The Journal of mHealth Vol 1 Issue 3 (June 2014) | Page 17

Industry News
Kickstarter backers, he expects the database to recognise about 80 percent of all
the various foods we eat. Proteins are the
hardest to detect, followed by carbs, and
then fats are the easiest to profile. But in
the end, Sharon says, all these materials
are within SCiO’s reach.
Consumer Physics is focusing on food
for its initial roll-out, as the world is
obsessed with nutritional data, and calorie tracking presents such an obvious
consumer use case. But the sensor technology itself is capable of analysing a
wide range of substances.

Future use cases for the device include
pharmaceutical authentication, allowing
consumers to identify allergens in food,
as well as many uses beyond the health
and wellbeing market.
SCiO has launched with an open API,
so third-party developers will be able to
extend the list of materials covered by
the Consumer Physics database, and also
create apps suited to specific use cases.
For more information visit: www.consumerphysics.com n

Low-cost Motion Controller
Provides a Unique Approach to
Physical Therapy
Therapy hopes to build games in the
future to help patients with arthritis, carpel tunnel syndrome and even multiple
sclerosis.
The use of motion controllers in physical therapy is nothing new. Ever since the
launch of platforms like the Nintendo
Wii and Microsoft Kinect, rehabilitation units have been employing motion
and gesture control programs and games
to improve the way in which patients
engage with their physical therapy excercises.

Physical therapy isn't fun. It's a physical
and emotional challenge that often consists of dull, repetitive tasks. It's boring,
and offers patients almost no short-term
rewards for their very real efforts, however, a new breed of application that
introduces key gamification concepts
offers new ways to engage patient's in
their rehabilitation process.
A new software platform called Visual
Touch Therapy is trying to make physical rehabilitation fun, gamifying repeti-

tive exercises by marrying a Leap Motion
controller, a PC and a simple memeinspired video game. The game itself
is fairly simple: players perform simple
motions over the Leap controller that
cause a dog character to run (or fly a jetpack) across the screen, and their performance and improvement can be tracked,
quantified and even sent to their physical
therapist for review.
Currently, the games are focused on
helping stroke victims, but Visual Touch

The Leap motion controller, is a unique
proposition in this field as it introduces
a low-cost easily programmable device
that is capable of being incorporated
across a diverse range of platforms.
The leap controller is being incorporated
into a range of health related projects.
MotionSavvy is an initiative to use the
technology as a means of providing realtime sign language translation. Another
innovative project called MACSAir aims
to bring touchless capability to manipulating catheters in MRI machines during
heart surgery – reducing the time that
patients need to spend under the knife. n

The Journal of mHealth

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