Dolphin Simulator May Help Stroke Victims

A dolphin simulator named I Am Dolphin is to be released this month. Not the greatest of news for gamers on the surface, unless you are an Ecco the Dolphin fan, but this particular game holds a little bit of a secret. It has been developed by John Hopkins University by a team of neuroscience experts and it is hoped that the game may be able to help stroke victims in their recovery.

Players can choose to control either a dolphin or an orca, using a touch screen to simulate their movements. The animals will follow the touch screen commands and create realistic body motions using a custom-built physics engine. The simulation is detailed enough to encompass the animals muscles, bone and motor system.

Whilst the goal of the game is to fight off predatory fish, it has a much larger scope than that. Software architect Omar Ahmad explains “You feel as though you become the dolphin.”

Neurology and neuroscience professor John Krakauer expands in an interview with The Escapist: “The goal is to move gaming away from extreme violence and towards motor skill and immersion in nature.” He hopes the game  “…will provide the motivation and enjoyment to have patients make movements that they have lost, at the intensity and dosage that is required to mediate repair in a critical time window of enhanced neural plasticity early after stroke.”

The game will be made available for commercial release, so it’s not just for clinical use, and will be playable on Apple devices such as the iPad and iPhone. However future plans include releases across a variety of platforms in an effort to bring the game to as wide an audience as possible.

However it is the benefit that it could have for stroke patients that interests us most of all. Strokes are extremely debilitating and can cause distress for the rest of the life of the unfortunate person afflicted. Anything that can help to relieve that distress and help recovery is a positive in our view.

Plus…we can’t help but be a little excited about a game that puts so much emphasis on being accurate as well as beneficial. We can’t wait to see those dolphins and orcas in action, especially as another goal for the game is to help users understand the movement of others and thus develop empathy for them and their environment.

A game with such lofty ambitions to help raise awareness of so many issues is rare so we hope gamers will give it a little support when the release date comes.

Check out the teaser video on YouTube: