The Quest for the Perfect ExerGame

A recent article published in Time Magazine tends to give the impression that exercise or “working out” won’t result in weight loss. It has created a bit of a stir and has been rebuffed by a press release from the American College of Sports Medicine. There is a substantial body of evidence to support the importance of exercise in the expenditure side of the energy balance side of the equation and it has recently be reviewed by the said ACSM in a position paper.

In contrast there is no denying the real life experiences of a significant number of people who started working out with a view to loosing weight with little or no success. So what is the problem? In my view it is part due to the gap between theory and practice and the desire for “quick fix” solutions.

The health benefits of exercise began to be widely promoted in the late 1980’s in response to increasing prevalence of heart disease, hence the concept of intense “cardio” exercise and the mantra of “20 minutes intense exercise three times per week”. Then in the 1990’s along came the obesity epidemic and the focus shifted from exercise intensity to energy expenditure and a new mantra of “30 minutes physical activity most days”. Unfortunately these messages have “stuck” and become widely popularized however they are in fact minimum recommendations and not a license for “all you can eat”.

It is worth reflecting at this point how unrecognizable our modern lifestyles would be to rest of human history. Life in the developed world is almost as sedentary as it can get. Our 24/7 lifestyles feature a ready availability of abundant refined, calorie dense food, temperature control, artificial lighting, psychological stress, sleep-deprivation etc. etc. and we are pushing ourselves to the limit and beyond.

Thus whilst research indicates that in theory we should aim for a daily 500 calorie deficit in order to loose weight all the time we are fighting against ourselves. Even the very term “workout” is overloaded with negative connotations. It is no wonder as the author of the Time Magazine article points out that people feel the need to “reward” their efforts with a calorie laden treat.

Trying to achieve a 500 calorie deficit against a starting point of a daily energy intake of 1500-2000 calories doesn’t leave any room for error and it is therefore critical to have a healthy and nutritious calorie-controlled diet.

If we were to wind back the clock in time and double our daily energy expenditure to 3500-4000 calories per day and become significantly more physically active, then the energy intake side of the equation would become much less of a problem. Indeed, the notion that significantly greater amounts of exercise are need in order to ensure a consistent negative energy balance is supported by a recent ACSM position paper that concludes that greater than 250 minutes exercise per week are needed to effectively promote weight loss.

So the bottom line is that you need to find forms of physical activity that you find enjoyable and that you are able to perform for significantly longer periods of time than for traditional “workouts”. If the activity it in itself rewarding then you won’t need to indulge yourself with calories afterwards. Games are inherently motivating and rewarding. So game-based approaches to exercise (i.e. ExerGames) might have significant potential to make you thin.

This prototype game from my ISAGA 2009 interactive session was focused on a game intended to help people to quit smoking. It required an additional piece of hardware in the form of a portable sensor that could interface with a mobile phone which could measure the “air quality” of the smoker’s breath. (In fact a handheld carbon monoxide meter is routinely used as a easy measure of cigarette usage in a cessation counseling setting).

Regular breath measurements would be taken over time and the data uploaded to a server via a mobile data network. A particular breath reading would be indicative of a certain level of cigarette consumption and can be expressed in terms of number of minutes of life lost (or in case of a reduction) “gained” or added to the player’s life expectancy. It might even be possible to relate it to people around the smoker (e.g. children) who maybe affected by passive smoking.

The game play would be arranged in forms of leagues with the aim of achieving the highest number of minutes gained. Further consideration as to the nature of the process of quitting smoking lead to the idea that the teams would be comprised of individuals at different stages/length of experience in the cessation process and that it was possible to score points by means of offering tips and advice to other “players”. It would also be possible to score points by recruiting new “players” to the game and also by developing a form of “buddy” system whereby a fraction of the points earned by any recruit would also contribute to the score of the person recruiting them.

