The Quest for the Perfect ExerGame

Early start this morning in order to keep a date for some exercise. The warm up was a conventional 2 mile run with a short sharp hill at the end with a few puddles to avoid along the way. The gym at Sunny, Cortland had just taken delivery of a couple of Virtual Reality (VR) Cycling bikes (Espresso) so I just had to give one a try out. Indeed it was rather a fitting warm up to the Games for Health 2009 conference as I was about to catch a plane to Boston later in the morning.

After adjusting the bike to fit my frame, it was time to choose a course. A 5 mile mountain climb was selected on which to challenge my (real) training partner.

Off we went. It took a short while to get used to the gear changes (one button press to go up a gear another to go down). As the course was a mountain climb it was important to anticipate the changes in gradient and adjust the gears accordingly. The graphical rendering of the road wasn’t perhaps as good as it could be therefore you had to keep an eye on the course profile in order to clearly see the gradient changes coming.

I managed to keep a steady 95-100 rpm going in order to maximize my efficiency. My power output averaged 200-210 W and my heart rate was between 150-160 bpm. Only when it got really steep did I my legs start to burn. Rarely was I aware of my breathing. I completed the course in 20 minutes and I can honestly say that the engaging and immersive nature (including the steering to avoid other races and the precipitous edge of the road) of the game meant that I was almost completely distracted from the stress that was being placed on my body.

Overall it was a great ExerGaming experience and one I look forward to repeating soon.

This post has been a long time in coming and has been written several times in my head. The end of March saw my teaching commitments for the current academic year come to an end. Last summer was a shortened affair due to change in the academic calendar and it has been a long haul through the winter. The upshot of this all is that I have spent the last couple of months taking some time out to pause and reflect on my progress in the “Quest for the Perfect ExerGame”. It has given me some time to think more deeply about what exactly is so special about “ExerGaming” / Active Video Game and the potential of them.

Spring came earlier this year in the form of some uncharacteristically warm weather in April which coincided with a trip to Fort William in the west of Scotland. The town happens to be located at the bottom of the highest mountain in Scotland (and the UK). The mountain is often shrouded in cloud, but as the weather was perfect I managed to get a good, clear photo.

On reflection, there is still a large mountain to climb in my quest, but at least I can see the direction that I am headed in now. There will be many challenges to face, but I am in it for the long haul. Hey, as the saying goes, “Rome wasn’t built in a day”. However an exercise revolution has well and truly been declared. Now on to drawing up a constitution….

“The only winning strategy is to play!”
I had a bit of a nostalgic time watching the film “WarGames” last night. It seems an age ago when you had to hunch over a tacky keyboard and type in commands to have them displaced on a monochrome CRT monitor. Now we are spoilt for choice in terms of input methods and displays.
Brief synopsis of the film: Boy connects/hacks into a computer to play what he thinks are soon to be released computer games. Innocently challenging the computer to a game he in fact sets off a countdown to World War 3. Aided by a girl and the eccentric inventor, he manages to ” teach” the computer the futility of its intended course of action via a simple game of Tic Tac Toe (Noughts & Crosses) which neither player can win. The computer then simulates every possible WW3 strategy with neither side ever winning. The film ends with the computer stating that “The only winning strategy is not to play”.
What if you were to test out every strategy for the “Global War on Obesity”? Would the conclusion be:
“The only winning strategy is to play an ExerGame”??

As a new year dawns, and resolutions beckon, I trust that we can all make the best that we can of the opportunities afforded by ExerGames as a stepping-stone to starting and maintaining a physically active lifestyle.

If you are embarking on any new physical activity, remember to warm-up and cool-down and don’t over do it as unaccostomed exercise can cause muscle soreness.

At the start of 2009 my “Quest for the Perfect ExerGame” continues. I am definitely much further forward than I was at the beginning of last year, however there are still many more levels to progress through. May I wish you a Happy New Year 2009 and thank you for your continued interest.

With new developments taking place in the field of ExerGames all the time, it is hard to make any concrete predictions at this time. However, continuing my “Quest for the Perfect ExerGame” in 2009, I will be keeping a particular eye out for developments in three specific areas.

The first area I will be watching is “Networked ExerGames”. Networking ExerGames will further increase their appeal. If a critical mass of players is generated (and that will be crucial)  then you will be able to break free from the constraints of physical location and engage in meaningful challenges and competitions with players of similar ability, no matter where they are. Also, there is the possibility of a social channel wrapper around one or more networked games, team competitions and challenges.

The second area to watch is “Mobile ExerGames”. Already there are some exciting developments in this area including both location-based games and also “Mixed-reality ExerGames” which combine real and virtual worlds (e.g. pedometer step count linked to online game play time).

