The Quest for the Perfect ExerGame

It is a bit of standing joke, but with summer soccer being televised, this brings the kids out into the streets and play areas kicking a football around. Then when the Wimbledon tennis tournament starts, out come the tennis rackets. Next it is time to dust off the golf clubs when the British Open commences. Finally the football season starts and out come the footballs again, this time accompanied by the new season’s replica kit.

Except that for the past week, the weather has been very wet and cold and I haven’t seen a tennis racket in sight, despite a Scottish interest in Wimbledon. Perhaps the kids are all “ExerGaming” away with an indoor virtual tennis tournament? “You cannot be serious…”

Is “Hide and Seek” the original “ExerGame”? Well maybe, but this weekend sees a few variations on this theme with more or less technology incorporated into them at the Hide & Seek Festival in London this weekend.

Since I will be passing through London this weekend on my way to Vienna, I could help but seek it out, if you excuse the pun! There are all sorts of weird and wonderful games described on the website, so who knows what to expect…

I have been asked a few comments from a journalist for a magazine feature about “Active Computer Games” and Sport in the run up to the Olympic Games in August. As well as updating them on my research, I gave a few thoughts as to where “ExerGames” are going in the future. But didn’t feel able to make any comment as to whether or not they might someday become an “Olympic Sport”…

What? Well, just in case you think I have totally flipped – check out the Digital Games ‘08. It is a global competition with regional heats and a final in Shanghai. You don’t need really expensive facilities and a whole support team. Anybody with a games console and an internet connection can take part. Now what if we could network up a few “ExerGames” and capture some of that excitement and energy…

Or do we risk institutionalizing “ExerGames”? Let me know your thoughts – “Let the Discussions commence…”

I took a welcome time out from examination activities yesterday and attended a workshop on business skills tailored specifically for life scientists. With all the exam work piling up around me, I began to wonder if I had signed up early last month in a moment of sleep deprived madness when the jetlag was at its worst.

On reflection it was perhaps rather an inspired move. The morning session yesterday was very stimulating in helping to clarify the difference between and feature and a benefit. Personally speaking, it would appear that day-to-day scientific practice tends to focus on features and the benefits come as a bit of an after thought when trying to justify what we do. Having learnt this lesson, I realize I need to re-orientate some of my thinking.

The workshop then moved on to business models. At first this was a bit of a challenge, but once you got into the idea of basically “sell anything and everything” then ideas started to flow. On that point, perhaps I should get some merchandizing going for my blog. T-shirt or baseball cap anybody?

The first part of the afternoon session was about business development funding sources and the latter half devoted to intellectual property in a “Who wants to be a millionaire?” style format. It was good to experience it on the receiving end before considering whether or not to try it in one of my own classes. At this point I should disclose that I had previously taken a British Computer Society module in Professional Issues, so I had a reasonable handle on most of the topics. However, I still can’t get my head round software patents in the US. That reminds me, I must try and get round to taking the BCS exams.

Overall it was a stimulating and thought provoking workshop and has given me the confidence go on and explore a few possibilities…

In my 3rd life (as a slot for second life is already occupied) I manage to squeeze in some educational technology research. I am currently preparing for a poster demo I will be giving at Ed-Media 2008 in Vienna in a couple of weeks.

When checking out the program, I came across this poster Movement Based Learning: An Analysis of Dance Dance Revolution in the same session! The work to be presented “examines the possibility that dance games such as Dance Dance Revolution or StepMania enhance the cognitive abilities that are critical to academic achievement“.

If you’re interested my research involves the use of 2D barcodes (quick response codes) and is titled In-Class Utility of a Mobile Phone to Deliver Context Specific Audio Information to Students including those with Visual Impairment.

So there you have it, my 1st and 3rd worlds will be colliding at the World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia and Telecommunications in Vienna in a couple of weeks. I’ll keep you posted.

I was at the seminar today focusing on embodied interaction and computational thinking. It was very much proof of concept research and in many ways the embodied interaction part was a way of trying to make learning about computing principles fun for children.

The prototype system basically consisted of a set of wearable 2D barcodes positioned at various sites on the body, a webcam and a wiimote. This allowed the user to interact with the interface on the screen and move around and have this captured by the system. The basic concept was that of a “magic mirror” where the user is “dressed up” on screen and can act out a story.

It looked great fun and just shows what you can do with a few cheap components. Not only was the talk interesting, it stimulated some lively discussion. I had already been thinking about the continuum between “embodied technology” and “a technologized body” but another dimension emerged, that is the balance between real and virtual objects. More specifically, I could imagine an “ExerGame” that involved more that just an exercise interface, but rather a mixture of real and virtual objects that needs physical effort to manipulate them in order to play the game.

Just a thought, but what would embodied interactive work look like? If you have enough money, you can buy  really expensive tables and walls that have embedded interactive screens where you can drag and drop files round the screen to your heart’s content.

Alternatively, imaging sitting/standing in front of a computer gesturing frantically to make things happen. I know some people literally punch out letters on a keyboard, but what about in the air?

Y. M. C. A. would be pretty obvious. Also reaching up with one hand would give the number after 4 (high five)!

Any thoughts?

Oh and though in a treadmill to walk on while you are at it…

This post is about embodied interaction. As a concept it starts out as way to describe controlling a computer using physical movement. Hey, I thought – is that not what “ExerGaming” is? Well, yes I suppose it is, and that is what excites me about the concept.

Embodied interaction is described in a book by Paul Dourish. In addition to the physical dimension, it also encompasses a social dimension e.g. the user’s experience. But more than that, it suggests something dynamic and the magic word “actor”.

Which gets me nicely on to a question that fascinates me? “Are (some) ExerGames performance art?” e.g. DDR. 

Why am a blogging about this? Well there is a seminar at my institution next week on embodied interaction in the context of enabling children to program interactive adventure games using physical actions rather than having to abstract code. I shall be going along to see how the concept is developed in that field with a view to applying it to “ExerGames”.

In the process of spring cleaning my office I came across a long forgotten about running shoe box. Inside which was, wait for it…, the first computer I ever owned! An 8 bit, 48 K Oric Atmos.

 
It is hard to believe that it is 25 years old! The mobile phone in my pocket is considerably smaller, has much greater processing power and storage capacity, oh, and it can make phone calls!

Along with the computer were several games – a couple of “shoot ‘em up” space invader type games and an adventure game based on “The Hobbit”.

 Looking back now it seems like something from a previous century.

This week I have spent a good deal of time marking exam scripts. In order to give my brain a bit of a break, I have been playing a great ExerGame…called “Spring Cleaning My Office”! I have expended a great deal of energy lifting and opening rather heavy and long forgotten files. I then had a series of “sprint” events where I had to sort the contents into “good” white paper and lob it into the recycling bin with the other stuff going into a bag for “inferior” paper, card and magazines. When this gets full, the endurance event kicks in where I have to run down 3 flights of stairs to deposit the contents in a receptacle in the car park and back up again to my office. It’s hard work!

So how about it? What about an ExerGame that takes up this recycling theme and incorporates a bit of environmental awareness education at the same time?