ExerGame Lab

What have you done in the past 12 days?  Well this group in Zurich at the Zurich University of Arts, Departement of Interaction Design, created the Urban Defender as part of the Embodied Interaction Advanced HS 2009 in just 12 days.  The team members (Karmen Franinovic, Max Rheiner, Dondup Shelkar, Philipp Läubli, & Nino Cometti) lay out in great detail how they conceptualized the game, interaction, and physical components.  The goal of the game is simple: "try to conquer as many quarters as possible, reinforce these quarters and defend them against other players."

In the concept video (below), I like how the computer interface changes as the players race around the playing area and tag their zones.  It's quite possibly one of the first physically interactive, ubiquitous computing, applications  I've seen.  We have seen many mobile-based ubiquitous computing applications, but most of those have been location based and location recognition.  Using a ball to interact with the physical environment in a public space is pure brilliance.  In some ways it reminds me of the Japanese group that created Shoot-ball (anyone remember that?)  I would love to try this one out on our campus or in town.  Anyone up for a little UD?

Sweedish game company Zoink Games posted a video for a puppet enhanced Wii game called WiiWaa.  Although it is uncertain when or if this game/peripheral/wiiware will come out, it looks to use a stuffed animal/puppet with a Wiimote placed inside of it. Then the child would shake and twist the animal to interact with the game features.  Interestingly, pulling on its' ears simulated a boomerang-type action - I'm not sure how the Wiimote would recognize that action.  I'm also curious to see the purpose of those little pins that the boy puts on to the front of his WiiWaa (and if the game recognizes them).

In what can only be described as one of the largest multiplayer exergame / exertion interface / hacks around, the Kasabian Football Hero project is the mecca and future of ExerGming.  Football Hero is a three-story high projection system that involves five different colored players kicking balls at their designated colored targets attached to a wall. Kickin' & Rockin' the night away! [Via Gizmodo]

Speaking of bikes that improve health, look at what Honda has created to teach cyclists about road hazards and proper bike safety - the Honda's Bicycle Simulator. What ever happened to the good old bike rodeos when you took your bike to a closed parking lot and have the police and fire departments, or recreation staff teach you the proper techniques. BTW - We went to one last spring and we got a free (perfectly-fitted) kids helmet, Sweet. The release date is scheduled for February 2010. One of the more interesting bits of technology is a "walking sensor" to detect when the user gets off the bike to simulate walking across an intersection. I wonder if it will be infrared or if there is a sensor in the seat...? Either way, learning how to go to the grocery store or school can now be simulated. Well when you think about where many schools and shopping areas are built (away from typical single family housing and traditional downtown) one might question whether or not the virtual world will in fact help the real world scenario.
[Via Ubergizmo & Honda]

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In recent years, the total number of fatalities from traffic accidents has declined in Japan. However, the ratio of fatalities in accidents involving bicycles has increased. Bicycle riders aged 10 – 19 in and above the age of 50 have the highest chance to get involved in an accident, and approximately 70 percent of bicycle accidents are caused by violation of traffic rules.

Leveraging the know-how accumulated through its activities to promote traffic safety since 1964, Honda has been developing and selling motorcycle and automobile simulators since 1996 and 2001, respectively, as traffic safety educational devices which enable users to safely experience the risks based on real-world traffic situations. By offering these simulators, Honda’s goal is to improve people’s ability to predict risks and increase safety awareness. Striving to realize a richer mobility society in the future, Honda developed the Honda Bicycle Simulator as an educational tool for a wider range of people.

•	Key features of the Honda Bicycle Simulator
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	· Compact design (length 2,270mm × height 1,400mm × width 990mm, weight 88kg) · Equipped with monitors to check right/left and behind. · Equipped with a “walking sensor” which recognizes the user’s action of walking the bicycle.
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	· Contains different courses such as “going to school,” “going to the grocery store,” “going to cram school” and “going to a local shopping street” to offer realistic experiences for user groups of different ages. · Contains a course for the user to learn traffic laws and manners to ride a bicycle in mixed traffic. · After the simulation, the rider’s path can be reviewed from multiple vantage points – above/below and right/left – and the riding situation and evaluation will be displayed on the monitor.

This Afghanistan OLPC invention is a practical solution to producing green-energy for the laptop and looks similar to the Stand Up Desk with Swinging Footrest pictured below. Except one will help students by allowing them to use computers and the other is a solution to being too plugged in over the years. Pick your poison.

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I am all for keeping things simple - KISS principle and that definitely applies to human theory and behavior around health. The WiFi Body Scale looks to be a promising device that will provide consistent information about specific health indicators that may help keep people healthier. Using a WiFi signal to pass your private information on to a secure website, this souped-up scale also packs a bioelectrical impedance device that measures a person's "body-fat percent or ratio of fat-mass to fat-free mass. Packaging an iPhone app (read ubiquitous) on top of that makes this device that much more elegant in its design and implementation.

Check out after the break for more photos.

