Smartkuber is a serious game for cognitive screening, developed at Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU - Gjøvik, Norway) as a research project, from Costas Boletsis and Prof. Simon McCallum.
Over the last 3 years, we are conducting the research behind Smartkuber, focusing on theoretical, interaction, technical and cognitive issues. Several versions of Smartkuber have been introduced and the related research is presented in several, published, peer-reviewed publications.
Boletsis & McCallum, Connecting the Player to the Doctor: Utilising Serious Games for Cognitive Training & Screening, DAIMI PB, Volume 597, pp. 5-8, Aarhus University, 2015.
McCallum & Boletsis, Augmented Reality & Gesture-based Architecture in Games for the Elderly, Studies in Health Technology and Informatics, Volume 189, pp. 139-144, IOS Press, 2013.
Boletsis & McCallum, Augmented Reality Cube Game for Cognitive Training: An Interaction Study, Studies in Health Technology and Informatics, Volume 200, pp. 81-87, IOS Press, 2014.
Boletsis & McCallum, Augmented Reality Cubes for Cognitive Gaming: Preliminary Usability and Game Experience Testing, International Journal of Serious Games, Volume 3(1), pp. 3-18, Serious Games Society, 2016.
Boletsis & McCallum, Smartkuber: A Serious Game for Cognitive Health Screening of Elderly Players, Games for Health Journal, Volume 5(4), pp. 241-251, Mary Ann Liebert publishers, 2016.
Smartkuber brings the real and the digital world together, by using Augmented Reality technology to guide the player through the game and to identify the cubes game content.
Several interaction methods have been tested through the years, until we end up with the current format. Manipulating real objects, i.e. the cubes, as game input and using the tablet as output is the way Smartkuber works!
Smartkuber consists of 5 mini-games which - along with the implemented interaction technique - address various cognitive functions: task switching, response inhibition, working memory, face recall, information processing, and quantitative reasoning.
Smartkuber is used in order to entertain and provide cognitive screening information of elderly players. The first experiment ran until the end of 2015. If you are an individual or an institution willing to participate at future trials please let us know at konstantinos.boletsis@ntnu.no or simon.mccallum@ntnu.no
