Exergame Fitness Canada

As seen on: Be Fit With Biray
Original Article Here: http://befitwithbiray.com/2008/06/06/exergames-gain-momentum/

The field of exergaming and ‘games for health’ continue to grow. The momentum is strong and the scientists, programmers and health/fitness professionals have been rapidly pushing its research, development, and application. I’ve been following and even participating in some of these discussions, and I thought I’d share some highlights from the past few weeks!

Last month’s Games For Health Conference brought interesting topics to the table in the area of exergaming. Although I was unable to attend the conference this year, most of the powerpoint presentations have been made available on SlideShare for viewing. Check out the Inland Empire Health Plan (IEHP) presentation which discusses how exergames and healthcare combine (they have been working together with Ernie Medina, Jr and XRTainment Zone). Another interesting note: Hope Lab’s motto “Lead with Fun, Health Will Follow” seems to be the attitude to have when developing games. Check out their presentation which also features the results of their mega-gaming contest Ruckus Nation. Also, although we hear about kids being the focus of most exergamming programs, DanceTown has designed an interesting game for ‘Gray Gamers’ (elder population). This is just the tip of the iceberg, 33+ other slideshows from the conference that have also been uploaded.

I also had a chance last month to meet with exergame physiologist Alasdair Thin, PhD. All the way from Scotland, his 3-week American tour included the Games For Health Conference in Baltimore and visits with fellow exergamers across the nation, with stops into Florida, California, and Canada. I was delighted to host the Phoenix leg of his trip. We spent the day talking about the G4H conference (check out his presentation on Designing Body-Movement Controlled Video Games to Maximize Energy Expenditure) and discussing various topics in gaming, technology, health education/promotion. (Our conversations were also inspired by the 2-hour hike up Squaw Peak Mountain – breathtaking!) Alasdair’s visit coincided with the US launch of the Wii-Fit (which was launched in the UK months earlier, so he already had one). One key question he left me with to ponder: “What makes a perfect exergame?”

I connected with the world’s first Exergaming Personal Trainer! Luke Pyper (from the UK) actually trains clients from their homes using various exergames! He has a group on Facebook “Keeping Fit with Video Game Consoles” and also writes various articles for GamePeople where he tackles various games and does exhaustive reviews of them – check out his verdict on Dance Dance Revolution.

And fellow group fitness instructor/trainer Raina Casarez (aka Penda), the Goddess of Virtual Fitness, launched a “Let’s Get Moving Community Fitness Day” in Atlanta located at ‘Welcome All Park & Facilities’. Group exercise instructors, personal trainers, yoga and dancers instructors gathered to showcase their innovative fitness classes to the community (for free!). Penda, of course, demonstrated her Wii and Dance Dance Revolution classes! Many instructors had not been exposed to video games, and for some, it was their first experience with these games. Although the event was to get the community moving, Penda’s goal was to get fellow fitness professionals excited about exergaming! Listen to her radio show episode that discusses details of the event here!

Innovation is everywhere, as you can clearly see! Exergames have arrived and are being incorporated into all aspects of health and fitness. This will advance our industry in ways we’ve never imagined and change the way we teach and train people around the world!

BALTIMORE and WASHINGTON, May 8 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Four major emerging trends — exergaming kicks into high gear, video games go to rehab and therapy, major health care providers arrive on the scene, and the rise of video games for first responders and medical professionals – were highlighted today during a telenews event conducted by organizers of the Games for Health national conference (http://www.gamesforhealth.org) taking place May 8-9, 2008 at the Baltimore Convention Center.

Drawing on 60 planned presentations by 75 speakers, Games for Health conference highlights trends including:

• Video games go to rehab and therapy. In a Games for Health conference highlight, a version of the popular video game Guitar Hero will be unveiled that is designed to aid arm amputee rehabilitation … Red Hill Studios will present its findings about the use of PDWii to aid balance and mobility in Parkinson’s patients. PDWii is currently being developed by Red Hill Studios and the UCSF School of Nursing, with funding by the NIH. Quantifiable results are being used to track patient progress and are being integrated into the patient’s overall regime. Results will be used to benefit further innovations in the field of games for health … For younger patients, there is Ditto, a “multi-modal distraction device” designed to control pain and stress among patients undergoing burn and orthopedic medical procedures.