The third and final area I will be keeping an eye out for is “Home-brew ExerGames”. By this I mean enthusiasts with a soldering iron, a few electronic components and some programing skills constructing their own ExerGames. There are already quite a few interesting ideas with alternative takes on balance boards and the like. Given the low-cost of wireless micro-controllers and sensors, I expect more innovative and exciting developments in 2009.

The phone call from the European Commission was an invitation to come and speak at the EU Platform for Action on Diet, Physical Activity and Health. I couldn’t make the first suggested date as I would be in Vienna for the ED-MEDIA 2008 World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia & Telecommunications. On route to Vienna I managed to take in some of the London Hide and Seek Festivaland experience some mobile location (GPS) games and also an interactive game that was a combination of “Eye Spy” and a Treasure Hunt based on SMS texts. ED-MEDIA 2008 was an enlightening experience and I learnt a lot about using social networking tools in education (and also got a few ideas about using them in ExerGaming). Vienna was a beautiful city to spend a few days holiday and the icing on the cake (literally – it was Vienna) was my poster winning an award and subsequently was a Finalist in the 2008 Handheld Learning Awards.

It was then back to work for a few weeks, despite having only recently finished off one academic year, the next would be starting two weeks earlier due to changes in the teaching schedule. As I was turning my attention to my presentation for the EU Platform, I received a further request to speak at the “Major Moves 2008” conference which forms part of the major UK Leisure Industry Week Trade show.

I couldn’t not take in the Edinburgh Interactive Festival on my doorstep. It provided a wide range of interesting experiences and a window on the wider video games industry in the UK. A holiday in the Black Forest for a family wedding in August was my last chance to pause for breath before a busy Autumn schedule.

Speaking at the EU Platform was a real honour and certainly an experience to remember. Needless to say I made a good few contacts and had several fruitful conversations. I will be watching future developments at the platform with interest. You can view my presentation and read a transcript to see how I tried to sum up ExerGaming and present a vision for the future of a virtual exercise environment  which I have termed a “Personal Activity Platform” which supports and complements physical infrastructure and services.

The “Major Moves” conference was really exciting and engaging. There was a wide variety of health promotion professionals from across the country there to hear about innovative ways to use technology to promote health. I definitely think that the conference was the start of something new in UK health promotion and the impact will be felt for years to come. The conference was a great chance to touch base with Biray Alsac whom I had met physically and Richard Coshott whom I had only met virtually up to that point. I also made a good few contacts and was actually quite surprised as to the range of ExerGame type products and activities already going on in the UK and indeed in Europe. Most likely because a large proportion of the leisure provision is based in the public sector, ExerGaming type activities don’t have such a high profile.

The year drew to a close with several interviews for various magazine articles and my thoughts started to turn towards my plans for the next. At this stage it is a bit of an unknown, but there are some interesting results on psychological aspects of ExerGaming play, an interdisciplinary research proposal on a next generation ExerGame and some commercial engagements.

In summary: I have moved up several levels on my “Quest for the Perfect ExerGame”, but there a still plenty more to go.

The prelude to the start of 2008 was a very inspiring and informative lecture given by Drs Steve Cole and Charlyn Belluzo of HopeLab. The majority of their presentation focused on the development and evaluation of the video game Re-Mission for teens and young adults with cancer. What really impressed me was the theme running throughout that technology can open up new ways of doing things, if only we would care to imagine them and dare to try them. Despite that, judging by the questions at the end, it was evident that the majority of the relatively small audience “just didn’t get it”.

At the start of January 2008, the only definite date on the calendar was an ExerGaming Symposium and the International Society for Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity’s (ISBNPA) annual conference in Banff, Alberta towards the end of May. As I began to make travel arrangements, the call came out for the Games for Health conference in Baltimore, Maryland at the beginning of May. Perhaps I could combine the two? But what would I do for the 12 days between, apart from travel west? If I wanted to sit on a beach I would have to head south! So the idea of a putting together a series of research visits began to take shape and I set about applying for funding.

February seemed to pass by fairly quickly, helped along by my training for a half-marathon. At the same time a project concerning rehabilitation exercises using the Wii Tennis game was coming to the end. Also, if I was going to be away for most of May, then I had to get to work on adjusting my teaching schedule. Towards the end of February, I heard about the possibility of a preview copy of the forthcoming Wii Balance Board.

March came round and the conference sessions and funding for May were all confirmed. Now I had the small matter of sorting all the bookings and travel arrangements, finishing the term’s teaching, planning the next and running a half-marathon (new pb a shade under 99 minutes!). A good feature in the Animation World magazine detailing my research and previewing the forthcoming Games for Health Conference was a boost.

