A smartphone-based golf simulation exercise game for supporting arthritis patients

Arthritis is a common chronic diseases among elderly. Regular exercises help with managing the disease, but physiotherapy is costly and without monitoring there are no reliable workout records and many patients lack motivation. In this paper we evaluate exercise games and motivate the need for applications which are mobile, fun, provide monitoring, and incorporate social media features. Based on this we develop a smartphone-based golf game, which uses GPS and accelerometer sensors for collecting monitoring data and motivating patients to get active. The physical simulation uses an experimentally derived formula to convert wrist accelerometer data into driving distance. User testing demonstrates that the exercise game is entertaining and has a sufficient realism, but more game psychology concepts need to be incorporated to improve playability.