An interesting new product just popped up ahead of Xbox's Project Natal, Sony's Motion Controller, and Wii's Your Shape camera - the Blaze Motion Freedom 3D Controller for PS3.
It's uncertain which technology it will incorporate, but get this,.... it was "designed from the ground up" - a tired cliche. Interestingly enough, the UK-based game accessories manufacturer is not listing the device on it's main home page, the PS3 header page, but rather as a stand-alone page (See screen shots).

Bigben Interactive is releasing the Cyberbike sometime in 2010 and by the looks from these photos, I'm not sure that it would withstand the pounding of kids trying to "clean up" the environment or play Mario Kart. Rather, it looks to be another hunk of plastic that will crowd our cluttered living rooms and closets and eventually hit the landfill as garbage. Pass.
[Via Gizmodo]

UPDATE: Here is a clip (Via Sporle and Co.) of what the Cyberbike will look like and a little of the gameplay.



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Here is my presentation from #KSF2009 - Korea Serious Games Festival in Seoul last week.

Now, for those not intersted in a robot as a fitness leader, Grand Theft Bicycle is a PC hack based on GTA codes but re-worked so that the two competing gangs represent world leaders (Obama,Blair, Harper & Allis vs bin Laden, Hussein, and Jong-Il). Pedaling on the Borgcycle pedals your character's bike through "Bagdad" city and you use the controls mounted on the handlebars to jump and shoot your way to political and terrorist nirvana. I've been using the Cateye GameBike for a while and always wanted to try games where I could shoot something (not necessarily someone). Looks like GTB has melded the best of GameBike's features with the massively popular Grand Theft Auto series.

Korea Gets Serious About Games: Active Gaming Included!

I am fortunate to be headed to Korea to speak at the 2009 Korean Serious Games Festival on September 25th-27th at the Seongnam Korea Design Center near Bundang. The Gyeonggi Digital Contents Agency (organizer of the festival) posted some promotional videos (in Korean) for 2009 KSGF on their YouTube channel.


Some of the exergaming / active gaming products going will be the iDance multiplayer system and a LightSpace Floor and Wall system. I will be traveling with Ed Kasanders and Tommy Seilheimer of Motion Fitness / Exergame Fitness and I just heard that Ole and Bas of Positive Gaming AB will also be presenting iDance at the festival. This will be a great opportunity to see how Korea is embracing Games For Health and what their goals will be for the next few years in terms of the Serious Games movement.

Rising star in the industry sees Serious Games as ‘an emerging blue ocean’

The South Korean government has pledged to invest 80 billion Won ($63m) into the nation’s growing serious games market.

The government expects these investments will catalyse the nation’s Serious Games sector growth to reach a market value of $400 million by 2012. The initial 80 billion Won investment will fund the development of general educational games, military simulations, as well as medical training titles.

The initiative was sparked from a joint effort between the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and national newspaper Etnews. Those two forces together sponsored the nation’s Serious Games Forum, a national network where professionals and interested parties could network and exchange ideas.

Yu In-chon, ex-film star and now South Korea’s minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said: “The functional game market is at an early stage, but the market is an emerging blue ocean. The government is going to give support to prompt private investment in that field.”

Last year the South Korean government had invested 350 billion Won in the recreational games industry. (Via )

Meeting VisionQuest International CEO Brent Meldeau at the 2009 Games for Health Conference in Boston was great as he was able to explain to me how their upcoming GameFit Cross Trainer will be a disruptive technology in the exercise and gaming world. As previously mentioned, the company is looking to have working prototypes at next year's 2010 Games for Health conference in Boston and hopefully into the hands of some early beta-testers.

Essentially the GameFit Cross Trainer is two aerobic steps attached to a concave slide board which will first interface with its own games then hopefully get ported over to the Wii platform to start. The sensors in the GameFit can be used in one of three ways; 1) steps sensors alone, 2) slide sensors alone, or 3) step and slide sensors together. Besides the obvious low-impact nature of sliding, the cardiovascular benefits can be quite substantial if done for the correct Frequency-Intensity-Time-and Type (FITT). The GameFit Cross Trainer will weigh in around 30 lbs and be over 8 feet long, but will fold easily and have handles. I have no idea what the game-play will be or look like but once I find out I will update the blog.

Can the GameFit Cross Trainer capture the elusive market of whole-body gaming controllers that are fun to play and provide awesome health benefits?

Listen to Brent's response to "What is the GameFit Cross Trainer?"

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Listen to Brent's response to "When will GameFit Cross Trainer be seen in public?"

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Listen to Brent's response to "What platforms are you planning to build for or will it be a stand-alone device (plug and play)?"

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Fore more information, be sure to check the GameFit link in this blog archive. If you need more information on the research and partnerships being created in the Exergame Lab, please contact Stephen Yang at the exergamelab@gmail.com.

Big John Games attended the 2009 Games for Health Conference in Boston, MA this past June. Ken Patterson, CEO demonstrated their early prototype for their new WiiWare game "Karate Bears" a game designed to actually teach you correct karate moves using the WiiMote and Nunchuk. Check back soon for the videos of an early version of the software.

