hands: he plays "with the movements of the torso, by leaning to the right or to the left, forwards or backwards, with the movements of the head, of the hands or of the legs. feet ”, explains Hugo Alonso, Marketing Manager at NaturalPad.

This device, already adopted in France by a hundred nursing homes, hospitals, centers for disabled people and rehabilitation clinics, is based on the Kinect, from Microsoft.

Originally designed to capture the movements of players on X-Box via a camera, the machine is here connected to a computer.

"The patients thus do physical activity in an adapted manner, since the game adapts to their capacities, or rehabilitation in certain cases", he confides.

An elderly person performs movements in front of one of the games designed by NaturalPad - NaturalPad

"Not everyone is necessarily comfortable with a controller"

And if this young Hérault company, specializing in therapeutic games, had the idea of ​​combining games and health, it is because they noticed that a good number of establishments had invested in a Wii, the console. from Nintendo, released in 2006, based on a motion detector.

“But not everyone could play with it, because there is a controller,” continues Hugo Alonso.

For bowling, for example, you have to press buttons, and release them at the right time.

These are not movements suitable for everyone: a person who is over 70 does not necessarily have the same range of movement as a person who is 20. ”

And, moreover, not everyone is necessarily comfortable with a controller in their hands.

And, continues the marketing manager of NaturalPad, “there is no device to place on the person.

And in these times of Covid-19, that's pretty welcome.

"

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  • Languedoc-Roussillon

  • Montpellier

  • Video games

  • Health

  • The elderly

  • Company