• Exergaming kicks into high gear. One Games For Health panel will explore how exergaming in gyms and other settings can be used to combine physical activity and fun. Another presentation will focus on “Zyked” – a set of online and mobile services designed to be for working out what Xbox Live! is for videogames. Zyked’s creator Tom Soderlund will present the basics behind Zyked and report on how the first batch of user tests are going. Soderlund will also present how Zyked intends to work with a multitude of portable devices including digital music players, digital athletic gear and mobile phone platforms. Dr. Alasdair Thin of Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, Scotland, will outline in “Go for the Burn: Designing Body-Movement Controlled Video Games to Maximise Energy Expenditure” his thoughts about how to future exergame design should work to ensure maximum health benefits.

• Major health care providers arrive on the scene. For the first time ever, a major U.S. health care insurance company, Humana, is a primary sponsor of the Games for Health conference. The sponsorship reflects the medical community’s increasing interest in the potential of games. Representatives from several of the largest health insurance plan providers in the United States will convene in a plenary session at the conference to detail the game-related efforts they’ve launched to date and their view about what is needed for the future to use games and games technology to solve critical problems in health they and others are facing … Another new development: the K.I.C.K. (Kid’s Interactive Creation Kiosk) is a touch screen system and software activity package developed with young children in mind. Initial design of the system was focused on hospital waiting rooms and other similar healthcare settings. Developed by a team of graduate students at Carnegie Mellon’s Entertainment Technology Center, the project was originally titled “Project ER” and aimed to lower stress for 60,000 children who visited Pittsburgh Medical Centers ER each year. During the test run, the project gathered considerable research on how to deploy such systems in healthcare settings and will share this knowledge during a case presentation of the K.I.C.K. system. In order to see games for health play a greater role in settings where healthcare is delivered, significant hardware and software delivery problems need to be solved.

• The rise of games for first responders and medical professionals. Conference attendees will have an opportunity to play with 3DiTeams. Funded by the U.S. Army Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center (TATRC), 3DiTeams was developed by Virtual Heroes with Duke University’s Human Simulation and Patient Safety Center, and lets people interact with a fully 3D simulation of emergency health care environments … Medical Cyberworlds is a startup in the process of creating an online multiplayer game to train doctors to communicate more effectively with their patients. Dr. Fred Kron, the founder and CEO of the company and Noah Falstein, the lead designer will present an update at the conference on the state of the project and discuss the challenging process of encouraging effective collaboration between physicians, academics, and game developers.

Other conference highlights include a presentation by Nina Fefferman of Tufts University about the “Corrupted Blood Syndrome” content of the popular World of Warcraft online game. In September 2005, designers and programmers at Blizzard Entertainment created new game content for Blizzard’s mega-hit massive multiplayer online game World of Warcraft that inadvertently unleashed an in-game epidemic. Later called the Corrupted Blood Disease, this virtual virus event was well covered in game and technical press but little else about this event and what insights it might offer to epidemiologists has been presented. Fefferman will present her work looking into the Corrupted Blood Disease as an epidemiological event. The talk will cover what knowledge of the event exists outside of Blizzard, developer of World of Warcraft, and based on interviews with Blizzard staff. While this is not the first game-based epidemiological event in a game or virtual world, the Corrupted Blood Disease event is one of the most famous and interesting to date and provides an outline of the roles games can play in improving our understanding and possible responses to such events in the future.

ABOUT GAMES FOR HEALTH

Founded in 2004, the Games for Health Project supports community, knowledge and business development efforts to use cutting-edge games and game technologies to improve health and health care. The Pioneer Portfolio of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is the lead conference sponsor and a major supporter of the Games for Health Project. Over three days, more than 300 attendees will participate in over 60 sessions provided by an international array of 75 speakers, cutting across a wide range of activities in health and health care. Topics include exergaming, physical therapy, disease management, health behavior change, biofeedback, epidemiology, training, cognitive exercise, nutrition and health education. This year’s conference includes presentations by Dr. Richard Satava; Starlight Foundation; HopeLab; Realtime Associates; Virtual Heroes; XRtainment Zone; Archimage; Dr. Mark Baldwin of MindHabits; Electric Owl Studios; Noah Falstein of The Inspiracy; and Games for Health co-founder Ben Sawyer.

