A Mobile Dual-Task Exergame for Healthy Ageing Featuring Pose Tracking and Digital Coaching

Abstract

Among older adults striving for healthy ageing, combining motor and cognitive exercise may help preserve functional capacity in later life. Exergames have shown effectiveness in delivering dual-task training and can complement telemedicine by offering engaging interventions with high adherence. This paper presents a mobile exergame with dual-task exercises and avatar-based coaching, designed as a low cost and pervasive solution using pose estimation from the tablet built-in RGB camera. Intuitive motion-based controls, immersive techniques, and motivating feedback mechanisms were evaluated in a usability pilot study with 27 predominantly young participants. The system achieved a mean System Usability Scale score of 81.2 (σ = 11.02) and positive perceptions of the intuitiveness of the controls and user competence. These preliminary findings support the feasibility of mobile coaching-based exergames for combined motor and cognitive training and motivate further exploring of presence-enhancing features.