Scottish academic, Dr Alasdair Thin, from Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh is a man on a gaming mission with one important difference, in that it is being played out in real life across the US.
Dr Thin was in Baltimore, Maryland yesterday to give a research presentation entitled “Going for the Burn” yesterday afternoon at the Games for Health Conference 2008. In his talk he presented a summary of a number of laboratory studies he has conducted into the factors that affect the level of energy expenditure required to play an number of different genres of “ExerGames”.
Speaking after giving his presentation, Dr Thin said “I am delighted to be here in Baltimore at the Games for Health conference and share my work. There are some really creative people here with some great ideas.”
Dr Thin’s quest started in earnest a couple of weeks ago (April 25), when he collected two reserved Wii Fit balance boards from a local toy store on the morning of the Europe-wide launch. He took them into his exercise physiology teaching laboratory and by 10:40 am he had started an experiment to collect some data on the physical exertion required to play two of the aerobic games (Step Aerobic and Hula Hoop). The Wii Fit games were two in a series of 7 activities in an ExerGaming Arcade he had set up for his students.
In describing his motivation for setting the experiment, Dr Thin said “This term I was teaching a short course in Physical Activity and Health Promotion to some final year undergraduate students. In planning the session, I thought that there was no way that they should graduate in a couple of months without seeing the latest developments in the field of ExerGaming. For them, it was a once in a lifetime opportunity!”
There was no time for any familiarization sessions and the students had around 6 minutes actual play time on each game as they moved round them in a randomized order. Treadmill walking and a traditional video game were included for comparison. The students wore recording heart rate belts throughout the session and the highest 30 second average heart rate was used to compare the games.
The Wii Fit Hula Hoop game came out the highest with a mean peak heart rate of 134 beats per minute, which would put it towards the upper end of moderate intensity exercise.
Commenting on the results Dr Thin said, “The results for the Hula Hoop game were surprising for such a relatively simple game. With a bit of practice you would expect players to reach the hard exercise category. Whilst the students rated the skill level required to play it as pretty low, they also indicated that it was great fun.”
Dr Thin’s quest for the “Perfect” ExerGame now starts in earnest and for the next 12 days, he will be traveling across the US to via Florida, Phoenix and the Greater Los Angeles area to meet with people in the working in the field of ExerGaming.
The aim of his visits are to get a snapshot of the wide range of activities that are going on under the heading of “Health Promoting Active Video Games.” He is supported in this travels by a grant from the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland.
Asked about the motivation for his work, Dr Thin said,
“In order to maximize the potential health benefits of ExerGaming, there is a clear need to understand how to elicit an exercise intensity towards the upper rather than the lower end of the aerobic training zone. Or to put it another way. What makes a “Good” Exergame?”
he continued,
“It is my great hope that appropriately designed ExerGames can be a stepping stone to helping people become regularly physically active.”
Finally, before returning to Scotland, Dr Thin will be speaking at an “ExerGaming” research symposium at the International Society for Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity’s 2008 annual conference (May 21-24) in Banff, Alberta, Canada.
Background
In order to maximize the potential health benefits of ExerGaming, there is a clear need to understand how to elicit an exercise intensity towards the upper rather than the lower end of the aerobic training zone. Or to put it another way. What makes a “Good” Exergame?
Dr Thin’s talk at the Games for Health conference included a review of a series of experiments conducted in his laboratory over several years into a number of different body-movement controlled video games from a variety of different genres (martial arts, dance, fitness/aerobic, boxing and fitness/combat).
Primary measures included heart rate and oxygen consumption and were intended to assess the level of physical exertion required to play the games. In addition to the cardiorespiratory measurements, a range of other factors that were considered to affect the level of exertion were also assessed including hand-eye coordination, postural stability, training in martial arts and level of aerobic fitness.
The results indicated that the physical exertion required to play the games varied from moderate through to vigorous exercise and provide experimental support for active video games having a role in helping to promote and maintain a physically active lifestyle.
When comparing the results between the various genres of games, a bigger picture emerged in terms of the key factors determining energy expenditure. Dr Thin very much hopes that by having highlighted these factors in his talk, it will help guide future ExerGame game development with the health benefits very much to the fore of the design process.
Biography
Dr Alasdair G Thin BSc, PhD is an Exercise Physiologist at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, Scotland. After completing his undergraduate degree in Physiology and Sports Science at Glasgow University, he worked for a time in Health Promotion before moving into lecturing. He studied for his doctorate in Clinical Exercise Physiology at University College Dublin prior to taking up his current post. Alasdair first got into the field of “ExerGaming” after a chance encounter with the EyeToy Play games that left him somewhat breathless!
His blog GamerSizeScience - The Quest for the “Perfect” ExerGame is available at: http://www.gamersizescience.org
He has been described as “wonderfully named” (for someone doing research in the field of ExerGames) by Time Magazine in an article last Fall which included his research in an article entitled “ Video Games That Keep Kids Fit”.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1661688,00.html
His research features in the opening chapter of recently published book “Powering Up - Are Computer Game Changing Our Lives?” by Rebecca Mileham.
http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0470723106.html
pdf Except of Opening Chapter available on publishers website:
http://media.wiley.com/product_data/excerpt/06/04707231/0470723106.pdf
