Serious Exergame for Special Education Needs using 3D-Depth Camera

Children with special needs are frequently mistreated, leaving them unable to live normally in their everyday routines. They require specialized learning patterns to improve their basic academic, cognitive, and psychomotor abilities. Serious games are interactive game-based learning media designed to increase the attractiveness, curiosity, and motivation to learn and practice for children with special needs. Based on the Kinect game, we developed an exercise game (exergame) as a fun learning medium to support cognitive learning and therapy in developing motor skills, balance, and coordination by recognizing names, shapes, colors, and the location of objects in the virtual class. Kinect is a 3D-Depth camera-based input device that allows users to move their entire body when interacting with games. As a result, users can optimize their cognitive and motor potential while also having a different learning experience. The experimental results reveal that the improved system can increase students with special needs ‘ curiosity, attractiveness, and learning motivation. The User Experience Questionnaire (UEQ) is used to assess the level of acceptability of the developed applications. The findings confirm that the user experience is satisfactory, with attractiveness ranking highest on the scale.