SkyTechSport Ski & Snowboard Simulator Exergame

Enjoy realistic Sochi 2014 skiing and snowboarding runs (without the cold weather) on the SkyTechSport Ski and Snowboard Simulator Exergame. It gives new meaning to pushing hard on the inside edge of your skis. You can even perform while wearing 3D glasses all while having the motors replicate the actual G forces through the gliding platform and optoelectronic sensors. Now all you need is a wind and snow machine!

SkyTec Interactive designs and produces unique winter sports training equipment and virtual reality systems. Cutting edge alpine ski simulators and snowboard simulators by SkyTec Interactive allow skiers and snowboarders to experience the same G-force effects that they would in well-carved turns on a real slope. All products designed by SkyTec Interactive are globally patented.

Click through to see some amazing footage and details on where you can find their latest installations.

Nike SB: The Skateboard Tracking App

While not a skateboarding exergame like Tony Hawk's Ride, this new iOS app will allow skaters to learn or share (by uploading your own video) their tricks with their friends or anyone else in the world. It looks like they've added game features like community sharing, mastery, and badges (just watched awesome Google Talk by Sebastian Deterding called "Meaningful Play. Getting »Gamification« Right") but not much else in terms of game mechanics, story lines, and community meaning. This is not to be confused with the exergame "Copy Paste Skate" from the Exertion Games Lab that combines infrared sensors, slow exposure photography and audio pickups to enable skaters to interact and see, hear your tricks.

Exergaming Points 2 Ponder (ExP2P)

• I wonder if there the Nike SB app tracks how long you are on your skateboard?
• Incorporating GPS into the app might give users more information - but also allow people to Game the system
• Add a sensor (like Zepp or Babolat) that attaches to the skateboard to detect movement and tricks to give users different score and that also embeds into the video that is shared (velocity, torque, rotations/second, downward/upward forces, rotational velocity). 
• Some of this data might even be instrumental in providing tutorials and "How-to" videos to learn how to perform certain tricks.
• Users that add more videos and provide feedback to other users would earn a higher place on leaderboards and community forums. 

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Related articles

• Can a smart motion tracker improve your tennis, baseball. or golf swings?

Can a smart motion tracker improve your tennis, baseball. or golf swings?

I recently ReTweeted about a new device (Zepp), sensor that will track your golf, tennis, or baseball swing and send information back to your mobile device.

This Little Zepp Sensor Will Map Your Golf, Basball or Tennis Swing On Your iPhone #kinchat #sporttech http://t.co/FFnjVpAfFE
— Stephen Yang, PhD (@syangman) October 5, 2013

Then I remembered that I was sitting on a post about this other device (Babolat Play & Connect) and decided to put them together.

Can these devices change sport as we know it or will they simply be another tool in which we can use to help us assess and measure performance? When combined with smart fabrics and other motion analyzers, this space is getting more occupied with data...but will practitioners be able to integrate all of these data points effectively?

Interactive Racquet:
There are more and more devices that are helping track an athlete’s performance during training or competition. The Babolat Play & Connect interactive tennis racquet could help players avoid faults altogether. The racquet looks just like any other out there, but in the handle are sensors and electronics that can track performance. This can be downloaded afterward via USB or even streamed line via a wireless connection to a computer, tablet or smartphone for tracking of activity in real time.
This is reportedly the first time that MEMS (Micro Electro-Mechanical Systems) technology has been built-in a tennis racquet, but something tells us this won’t be the last. And while this information could be used to help train, it can also be used by those watching the game as well. A prototype was shown off at the French Open, where the audience could get stats on shot type, power and consistency in real time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdLeUxEEzsk

Babolat Official Website

CDC finds 63% of teens play #exergames

Having researchers add the category of active video games / exergames to the list of activities on the Compendium of Physical Activities and the current inclusion in the NYPANS survey are great steps into letting more people to understand their potential. I worry however that they have not considered other categories of exergaming or game platforms besides the ones listed.

Brener ND, Eaton DK, Kann LK, McManus TS, Lee SM, Scanlon KS, Fulton JE, & O'Toole TP (2013). Behaviors Related to Physical Activity and Nutrition Among U.S. High School Students. The Journal of adolescent health : official publication of the Society for Adolescent Medicine PMID: 23796969

Behaviors Related to Physical Activity and Nutrition Among U.S. High School Students

Abstract

National data related to physical activity (PA) and nutrition among adolescents are needed to help develop effective obesity prevention programs. The 2010 National Youth Physical Activity and Nutrition Study (NYPANS) was conducted to provide nationally representative data on behaviors and behavioral correlates related to healthy eating and PA.

NYPANS used a three-stage cluster sample design to obtain data representative of public- and private-school students in grades 9 through 12 in the United States (n = 11,429). Students completed an anonymous, self-administered questionnaire in their classrooms during a regular class period. Trained data collectors directly measured the students' height and weight at school using a standard protocol.

Analyses revealed that 19.0% of students were obese and 17.8% were overweight. Students participated in a range of physical activities during the 12 months before the survey; prevalence ranged from 5.0% for ice hockey to 83.9% for walking. In addition, 52.5% of students enjoyed the physical education classes they took at school. During the 7 days before the survey, 74.8% of students ate at least one meal or snack from a fast food restaurant, with black students more likely than white and Hispanic students to have done so. Forty-one percent of students always or most of the time have a TV on while eating dinner at home.

These and other NYPANS results can be used to develop obesity prevention programs that address specific behaviors and behavioral correlates, and target subgroups in which behaviors and behavioral correlates related to obesity are most prevalent.

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Wii Fit to improve balance in elderly (#Exergame Study)

Feasibility of Wii Fit training to improve clinical measures of balance in older adults

Kathleen A Bieryla and Neil M Dold

Numerous interventions have been proposed to improve balance in older adults with varying degrees of success. A novel approach may be to use an off-the-shelf video game system utilizing real-time force feedback to train older adults. The purpose of this study is to investigate the feasibility of using Nintendo’s Wii Fit for training to improve clinical measures of balance in older adults and to retain the improvements after a period of time.

Methods

Twelve healthy older adults (aged >70 years) were randomly divided into two groups. The experimental group completed training using Nintendo’s Wii Fit game three times a week for 3 weeks while the control group continued with normal activities. Four clinical measures of balance were assessed before training, 1 week after training, and 1 month after training: Berg Balance Scale (BBS), Fullerton Advanced Balance (FAB) scale, Functional Reach (FR), and Timed Up and Go (TUG). Friedman two-way analysis of variance by ranks was conducted on the control and experimental group to determine if training using the Wii Balance Board with Wii Fit had an influence on clinical measures of balance.

Results

Nine older adults completed the study (experimental group n = 4, control group n = 5). The experimental group significantly increased their BBS after training while the control group did not. There was no significant change for either group with FAB, FR, and TUG.

Conclusion

Balance training with Nintendo’s Wii Fit may be a novel way for older adults to improve balance as measured by the BBS.

Bieryla K.A. & Dold N.M. (2013). Feasibility of Wii Fit training to improve clinical measures of balance in older adults., Clinical interventions in aging, PMID: 23836967
 

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Customization in Games:You are the Designer, Director & Player

The buzz on the street is all about customization and in the learning world we call it differentiated learning, in the games world it's customization, in the accessibility world it's usability and customization...either way you shake it, it comes out better for the user.

If you could design an exergame or improve an existing one, what features would you add to make it even more awesome?