Move Fitness lands in US (PS3)

Its been a couple of years since we heard the announcement of Coldwood Interactive's exergame Move Fitness title, but this week we'll see the title actually launch in the US. With 2 years to develop a base and refine the product for the US market, I hope there were some changes to some of the activities (including basketball shooting. Unfortunately, worldwide sales of just 17,000 and a Metacritic score of 61/100 pales in comparison to the behemoth (Wii Fit) in the fitness gaming / exergaming arena.

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• DHCX 2013 Converging Networks
• Exergame Education Workshop at Dupage County Institute 2013
• AtomicRUSH to Health

AtomicRUSH to Health

I was just in Orlando at the Disney Yacht Club and in their arcade they had the Speed of Light arcade game, but Atomic RUSH seems to amp up the interaction by allowing up to 4 players to play at the same time. In a way the design/array of lights/sensors is more like that of DDR than other games. I would love to try this game out and see how the 4 player game works - especially with people crossing over.

Wouldn't It Be Cool (WIBC)

• If there were also floor sensors to engage the feet - maybe even proximity sensors instead of touch sensors like FitLights to increase the activity and interaction.
• I know the flyers say there is feedback at the end of the game, but it would be great to have a scoreboard above each station or an overall panel to show in-game scores as they progress.
• I wonder if they are thinking about using RFID tags/cards to identify player scores as they move from station to station.

Click here to explore more of ExerGame Lab's archived posts involving research studies. 

Related articles

• DHCX 2013 Converging Networks
• Health Moves on iOS
• Exergame Education Workshop at Dupage County Institute 2013
• Exergaming Revolution (infographic)

Exergaming Revolution (infographic)

Exergaming has its critics but it also has its believers. I was passed this infographic (via HSN) covering some of the studies that show the benefits and effectiveness if using video games for fitness. Did you see your favorite exergame included?

Click here to explore more of ExerGame Lab's archived posts involving research studies. 

Related articles

• DHCX 2013 Converging Networks
• Exergame Education Workshop at Dupage County Institute 2013
• Health Moves on iOS

DHCX 2013 Converging Networks

I am honored to have been asked to speak at DHCX 2013 about using Games for Health. Thank you to Dr.Jay Bernhardt, Rebeccah Mercado, Ben Sawyer, and Beth Bryant for the invitation to speak and to all the great speakers and attendees who are helping to improve health.

Exergame Education Workshop at Dupage County Institute 2013

DSC00422 (Photo credit: exergamelab)

I am honoured to be a part of the Exergame Education Workshop at the Pre-Conference Dupage County Institute 2013 on Thursday February 28, 2013 at the Chicago Bulls-Sox Training Academy in Lisle, Illinois. The facility is the Premier Exergame Showroom for Exergame Fitness / Motion Fitness and houses the latest in exergaming and fitness programming for the 21st century. Equipment includes: Trazer, Makoto Sports Arena, Lightspace, Freedom Climber, Neuroactive Brain Bikes, Expresso Bikes, iDance, Motion Surface XG... and much more!

Hope to see you there!

Top Flight Speakers (not including me):

Dan Lawler, Ph.D. - Retired Principal
Stephen P. Yang, Ph.D. - SUNY Cortland College
George Velarde - California Physical Educator of the Year
Sharon Warren - Polar Electro Education
Matt Diskin - Physical Education Specialist

Download Flyer for Exergame Workshop

Click here to explore more of ExerGame Lab's archived posts involving research studies. 

Health Moves on iOS

In the ever-crowded arena of physical activity tracking devices and apps, Apple recently released Moves and to my surprise is pretty efficient app both interface, usability, and battery consumption wise. (Moves FAQ on iTUNES)

Simply put, enable the Location feature and this turns on the GPS to locate where you are and thus if you move quickly via car, the GPS will kick in and record it as "transport" time. As I'm typing this blog piece, I believe the accelerometer is detecting my steps b/c the green icon pulses whenever I take a step. The user guide says that whenever the GPS detects very little variations in your location, it cycles down (but I can't be sure of that). Overall battery life is about the same if you have "Location" services enabled already on your device.

Although there is no game function yet, MOVES seems to be the most fluid and intuitive of the other tracking apps I've used and if they open up the API to allow game and app developers - we could really see some nicely integrated games and activities. Of course with some simple tweaking adding simple gamification features like leaderboards, achievememts and challenges, we could see a real competitor to RunKeeper, MapMyRun, and all the other fitness apps.

Stay Active and Be Well!      [Via MakeUseOf, Moves website]

Click here to explore more of ExerGame Lab's archived posts involving research studies.