The Games for Health Project is produced by the Serious Games Initiative, a Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars effort that applies cutting-edge games and game technologies to a range of public and private policy, leadership and management issues. The project also produces the Games for Health Conference, now in its fourth year. The Initiative founded Games for Health to develop a community and best practices platform for the numerous games being built for health care applications. To date, the project has brought together researchers, medical professionals and game developers to share information about the impact games and game technologies can have on health, health care and policy. For more information, visit www.gamesforhealt
h.org.

EDITOR’S NOTE: A streaming audio replay of the Games for Health telenews event held today will be available on the Web at http://www.gamesforhealth.org as of 6 p.m. EDT.

Website: http://www.gamesforhealth.org/

What if you could turn video games, criticized for everything from their obsessive hold on users to their purported role in childhood obesity to their misogynist elements, into something, well, healthy? That’s the idea behind “exergaming”: physically interactive video games, controllers, and systems that aim to get your heart rate up without making you feel like you’re doing penance. This whole emerging discipline is about to get a big bump with the release next week of Nintendo’s Wii Fit, which is already flying off the shelves in Asia and Europe and is likely to be in short supply here, too.

Gaming sites and reviewers are weighing in; here’s what the New York Times testers had to say, here’s how the Wall Street Journal liked the system, and here’s how CNET reviewed the game. (Another blogger has a review based on a month of use in Japan.)

Wii Fit consists of a $90 balance board that’s combined with the original Wii console to let users progress through a series of activities that include simple yoga positions, hula-hooping, and ski-jumping. The original Wii wasn’t specifically intended to give users a good workout, but some people have reported sore muscles and joints, and at least one doctor has self-diagnosed a condition he dubbed Wiitis. Regular old Wii involves movement to play virtual sports like bowling and tennis, but technique often triumphs over physical effort.

Wii Fit is not the first exergame; EyeToy, a camera add-on to the PlayStation 2, has a series of fitness-oriented games. And before that, there was Dance Dance Revolution, the game that got kids hopping enthusiastically in the arcade and then in front of their home TV sets—and even, in some places, in P.E. class. But DDR was created as an entertaining game. Then people noticed it also worked up a sweat. Now, interest in exergaming is growing, given the potential to get both kids and adults off their ever-expanding butts. It was one of four major trends discussed at the national Games for Health conference, held in Baltimore earlier this month, and researchers are trying to figure out how best to assess and design these games.

Academics have already studied some of the older games. Researchers at the Mayo Clinic concluded in 2006 that kids who traded passive video games for EyeToy games and Dance Dance Revolution became three times as active. Another study, published last year in Pediatric Exercise Science, found that in kids, the exertion from playing the more active games is comparable to skipping, jogging, brisk walking, and climbing stairs. (It’s unclear whether users will burn off less energy as they get better, and more efficient, at the games.) Earlier this year, researchers reported in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity that a group of 10 kids randomly assigned to get an active video game setup added to their PlayStation 2 spent less time on all kinds of video games and more time being physically active than a control group that had only the conventional console.

The games that are more likely to burn calories involve the larger muscle groups in the legs, not just arm movements, says Alasdair Thin, a physiology researcher at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh who looks at exergames. That’s likely why Dance Dance Revolution has come out ahead in studies comparing it with the EyeToy, which doesn’t involve vigorous leg movements in many of its games (one exception: EyeToy Kinetic, a personal-training program).

In the future, we need to “tease out what aspects of the games are beneficial,” says Stephen Yang, co-director of the Physical Activity Research Laboratory at the State University of New York -Cortland. (He also has an exergaming blog.) The more chances players have to make changes and decisions—to customize the game, to some extent—the more likely people are to stick with it, says Yang. Increased feedback from a game system, in the form of tips or heart rate information, helps keep users hooked, he adds. So does a system that allows players to compete or collaborate with others.

Researchers say the games aren’t likely to be suited to everyone, or to replace other sports or activities. But they may be a gateway for people who aren’t already moving on a regular basis, especially exercise novices who are more comfortable being active at home than in a more public place like a gym. Users of Dance Dance Revolution say their primary reason for playing is for fun, says Debra Lieberman, director of Health Games Research, a program funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation that examines how active games can improve health. People find it easier to stick to an exercise program when doesn’t feel like work.

When you look at the stats on obesity and nutrition, especially among kids and teens, “obviously, we’ve failed,” says Yang. “We’ve got to right the ship, to bring back play, free time, and games.”

