Now this is a great way to mod something for a purpose other than gaming and homebrew.

Engineers over at Rutgers University in New Jersey have modded an XBox and a control glove to help rehabilitate patients who've suffered a stroke. Specifically, they've modded an Essential Reality P5 control glove and the original Xbox to play a couple of exercises using the glove, allowing those being rehabilitated to remaster the use and coordination of their hand.

One of the exercises on this virtual rehabilitation system is a bit like the Eyetoy, minus the camera, in that players will try and clean off a four-paneled window (with a nice picture behind all that grime) by flexing their fingers. The results of their exercise will show directly on the game, giving direct feedback and rewards to the glove user for doing their best to better themselves.

It's a great way to use gaming for beneficial purposes, and it might just be a very great hope for those of us who spend so much time playing games and not exercising that we actually GET a stroke.

Best of all, it costs less than other sorts of virtual rehabilitation systems. According to Grigore Burdea, a professor of electrical and computer engineering and an inventor of virtual rehab technology,

“Virtual reality is showing significant promise for promoting faster and more complete rehabilitation, but the cost of many systems is still prohibitive for widespread deployment in outpatient clinics or patients’ homes. While it’s essential to keep pursuing breakthrough technologies that will initially be costly, it’s just as important that we find ways to make innovative treatments accessible to the many patients who need them.” 

Three cheers for medical mods!