Exergame Fitness Canada

Check out the Lightspace Play Floor and Wall system. We took these pictures today in Boston, MA at the Lightspace play headquarters!

TUSCALOOSA Avery Jones stood tentatively, clutching a red balloon to his chest. His eyes followed a cluster of red lights moving within the floor beneath his feet. He watched the cluster bounce from one side to the next, tightening his grip on the balloon with each change of the light’s direction.

The light continued to bounce until, finally, it set its course toward him. Before Jones could step out of the cluster’s path, it passed under his weight, exploding into tiny green squares.
Avery Jones was out.

This scene isn’t out of a science fiction novel — it happened Saturday afternoon at the YMCA of Tuscaloosa County, where Jones and a host of other children got their first look at “Lightspace,” a game in the center’s new Kids Zone.

After taking the stairs directly ahead of the front desk, the room of red, yellow and blue-painted walls opens up and is filled with video games that kids play with their bodies, not hand-held controllers.

Byron Langdon, YMCA sports director, said the YMCA needed a place that kids between the ages of 6 and 14 could hang out, since they are too big for day care and too young to use the facility’s fitness center.

Langdon said the idea for the new area came from a Chicago YMCA that recently added the same program to their facility with the help of Motion Fitness, a company that sells and installs the games.

After touring the Chicago YMCA, Langdon said he knew it would be the perfect addition to the new Kids Zone. With the help of the YMCA Men’s Club, the idea became a reality.

“Exergame Fitness” came in the first part of April and installed the games and we played with them for a few weeks to make sure everything was working,” he said.

The YMCA’s Kids Zone contains four areas of play. “Lightspace Play Floor” is an interactive floor surface made up of programmable light and pressure-sensitive tiles on a 10-square-foot dance floor. “Lightspace” has eight games, including Dodgeball, which Avery Jones enjoyed, and a game called “Bug Invasion” in which different colored tiles or “bugs” pop up all over the surface for players to stomp on to score points.
The “Makoto” area looks a bit like a boxing ring with three posts. Each post has a number of lights on it that, when lit, signal players to hit them with special gloves or sticks.
Across from “Makoto” are a pair of exercise bikes hooked up to a video game console, which allows players to control racing games with the bikes.

But easily the most well-known area to most kids will be “Dance Dance Revolution,” a popular arcade game in which players step on arrows corresponding to the music and cues on the screen.
Langdon said the games require movement, which helps keep kids in shape. “We’re trying to do something for child obesity,” Langdon said. “You know, all these games are fun, but you’re always moving.” Crystal Jones, Avery’s mother, said her children enjoyed the games.

“It was fun and it’s something that combines play and physical activity. They really enjoyed it,” she said.

Langdon said the Kids Zone is available to members for free and non-members must pay for daylong passes.

The YMCA plans on renting the space for birthday parties and special events.
“It’s been great,” he said. “It’s all active, so any time kids can jump around and hit stuff with sticks and not get in trouble, they’re all for it.”

About Exergame Fitness:
Exergame Fitness is the world’s largest distributor & supplier of Active Gaming products to YMCA’s, Schools, JCC’s. Park Districts, Health Clubs, Hospitals, Kid Zones, Family Entertainment Centers, Casinos, Government/VA and more. Exergame Fitness provides Facility Planning & Installation, Grant & Funding Assistance, Program Design & Product Training, Turnkey Marketing Support, Free Layout Designs & Concepts, Detailed Programming Curriculums, Finance & Lease Options and more. Exergame Fitness offers the lowest prices on any of the products they carry backed by a 110% Lowest Price Guarantee.

The All new Lightspace Play Wall combines the latest in interactive technology with software controlled content that will provide hours of fun and exercise for kids and adults of all ages and abilities. The system is capable of storing and running a potentially limitless variety of games and interactive programs that can be used by multiple participants simultaneously. The Lightspace Play Wall creates an engaging experience that will draw young children, teenagers and adults to activities what will excite and entertain them, all while keeping them active and fit.

