The Quest for the Perfect ExerGame

As a highly visual thinker I can sometimes struggle to verbally articulate some of my more abstract (eccentric?) ideas. I would much prefer a diagram any day. However, today I added a new word to my vocabulary

Propinquity

It refers to nearness or proximity and embodies the likelihood of some form of interaction occurring. It would generally be used to refer to physical or psychological nearness. Interestingly it was way back in 1977 that Felipe Korzenny proposed a Theory of Electronic Propinquity just as electronic forms of communication were beginning to become more commonplace. I guess the author would never have envisaged the communication revolution that occurred some 25 years later with the advent of social media (i.e. Web 2.0) technologies.

So no matter where you are on the planet, if you have an internet connection, you can experience electronic propinquity. Over the next week or so I will be covering the Games for Health Conference 2009 (11-12th June, Baltimore, US) using a variety of social media tools and hope to provide an interactive and engaging experience. I am not alone in this venture having been drafted into a team put together by a good colleague of mine Biray Alsac.

 
Biray and her uber-geeky, super-awesome, digitally-healthy, fun-and-fit exergaming colleagues get together to share their collective experiences and thoughts from the Games for Health Conference 2009 via text, photos, podcasts, videos and more!

See what all the fuss is about (i.e. utilize Electronic Propinquity) here at: http://befitwithbiray.com/games4health/

Early last month I was passing close to the location of Distance Lab in the north-east of Scotland and was able to take up an outstanding invitation. The lab has arisen phoenix like from the ashes of a previous MIT Europe Lab venture in Dublin. They have a wide and varied selection of projects in development with a focus on overcoming barriers of distance, particular in remote areas.

The have a novel ExerGame called “Remote Impact” that they have developed that enables players to “box at a distance” except that it is in fact a carefully concealed mattress that you get stuck into. Your opponents image is projected onto the screen and you have to duck and dive at the same time as trying to score hits.

Quite a large set-up that needs a good bit of space.

Great fun and has tremendous potential as a platform to develop a new genre of games.

Looks like I am going to need some more practice….

Thanks to everybody at Distance Lab for being so welcoming and I will be keeping a close eye on future project developments.

Please note that no humans were harmed in the making of this post.