Baltimore’s Games For Health conference saw exergaming crop up as a recurring theme, from game designer and Gamasutra/Game Developer contributor Noah Falstein’s previously reported review of its history, to XRtainment Zone co-founder and CEO Ernie Medina, Jr., DrPH, CHFI presenting his experiences launching a company dedicated to bringing exergaming to the masses.

Medina – who claimed his parents wouldn’t let him play games as a kid which led him to open his own gaming facilities – has been considering the idea of a gaming-themed fitness center for years, and first experimented with that R&D at the ESPN Zone sports restaurants. When conceiving his own exergaming facility, however, he wanted to bring his degrees in public health to bear in creating something more medically-informed.

Medina quoted former U.S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona, who said “the greatest threat to national security is pediatric obesity,” adding that most students fail their fitness exams, with blame often laid on “recreational screen time.” Medina saw a way for exergaming to make exercise more attractive for those who are receptive to gaming, while still fulfilling the government’s recommended daily hour of exercise.

After opening in Redlands, California and conducting a local advertizing campaign, the XRtainment Zone facility was successful, but Medina explained that the concept still has challenges. For one thing, it can be tough marketing the center as a “family fitness and wellness center” and maintaining a reputation as a serious establishment. “We don’t want to be seen as a fat gym,” he said.

Often when parents entered the center and saw numerous video games, Medina said, they were immediately dubious about its legitimacy. Medina described two approaches that helped circumvent the issue: classes for specific regimens such as swimming and dancing, which eventually transition into full-scale memberships, and the introduction of more traditional exercise equipment alongside the exergaming machines.

That second approach has the secondary benefit of making the video game exercise games look more attractive in comparison, which in turn helps elsewhere. “The games are fun and exciting and all, but once the newness wears off, the excitement can go away,” said Medina, stressing the importance of new programs as well as incentives.

According to Medina, children have lost from 7-17 pounds in seven-week courses. “Some exergaming facilities don’t even measure outcomes,” he said, cautioning against tracking participant progress. Leaderboards, a common feature of traditional multiplayer gaming, have proven encouraging among customers as well.

He remains a strong advocate of traditional exercise and, like those who claim Harry Potter is bringing new long-term readers into the world, believes that this kind of gaming facility is a “gateway gym” to more traditional exercise. One 12-year-old told Medina, “I don’t like to exercise, but playing here I get a great workout and it doesn’t feel like exercise.”

Looking forward, Medina believes the field needs more research in order to convince insurance partners and non-profit organizations that exergaming is not simply intended as entertainment but is true medical intervention. Specialized, more durable hardware is also needed – most gaming equipment is manufactured for simple consumer use.

“If the gaming industry can see the excitement and potential market in the fitness and the casual market, it would be exciting if they’ll start developing for it,” he said. He floated potential ideas such as tying exercise equipment to online worlds such as Webkinz, with players’ avatars reflecting their real-life fitness. Even professional exergaming was thrown out as one avenue for greater visibility.

On a personal note, Medina pointed to his own father, who suffered from a stroke. The only thing that was able to get his dad exercising in the aftermath? The Wii.

Humana has announced the launch of its Web site. The Web site will help guide customers through its latest concept, Games for Health. Humana has also partnered with schools in Kentucky and Florida for pilot programs in the area of fitness and games technology for students.

Streaming audio from the conference: http://www.hastingsgroupmedia.com/GolinHarris/050808GamesforHealth.wma

“We’re pleased to be moving forward in this exciting new space so quickly with these latest initiatives,” stated Paul Puopolo, director of consumer innovation at Humana. “This new website and our school programs are the first of many opportunities that we’ve tested and identified as areas where Humana can connect the health of consumers with a technology they enjoy. We are committed to creating new ways for people of all ages to reach new levels of health through games and entertainment.”

The Web site has been launched in parallel with the fourth annual national Games for Health Conference in Baltimore. The site provides an interactive brochure for information on Humana’s programs and details on the health benefits of game technology. Users can explore the applications of games with healthy benefits. The site includes instructions on ways to contact Humana’s Games for Health team to partner or to order games on future game development.

Humana is also the sponsor of the Games for Health Conference, first time any health insurer has sponsored the event. Humana has organized and will participate in the keynote panel with health insurers to assess games for health opportunities. It also hosts the “Exergaming Expo Room” and a space for health game developers to take new initiatives.