Geared toward players of varying ages and skill levels, each game, whether single player or multiplayer, offers unique challenges and exciting game play. Games include everything from throwing balls at moving targets, to cardio workouts where users follow and activate different points on the surface. All games have scoring systems that give users instant feedback with individual goals to achieve.

Tommy Seilheimer VP of Exergame Fitness adds:
“We are very excited to see the launch of the Lightspace Wall because it has everything we are looking for in a product. It has an arcade style touch-screen cabinet and the colors on the LED wall panels are ultra vibrant. It delivers a fun atmosphere for the room it is in and best of all we see kids “smiling and sweating it up” trying to beat eachother’s high scores.

At Exergame Fitness all of the products we carry are tested in our research and development center located in Palatine, Illinois. When testing the Lightspace Play Floor, the mini-games on the wall generated voluntary game play from the kids and at some points, we just couldn’t seem to get them off it to test it ourselves.

The Lightspace Play Floor system was one of our top selling products in 2008, and now we are happy to be delivering the Lightspace Play Wall system as an alternative solution to other interactive wall products that are outdated and have complicated programming.

This is a perfect product foor YMCA’s, Schools, Park Districts, Churches, Doctor Offices, Kid Zone and more. The Lightspace Play Wall has an attractive pricepoint and is easy on the budget. it is very simple to use, engaging and we have seen great results from this product.”

The Lightspace Play Wall includes an interactive surface made up of LED-lit and pressure-sensitive tiles constructed to fit an 8’ by 4’ (2,44m x 1,2m) footprint. Each tile is 16” by 16” and 2.5 inches thick (406mm x 406mm x 61mm).

The tiles are able to detect the location, movement and force of participants or objects, creating a realistic gaming experience with instant feedback displayed on the surface or through sound effects.

The Lightspace Play Wall is available at http://www.exergamefitness.com/. Call 877.668.4664 or email at info@exergamefitness.com

About Exergame Fitness Find Out More About Us Here
Exergame Fitness is the world’s largest distributor & supplier of Exergaming, Exerlearning, Kids Fitness Products & Solutions to YMCA’s, Schools, JCC’s. Park Districts, Health Clubs, Hospitals, Kid Zones, Family Entertainment Centers, Casinos, Government/VA and more. Exergame Fitness provides Facility Planning & Installation, Grant & Funding Assistance, Program Design & Product Training, Turnkey Marketing Support, Free Layout Designs & Concepts, Detailed Programming Curriculums, Finance & Lease Options and more. Exergame Fitness offers the lowest prices on any of the products they carry backed by a 110% Lowest Price Guarantee.

April 28, 2008

The Games for Health Conference has announced full details on the line-up for its 2008 conference, to be held May 8th and 9th, 2008, at the Baltimore Convention Center in Baltimore,
MD.

USA Exergaming distributors Exergame Fitness and Motion Kids will be attending the Games 4 Health conference and showcasing one of the most exciting products in 2008 called the Lightspace Play developed by Lightspace Corp. Lightspace Corp, Motion Kids & Exergame Fitness have partnered up to bring the Exergaming community one of the most in demand products out today. The Lightspace Play will be available for everyone to try out and to see just what this amazing interactive piece can do for your facility.

For more information on the Lightspace Play Floor and Lightspace Play Wall please call 866.245.3036

or visit www.exergamefitness.com or www.motionkids.com.

More than 300 attendees are expected to participate in over 60 sessions held by an international collection of 75 speakers – the full line-up is now available on the website.

The Games for Health Project, which has produced the conference the past four years, has posted its agenda for the three-day event (pre-conference workshops on virtual worlds and health will be held on May 7th), revealing a diverse selection of meetings covering “the intersection of next-generation game technologies, health, and health care.”

“This conference provides a forum for collaborations to emerge between the video game industry and the health and health care industry,” said Chinwe Onyekere, RWJF program officer. “Through these exchanges, we hope attendees will continue to explore how the power of video games can help to solve complex health challenges.”