Design and Implementation of an Antagonistic Exercise Support System Using a Depth Image Sensor

Dementia is one of the main reasons for elderly people becoming dependent on care. Antagonistic exercise, which involves performing different movements with the upper and lower limbs on the left and right sides, is a form of exercise that uses cognitive and motor functions at the same time. Preventive care professionals who can lead this sort of exercise are few in number compared with elderly people, and are under a heavy burden. On the other hand, the Kinect has become popular as a low-cost device that can acquire human actions. In this study we designed and implemented an antagonistic exercise support system using a Kinect. The user’s joint information acquired from Kinect is used to estimate the exercise, and the system provides real-time feedback to the user. We performed recognition accuracy tests with young and elderly test subjects, and carried out an interview survey to ascertain elderly user opinions.