“If we want to make use of Games to the fullest extent as a medium to improve health and health behavior, we need to continue the interdisciplinary exchange and collaboration between the healthcare industry, research communities, game developers and other stakeholders,” said Miguel Encarnacao, director of Emerging Technology Applications for Humana and architect of its Games for Health initiative. “While the results of our early pilot programs are promising, there is still a long way ahead of us. Further research and business case development needs to be conducted. This conference is a pivotal starting point and we are looking forward to seeing what comes out of this conference.”

To involve students with their health and games, Humana started the HorsePower Challenge for students at middle schools in its headquarters city of Louisville, Kentucky. Each of the students wore pedometers for four weeks and their activity levels were recorded. As a result, the students had walked a collective 6,364 miles, which was a 10 percent increase compared to the previous four weeks.

Games For Health: Noah Falstein On Exergaming History

In an intriguing presentation delivered at the 2008 Games For Health conference in Baltimore, longtime game designer and frequent Gamasutra/Game Developer contributor Noah Falstein (pictured) related the history of “exergaming,” which has recently come into greater public awareness with high-profile titles such as Wii Fit.

Falstein pointed out that the concept of exercise married to video games goes back farther than most aware – when he was working on the classic Sinistar in 1983, publisher Williams Electronics brainstormed arcade concepts that included hooking up game machines to exercise equipment.

His concept, a flight game controlled by a stationary bicycle proved too expensive at the time. (Later in the presentation, Falstein cited a Namco-developed 1996 hang-gliding game, Prop Cycle, controlled by an exercise bike, though the game was not successful.) A realized idea came two years later with RJ Mical’s Amiga Joyboard, used to control a skiing game.

Foreshadowing eventual Wii marketing, Bandai released the floor-based Power Pad controller for NES in 1987 with the ad copy, “Where the family gets into tip top shape and has a marvelous time doing it.” A variety of Power Pad games as well as other similar peripherals were released around the same time.

Numerous attempts were made in the early to mid-1990s to successfully get gamers in shape while keeping them entertained, but few made a big impact on the gaming world – Falstein described the underlying problem as, “Nobody wants to go to an arcade to work up a sweat.”

That maxim was proven wrong towards the end of the decade with Konami’s blockbuster Dance Dance Revolution. “This really was the title that proved it was possible to make it popular,” Falstein said. “This is the rare example of something that was designed purely as a fun game that has become successful as an exercise game.” Since its introduction, the game has even been used in public school physical education programs.

Falstein pointed to DDR’s huge success as the spark that “opened up” gaming to physical applications, with factors such as growing childhood obesity concerns and the graphical fidelity of modern gaming systems contributing to the lasting success as well. Popular games like the DDR can be found at the Exergame Fitness website or Motion Kids website.

He brought up a number of recent examples of fitness-conscious games and products, such as Respondesign’s Yourself!Fitness for PS2 and Xbox, similar to an exercise video but more dynamic and adaptable; the EyeToy games for PS2, which encourage physical activity but, like many Wii games, can be played with considerably less effort; and Powergrid’s heavily physical Kilowatt controller for PS2, Xbox, and PC.

Current and upcoming titles singled out by Falstein include the Konami-published DS trainer Let’s Yoga as well as Nintendo’s worldwide smash hit Wii Sports and its imminent Wii Fit.

Falstein was sure to note that both fun and fitness properties are necessary in exergaming. Some titles are released as entertainment with added exercise, some as exercise with added fun. “I think there’s room in the market for both those things,” he said. There are two important markets to target: existing gamers who can get suckered into exercising, and those who are already keen on exercise but have not traditionally played video games.

The games that are most successful both as commercial offerings and as actual fitness aids are those that cannot easily be cheated, such as DDR – as Falstein points out, human nature is such that if players can succeed at the game with less physical effort, they will do so. Products such as the EyeToy and the Wii are easily exploited in this area.

Looking forward, Falstein sees technologies such as GPS and alternate reality making their way into the segment, with positional sensors getting better and cheaper as time goes on. Concepts such as biofeedback, brain monitoring, and skin response are also on the horizon. Ambitious installation games such as wall climbing are possible as well, even if they preclude home use.

Speaking both to the immersive power of games as well as their potential fitness applications, Falstein noted that he “burns so many more calories” when dedicating his concentration to Advance Wars while on a stationary bike – he is able to keep himself pedaling far more easily than when he is reading or watching TV. “I’ll have trouble walking after I get off the bike,” he said.

POSTED: 05.00PM PST, 05/09/08