Music Tongue

舌肌律動訓練遊戲

Music Tongue is a tongue muscle rhythm exercise game that combines musical rhythm with tongue muscle training. Designed for middle-aged and elderly people, it can improve tongue muscle flexibility and reduce tongue muscle degeneration during aging. Self-directed oral exercises are a type of exercise that can improve the strength and coordination of swallowing-related muscles, maintain oral function, and prevent swallowing muscle atrophy. Currently, training methods are monotonous and lack feedback, resulting in insufficient motivation for exercise among the elderly.

Using image recognition of the tongue as a human-computer interaction interface, such as Tongue-able interfaces and LipsMouse, involves using a webcam to capture images of the user's tongue protruding from the mouth and lips opening and closing, allowing the tongue to act as a mouse to operate the computer. SITA is a tongue training game that uses image recognition of tongue posture to allow children with Down syndrome to exercise their tongues, thereby increasing their motivation for tongue training. In this study, we combined human-centered design processes with nursing professionals and middle-aged and elderly individuals to develop the MusicTongue exercise game (exergame). We hope to use musical interaction combined with a sense of flow to enhance the motivation and enjoyment of older adults in tongue muscle training.