This was the title of an interactive session that I put on the final afternoon of the ISAGA 2009 conference. I took inspiration from things that I had seen and heard over the course of the week in Singapore. I adopted the Triadic Game Design methodology whereby the three components Reality, Meaning and Play are all incorporated into a Rapid Prototyping process after having attended a workshop on it earlier in the week (more Triadic design to follow). I also incorporated a number of pertinent local issues in Singapore including traffic jams and the need to conserve water. I have reproduced the abstract for the session here in order to give an overview of the background to the session. Two of the prototype games that were developed in the session will be described in a second post.

Computer games are a very popular form of entertainment that offer engaging interactive experiences via a highly expressive and potentially persuasive medium. Video game platforms have now evolved from traditional games consoles and personal computers to encompass a wide variety of different experiences on handheld devices including mobile phones. For many people their mobile phone is a constant companion which provides their access point to the digital world through which they experience an ever increasing amount of their daily lives. Furthermore, mobile phones now offer a ubiquitous computing platform which can utilize a variety of different types of sensors and forms of input to capture and provide situational and contextual data and information. As a consequence new forms of mobile games that take advantage of these functions have recently begun to emerge. In addition, mobile access to social media tools and services also provide several different forms of non-traditional game play including various forms of collecting and ranking via number of views or ratings. Given the engaging and interactive nature of game play, it is therefore proposed that the scope of mobile gaming should be widened to incorporate game play scenarios directly into users’ daily lives and activities under the heading of so called “Persuasive Technology”. It is therefore possible that this could provide a novel way to address some of the major social, health and environmental problems currently facing the world by utilizing game play mechanics to both increase situational awareness and help to facilitate positive behavioral change. This interactive workshop will start with briefly describing a range of software games and utilities that run on mobile devices that facilitate personal data collection and raise awareness and also some non-traditional forms of social media game play. Participants will then be asked to contribute further examples of both actual and conceptual games, utilities and services. Drawing on this pool of examples, participants will then be divided in groups and challenged with the task of coming up with ways in which they could utilize the functionality offered by the examples to develop mobile game-based approaches designed to address a specific social, health or environmental problem present in the world today.

Pixel art is all around us. How about doing some digital doodling where you have to physically move around to create the doodle? The DigiGripper is a interactive pixel wall which you can physically interactive with to create art. Is this a new genre?

ExerArt = Exercise + Art

Physical exertion to me is almost as natural to me as breathing, but I had always wondered what it feels like to have an aversion to exercise. Well for the past four days anything more than the slightest exertion outside results in profuse perspiration. Walking up steps becomes a real chore as your try to lift your legs against the force of your trousers sticking to your skin.

Having adopted a rather slothful attitude (minus the fur and hanging up-side-down) exertion avoidance was very much becoming the norm. Given the time difference (-7 hours), I haven’t been sleeping all that well and awoke at 5 am this morning and was rather restless. Fortunately it was still dark so I put on my running gear and headed out into the dark with only crickets for company.

I decided a lap of the National University of Singapore was in order. However the heat wasn’t my only problem. I had carefully placed the campus map I had in a plastic pocket in order to prevent it from turning to mush. Due to the fact that the roads on the map where effectively shown in white, the map was in fact of questionable value. I would hate to play an ExerGame designed by a cartographer with such a sadistic streak.

Given that I have managed to write this post, you will be glad to know I made it back without getting lost. I even had a momentary urge to take a detour to run to the top of a small hill. At one point there was a slight breeze as I could here it whistling past my ears, but rather bizarrely I couldn’t feel any cooling effect on my face.

Edutainment is the term commonly used in Asia to refer to interactive forms of cultural activities with an element of education. Think interactive of interactive museums and having fun (and in my case being a kid again!). I couldn’t therefore be in Singapore without taking a visit to

Singapore’s leading ‘edutainment’ attraction that offers engaging exhibits for everybody

It was great fun and an opportunity to explore using interactive media both Singapore’s relatively short history and also engage in simulation-type activities to explore plans for Singapore’s future. I even managed to fit in some traditional dancing by means of an interactive virtual dance tutor!

There are so many things to talk about, but as a little taster, I was particular taken by a table top maze game that required teamwork between three players to tilt the not inconsiderable mass of the table in order to move a ball in the virtual maze that was projected onto the surface.

