Citation: Koulouris, D.; Menychtas,
A.; Maglogiannis, I. An IoT-Enabled
Platform for the Assessment of
Physical and Mental Activities
Utilizing Augmented Reality
Exergaming. Sensors 2022, 22, 3181.
https://doi.org/10.3390/s22093181
Academic Editors: Panagiotis E.
Pintelas, Sotiris Kotsiantis and
Ioannis E. Livieris
Received: 29 March 2022
Accepted: 18 April 2022
Published: 21 April 2022
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Article
An IoT-Enabled Platform for the Assessment of Physical and
Mental Activities Utilizing Augmented Reality Exergaming
Dionysios Koulouris
1
, Andreas Menychtas
1
and Ilias Maglogiannis
2,
*
1
BioAssist SA, 11524 Athens, Greece; denkoul@bioassist.gr (D.K.); amenychtas@bioassist.gr (A.M.)
2
Department of Digital Systems, University of Piraeus, 80, M. Karaoli & A. Dimitriou St., 18534 Piraeus, Greece
* Correspondence: imaglo@unipi.gr
Abstract:
Augmented reality (AR) and Internet of Things (IoT) are among the core technological
elements of modern information systems and applications in which advanced features for user
interactivity and monitoring are required. These technologies are continuously improving and are
available nowadays in all popular programming environments and platforms, allowing for their wide
adoption in many different business and research applications. In the fields of healthcare and assisted
living, AR is extensively applied in the development of exergames, facilitating the implementation of
innovative gamification techniques, while IoT can effectively support the users’ health monitoring
aspects. In this work, we present a prototype platform for exergames that combines AR and IoT on
commodity mobile devices for the development of serious games in the healthcare domain. The main
objective of the solution was to promote the utilization of gamification techniques to boost the users’
physical activities and to assist the regular assessment of their health and cognitive statuses through
challenges and quests in the virtual and real world. With the integration of sensors and wearable
devices by design, the platform has the capability of real-time monitoring the users’ biosignals and
activities during the game, collecting data for each session, which can be analyzed afterwards by
healthcare professionals. The solution was validated in real world scenarios and the results were
analyzed in order to further improve the performance and usability of the prototype.
Keywords: augmented reality; exergames; gamification; IoT; sensors; mobile platforms; wearables
1. Introduction
Advancements in the technological fields of augmented reality (AR) and the Internet
of Things (IoT) contribute, to a great extent, to the creation of innovative solutions, with
unique characteristics for user interactivity. AR and IoT may provide modern features to
applications, allowing them to support complex usage scenarios and to effectively address
the challenges and requirements for seamless user experiences. In the areas of healthcare
and assisted living, a long-standing need is to promote the increase of users’ physical
activity, which, in the modern way of sedentary lifestyles, has been considerably reduced.
Moreover, in many cases, interventions and incentives for consistently following a care
plan are also required.
AR technology refers to a real-time direct or indirect view of a physical real-world
environment that has been enhanced/augmented by adding virtual computer-generated
information to it [
1
]. In the video games industry, AR solutions [
2
] are quite common
nowadays, and typically gameplay scenarios impel players to increase their physical
activity. Such games are called exergames and encourage the players to perform exercises
and movements that, under other conditions, they would not perform [
3
–
5
]. In order to
achieve the goals of such serious games, the use of gamification techniques is mandatory [
6
],
and through the different goals of a game, players are required to perform physical and
mental challenges to improve, mainly in a mid- to long-term time frames, their physical
conditions and lifestyles. Most interventions aiming for an increase in physical activity
Sensors 2022, 22, 3181. https://doi.org/10.3390/s22093181 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sensors
