Towards an Interactive Leisure Activity for People with PIMD Robby van Delden 1 , Dennis Reidsma 1 , Wietske van Oorsouw 2 , Ronald Poppe 1 , Peter van der Vos 3 , Andries Lohmeijer 3 , Petri Embregts 2,4 , Vanessa Evers 1 , and Dirk Heylen 1 1 Human Media Interaction, University of Twente, P.O. Box 217, Enschede, The Netherlands {r.w.vandelden,d.reidsma,r.w.poppe,v.evers,d.k.j.heylen}@utwente.nl 2 Tranzo, Scientific Center of Care and Welfare, Tilburg University, P.O. Box 90153, Tilburg, The Netherlands {w.m.w.j.vanOorsouw,p.j.c.m.embregts}@uvt.nl 3 Kitt Engineering Pantheon 16, 7521PR Enschede, The Netherlands {peter,andries}@kitt.nl 4 Dichterbij Innovation and Science, Gennep, the Netherlands Abstract. We address the possibilities of truly interactive systems for people with Profound Intellectual and Multiple Disabilities (PIMD). These are intended to improve alertness, movement and mood. We are working on an interactive ball that follows body movement and an in- teractive floor mat for this target group. We explain the key features in the design that are essential for the possible success. Keywords: Snoezelen, Interactive Therapy, Profound Intellectual and Multiple Disabilities, PIMD, Interactive Ball, Interactive Floor Mat 1 Introduction Interactive Entertainment is meant to be fun and might be beneficial for people with profound mental and intellectual disabilities (PIMD) as well. Such systems can increase alertness, mood and body movement for people with PIMD, three goals often targeted by care staff. People with PIMD are a heterogeneous group that generally have an intellectual developmental age of 24 months or less, have multiple mutually reinforcing disabilities and are dependent on others for their every-day activities [7,9,10]. There is a fairly limited amount of activities and es- pecially interactive entertainment for people with PIMD [2,13]. Therefore, many people with PIMD are likely to have too small an amount of non-sedentary ac- tivities and have to do with passive activities such as watching television and lying on a waterbed [15]. Creating interactive entertainment for people with PIMD may help to create alternatives, but the design process is hard for several reasons. One has to take into account a wide range of peculiarities, disabilities