Having been in Singapore for couple of days now you would have thought I would have got the hang of the light rail (MRT) system. Owing to a small but significant navigational error on my part I got off downtown one stop earlier than I had planned. I emerged above ground to be greeted by a “new” river! Where did that come from? It is not on the map that I have! Can’t be very good map this!

As I scanned the terrain, I noticed a bridge that we had crossed the day before (albeit in daylight) whilst been taken on a guided tour by a colleague. It then began to dawn on me that the reality I had constructed was at odds with the ground/river in front of me. Contemplating the alternate reality that I was in fact was not where I had planned to be and that the reason was that I didn’t get off that the stop that I thought I did.

I could see the towers of Suntec City in the distance and thought for a moment about striking out cross-country so to speak. However, despite being dark, it just wasn’t getting any cooler, so I quickly dropped that idea. It was therefore serendipitous that I was able to take in the last night of the Singapore River Festival. The place was buzzing with street performances and people walking everywhere and enjoying the spectacle. Everywhere was lit up along the riverside and there were junks (boats) with colored lights on the too. The water taxis where zipping around all over the place (free rides).

It was a bit of a photography fest with every available vantage point occupied by at least one serious snapper. In the absence of a tripod I had to improvise with street furniture in order to avoid camera shake on long exposures.

I have thought for a while that “Vorsprung durch Tecknik” would make a good advertising slogan for ExerGaming. Trouble is that it has been established in popular culture by a well known European car manufacturer. Not only does it convey its meaning remarkeably efficiently, the act of uttering it is a very visceral and evocative experience.

I have just been conveyed to Singapore by Lufthansa including a connecting flight and stop over at Frankfurt airport. The whole journey was a testament to German efficiency including what seemed like my own personal security screening line, copious amounts of in-flight fluid including pre-prandial drinks, frequent tops-ups during the meal and even post-prandial liqueurs for those who wished them. The in-flight entertainment also included a rather eclectic jazz channel which helped smooth the ride along with the understated grey interior finish.

In contrast, having negotiated the vagaries of London’s Heathrow airport, my recent flight across the Atlantic to Boston (to attend the Games for Health conference) with Virgin Atlantic was quite different. On boarding the plane, the red decor with silver finishing made an altogether different impression. To me it had a more holistic, personal feel including 21st century eco-techno, two fingers to British Airways establishment and a bit of eighties retro-chic thrown in for good measure (due to the airline celebrating 25 years of operation) and which I found somewhat appealing.

It got me thinking about the contrasting “brand” styles and the slew of new consumer technology releases (including big-ticket ExerGames). Is technological progress all about enhancing functional efficiency, or has it now reached a such maturity that technology is becoming more of a tool to create experiences?

For me it is creating experiences is where things ought to be at, in that they will have the potential to change behavior. For example, should I happen to be heading to Boston in the near future, would I go for the steady and reliable Lufthansa option via Frankfurt, or would I take my chances with London Heathrow and opt for an altogether different experience? Choice: Efficiency or Experience?

Note: any mention of branded products or services should not be construed as any form of endorsement.

The taxi driver who took me to the airport this morning was remarking about how my neighborhood had changed since he grew up there as a kid. He began to reminisce about how he was inseparable from his bicycle and how he and his mates rode all over the country side in one big rolling adventure.

Such freedom and apparent invincibility from perils (or simply the ability to pick yourself up and brush yourself down) where a feature of my childhood in the north of Scotland. Interestingly, the taxi driver remarked that he was aware at the time (several decades ago), that when mixing with boys from the city they had a markedly lower level of fitness and all round physical ability.

The conversation continued and we found much common ground on the question as to why children these days have a greater need to be entertained rather than create their own playful amusement. Perhaps there always have been dangers, it is just that now as a whole society is more aware of them?

It got me thinking as to what where the key elements at play and I began to focus on a sense of adventure and of having confidence in one’s abilities. I then began to think about how exploration and the development of ones skills and abilities is very much a feature of many video games. Perhaps there is a way that ExerGames could be developed that would make this form of exploration, adventure and skill development more transferable to real life?

Poster presented at ISBNPA 2009 Conference, Cascais, Portugal