BJG also showcased their 2007 release "Soccer Blast" which I believe was a PS2 release that incorporated a DDR pad to play an an oversized-ball game sort of like soccer but also very reminiscent of Omnikin Ball.
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I finally got a chance to meet Richard Tate (right in photo) of HopeLab, a non-profit organization that aims to "improve the health and quality of life of young people with chronic illness', is teaming up with online virtual world creator Virtual Heroes to produce Re-Mission 2.0. Listen also to how their physical activity monitor, GDitty, is going through a second phase of testing.

June 11, 2009

HopeLab and Virtual Heroes Team Up to Create Next Version of Re-Mission™ Video Game for Teens with Cancer

Project funded in part by Vivendi, the Annenberg Foundation and
the Lance Armstrong Foundation

Boston, June 11, 2009 — HopeLab and Virtual Heroes today announced a collaboration to develop the next version of the breakthrough Re-Mission™ video game for young cancer patients. The project is funded in part by HopeLab partners Vivendi, the Annenberg Foundation, and the Lance Armstrong Foundation.

“Re-Mission has proven that strategically designed video games can be powerful tools in healthcare,” said Fred Dillon, director of product development at HopeLab. “We’re delighted to be working with Virtual Heroes to create a new version that is even more fun and engaging and that amplifies the game’s positive health impact for young people with cancer.”

“Virtual Heroes is honored to have been selected by HopeLab for this project,” said Jerry Heneghan, Managing Director, Virtual Heroes. “Our collaboration on the next Re-Mission video game will be both a creative challenge and an exciting opportunity to develop a fun, biologically-based game that works to improve the health of young cancer patients.”

HopeLab has contracted with game developer Virtual Heroes to create a new version of Re-Mission that incorporates insights from research and direct feedback from young cancer patients collected since the 2006 release of the original game. The announcement was made at the Games for Health Conference being held June 11 – 12 in Boston. At the conference, HopeLab also will be presenting a session titled “Creating Games That Work.” The session offers insight into the highly iterative, customer-focused, research-based process for health games development pioneered by HopeLab. This process and its results have been documented in the medical journal Pediatrics and in the International Journal of Learning and Media. ^1,2 The conference session will also highlight the importance of strategic partnerships in these efforts.

¹ Kato, P.M., Cole, S.W., Bradlyn, A.S., Pollock, B.H. (2008). A Video Game Improves Behavioral Outcomes in Adolescents and Young Adults With Cancer: A Randomized Trial. Pediatrics, 122: e305-e317.

² Tate, R., Haritatos, J., Cole, S. HopeLab’s Approach to Re-Mission. International Journal of Learning and Media; 2009 1(1): 29-35.

About the Re-Mission™ Video Game

Re-Mission™ combines biologic accuracy with an honest depiction of the challenges faced by young cancer patients. Through fun, interactive game play, Re-Mission illustrates what occurs inside the bodies of young cancer patients and how they can most effectively fight their disease. Results from the largest randomized, controlled study of a video game intervention ever conducted showed that playing Re-Mission improved treatment adherence and boosted cancer knowledge and self-efficacy in teen and young adult cancer patients.

HopeLab has distributed more than 142,000 free copies of Re-Mission in 81 countries worldwide since its release in April 2006. Re-Mission is available to download or order online at www.re-mission.net. Re-Mission is also distributed through partnerships with organizations that support HopeLab’s commitment to provide Re-Mission free of charge to young cancer patients, including CIGNA HealthCare, the ESA Foundation, and Starlight Children’s Foundation. Re-Mission is rated T (Teen) by the Entertainment Software Ratings Board. Development of a new version of Re-Mission is currently underway and is sponsored in part by Vivendi , the Annenberg Foundation, and the Lance Armstrong Foundation.

About HopeLab

HopeLab is a non-profit organization founded in 2001 by Board Chair Pam Omidyar. HopeLab combines rigorous research with innovative solutions to improve the health and quality of life of young people living with chronic illness. HopeLab applies a research-based, customer-focused development model to create products that address chronic illnesses in young people, including cancer, obesity, major depressive disorder, sickle cell disease and autism. For more information, please visit www.hopelab.org.

About Virtual Heroes

Virtual Heroes, a division of Applied Research Associates Inc. creates Advanced Learning Technology (A.L.T.) solutions for the Healthcare, Federal Systems and Commercial markets. These collaborative, interactive learning solutions leverage simulation and digital game-based paradigms to accelerate learning, increase proficiency and reduce costs. Virtual Heroes applications facilitate highly interactive, self-paced learning and instructor-led, distributed team training on the Virtual Heroes (A.L.T.) platform using the Unreal® Engine 3 by Epic Games. Virtual Heroes’ many accomplishments include work on America’s Army®, Pamoja Mtaani™, Hilton Ultimate Team Play™, VirtualPeace™, 3DiTeams™, Zero Hour: America’s Medic™ and the upcoming official NASA game: Astronaut: Moon, Mars & Beyond™. Virtual Heroes is located in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. For more information, please visit www.virtualheroes.com and www.ara.com.