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by Teresa Martin

When is a game more than game? When it's the Wii!

That's right, Nintendo's Wii game console is the platform that crossed the gap between gamers and world at large and, as I learned about this week, it has applications that go far beyond simple fun.

The Wii is everywhere. At the end of 2009, Nintendo reported that it had sold more than 26 million units. In the last month (March 2010) alone, more than a half million Wii consoles wended their way from retailer to consumer.

For those who have been under an analog rock (and yes, I know you are out there!), a Wii -- pronounced 'we' -- is a video game machine whose accessories include a balance board, many different kinds of controllers, and host of games that have nothing at all to do with blasting away creepy critters.

When you clutch the motion sensor in your hot little hand, the Wii knows where you are and how you are moving in physical space.

Instead of working out just your thumbs, you can swing a tennis racquet, jog, march in band, drive a golf ball, and do any of a number of very physical activities. The game responds to your real world swing, step, and jump.

Those physical activities are exactly why Susan Owen found herself last week throwing a virtual bowling ball down a virtual bowling alley ... at the Rehabilitation Hospital of the Cape & Islands (RHCI) in Sandwich, MA.

No, Susan Owen isn't an employee's child whiling away the hours while mom or dad work at the hospital.

Susan Owen is a grandmother and recovering stroke patient -- and the Wii is part of fast-growing trend in rehabilitative therapy: Wii-Hab.

"You get so caught up in the moment of the game that you forget you're 'not supposed' to be able to move that way," she told me as she and her physical therapist competed with each other to knock down the most virtual pins.

Another therapist helped support her as she "threw" the ball, while at the same time relearning how to shift weight, regain strength, and redevelop her balance.

A game? Yup. But much more more than that.

The rehab applications go beyond the physical movement. For example, during my visit to RHCI, I met a 20-something man who is at RHCI as he recovers from an accident. He is working to rebuild working memory, dual attention, and concentration skills - and he's working with anther Wii game, Big Brain Academy, as part of his therapy.

His rehab speech therapist points out that for people who are part of the digital generation, like this man, Wii games are are a comfortable and natural medium and a great traditional alternative to pencil and paper activities.

The folks at RHCI and its sister Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital in Boston have been actively integrating Wii activities into both physical and cognitive rehabilitation - and they are part of a rapidly growing international trend:

• William Randolph Hearst Burn Center at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center is using the Wii and Guitar Hero to help severe burn victims start moving their arms and upper torsos again.


• Dr. Bruce Battles a physician specializing in brain injury rehabilitation at Western Kentucky University, received a US Dept. of Education grant to look at the outcomes of Wii-Hab. Battles began exploring rehab uses of the Wii after his own 16-year old son suffered serious head injuries in a car accident.


• The Medical College of Georgia is working with Parkinson's patients and the Wii. Initial research from their work shows the Wii made significant impact on rigidity, movement, fine motor skills, and energy levels - and depression.

There is even a Games for Health Conference! This year's event is in May in Boston. ( http://www.gamesforhealth.org/

Wii-hab is one of these great examples where technology has unintended consequences. But in this case, the consequences are surprisingly good ones.

Nintendo wants to sell bazillions of hardware boxes. The game publishers want to sell bazillions of DVDs and downloaded games.

I'd be willing to bet that not a single one of them were thinking "technology for human good." Yet, that's one of benefits this game system is providing.

Wii-hab is also one of these great examples where health benefits doesn't need to come only through a pricey, scarce, regulated to the nth degree solution.

For well under $500, a hospital or rehab program can get a Wii, controllers, balance board, and a whole bunch of games that can be used over and over. Various combinations can be targeted to people with different rehab needs and interaction interests.

I'd be willing to bet that the price tag would have a whole lot of extra trailing 0s if you were buying a developed-for-health-care machine that used motion sensors to record movement and created simulated activities. And yet, here's commercial consumer technology providing exactly that.

Sometimes the unintended is pretty darn good. Care for a game of Wii bowling, anyone?

Archived Wii columns? Check out The 12 Days of Techmas ( http://www.capeeyes.com/columns/2009/2009-12-30twelvedays.html)
or
It's a Wii Wii World ... of flying chickens and friends on the holodeck (http://www.capeeyes.com/columns/2010/2010-01-13wii.hmtl