Old men and old women – educational toys

The latest gaming platform for the elderly has been developedSTRF.ru
Three years ago, researchers working within the framework of the European Union-funded ElderGames project took up the development of a high-tech gaming platform for the elderly.

The device should serve as a stimulator of mental and social activity, as well as detect the weakening of mental abilities in the early stages. "A fundamentally new task was for users to develop those abilities that, according to experts, are the most important in this period of life," comments Malena Fabregat, project coordinator.

Tests have shown that the system sharpens mental activity, stimulates the socialization of an elderly player, and also warns about developing diseases, the Science Daily website reports.

The developers feared that the elderly, being very conservative, would avoid the "innovative toy". But during the tests, they could only wonder at the speed with which the project participants overcame the fear of innovation. "Even when faced with the first prototype, which featured a lot of wires and cameras, they got used to the system literally in five to ten minutes," explains Fabregat.

Further tests allowed to improve the invention, its interactive gaming table and information display, as well as to form a set of 20 computer games that train and regulate the most important mental skills, stimulate social perception. These games, among other things, are fascinating in themselves. The researchers also provided special software that monitors the performance of each player for a long period of time in order to warn about potentially dangerous mental changes at an early stage.

The developers are confident that the invention will be distributed all over the world. In any case, commercial companies in Europe, North America and India have already shown interest in it. The cost of the game simulator has not yet been reported.

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru/18.05.2009