Time for a few days off at the beginning of April. Travel arrangements were in hand, but no sign of the Balance Board. Nothing for it but to reserve a couple at a local out of town toy store. My final module with our graduating students was one on health promotion and physical activity. I couldn’t let them leave without experiencing a practical session in the form of an “ExerGaming Arcade”! I “practiced” my conference presentations on the students and pitched their last practical class as a once in a lifetime opportunity. The arcade was all set up the day before, minus the Balance Boards. The day of the European launch dawned and as the store opened at 9 am I collected two broads and headed into work. At 10:40 am we started the “ExerGaming Arcade Experiment” and began collecting data!

The beginning of May kind of crept up on me with a few last details to sort out before I left for the States. It was kind of warm even at 9 pm when I arrived in Baltimore. Indeed, I spent the next few weeks taking a case load of warm clothes across America which I never wore! I even made to the beach in Ventura and a swim in the Pacific. The Games for Health conference was a great experience and my research was well received. I made some great contacts and was able to share a good few ideas.

Then it was off via a bustling Washington to Tampa, Phoenix, Los Angeles and Redlands. Along the way I met a great bunch of interesting and varied people, all with their own particular angle on ExerGaming. I couldn’t begin to describe it all in this post, so you will have to read all about it here. What I can say is that the people whom I met all “got it”. But as we talked, it quickly became apparent that current ExerGames were barely scraping the surface of what was possible when you dared to dream about new ways of doing things.

It was an early start for the flight from Los Angeles to Calgary and I had a warm jumper in my carry-on just in case. We were barely in the air when the pilot told us that it was 6 degrees in Calgary. Chatting later on, a steward informed me that they had only stopped skiing in the Banff area the week before! I arrived at the conference hotel to be greeted by a dramatic vista and fresh snow on the mountains! I soon met up with my fellow symposium presenters and we finalized the details of our session. It was well received although there was some healthy skepticism about what was so special about ExerGaming other than a “novelty factor”? Clearly we have our work cut out. But perhaps there is a bigger issue in the way technology is shaping and changing human behavior?

I had a few days to “chill out” (literally!) in Banff before heading back to Scotland. It was back to my desk with a jolt! Most of June was spent marking exams and attending exam boards. I also had to start thinking about my classes for the fall as my institution was going to be changing the term dates and teaching periods. It was therefore welcome relief when somebody phoned me from the European Commission…to be continued…

In summary: Care to Imagine and Dare to Try what might be possible with “ExerGames”.

Adrenaline or Epinephrine is a “fight or flight” hormone. Not only does it have a major role in stress reactions, but it is also well known to exercise physiologists. It has significant roles in enhancing the flow of blood to the working muscles and in mobilizing energy stores to support the increased metabolic demand.
In more general terms, the “fight or flight” response is characterized by a heightened level of arousal, a narrowing of attentional focus and an increase in levels of aggression.
Passing through cyber-space, I was somewhat surprised to come across a reference to a patent for a function to control video game play that mimics the above physiological response – a so called “adrenaline feature”. You can read all about in US Patent 6923717.
What it translates into, is that if you bump up the adrenaline level of your game character, then they will tend to act more aggressively, but with the downside that they will be more likely to overreact.
Since in ExerGaming, we are of course concerned with real people physically exerting themselves, we already have a built in “adrenaline feature”. Anybody wish to volunteer some examples of when you have “overreacted” in an ExerGame?

Any visionaries out there? What will ExerGaming look like in just over 6 years time? Will it replace conventional sports and physical activity? Will it be everywhere or only in specialist facilities? Will it be predominantly mobile? Will it be any place and any time? Will it be super big machines or small wearable sensors? Will it be augmented reality or even virtual reality?

Personally, I tend to think it might be many of these things. It would be great if a group of people could just get out their mobile phone/personal digital assistant/well-being monitor and play an ExerGame right there in the moment. Perhaps even challenging other groups of people across the globe.

Whatever you dream of how ExerGaming will look like in 2015, drop me a comment or two please. I have an interview tomorrow with a reporter looking to do a feature on ExerGaming with a futuristic outlook.

I first conceived the idea of a “Personal Activity Platform” a few months back when thinking about how a player could move between different ExerGames and take a playing profile with them. In my case it would be something like “right arm is better than left so work him more on the left, pretty fit so crank up the intensity, rhythmic coordination is a bit off so don’t make music games too hard“.

After hearing a presentation which described the development of smart cards for use with arcade games I revisited the idea. Ideally, mobile phones would be the platform of choice. I then began to think how you could also tap into the potential supporting and motivating power of social networks.

What you end up with is some form of multifunction tool that helps motivate and track your daily physical activity and also facilitates the playing of different ExerGames.

I included this idea in my talk to the EU Platform last month and suggested that it ought to be considered alongside physical and social infrastructure initiatives to promote physical activity. Furthermore, it could be achieved in a relatively short period of time and for a lot less money too.

Clearly, the idea needs a lot more development, but I would like to ask for suggestions as to what features and functions you think should go to make up the “Personal Activity Platform“?