Page 3 - 00002 Considerations for the design of exergames

activities, such as reading or drawing, without having to use the the game, was the lack of physical feedback.
exercise bike.
Smith [Smith 2005] performed a pilot study on a number of differ-
Goldfield et al. [Goldfield et al. 2000] performed a similar study. ent exergames, with the use of 3 different exertion interfaces. He
In this case there was no direct feedback from the physical activity tested the Cateye GameBike, the Sony EyeToy and Konami’s DDR
performed. Subjects accumulated points on a pedometer by per- pad, with a varied set of games. He identified four areas which he
forming physical activities. These points could then be redeemed felt were important in order to maximize engagement and physical
at a later point for desirable activities, such as television or video fitness: warm-up and cool-down activities; management of game
games. This study also demonstrated that children would be willing load times; the integration of physiological measures; and dynamic
to undertake physical activity, in order to obtain access to television game play adjustment.
watching and video games.
A group of researchers from the University of Washington has ex-
Luke’s 2005 masters thesis [Luke 2005], “Oxygen cost and heart amined the use of technology to promote physical activity [Con-
rate response during interactive whole body video gaming”, con- solvo et al. 2006]. They performed a pilot study where partici-
tained a detailed examination of the oxygen uptake of participants pants competed against other members of a group to see who was
playing the EyeToy R
Groove game for PlayStation2 R
. Partici- more active during a predefined period. This involved the partic-
pants were fitted with a mouthpiece connected to a metabolic anal- ipants wearing a pedometer connected to a PDA. The steps taken
yser in addition to a heart rate monitor. These devices were used to during the day were compared amongst member of the group, who
make measurements through several sessions of play. all competed against each other. The study proposed four key de-
sign requirements for technologies that promote physical activity.
The video game used in the study involved the player performing These were: give users proper credit for activities; provide per-
body movements and touching specific parts of the screen in time sonal awareness of activity level; support social influence; and con-
to a selected song, in order to gain points. Luke concluded that the sider the practical constraints of users’ lifestyles. It was shown that
energy expenditure was enough to meet the requirements for mod- these design requirements should be considered in the design of
erate exertion and could therefore be used as a legitimate form of exergames.
exercise. While this did constitute exercise, Luke concluded that
the actual game play of the EyeToy Groove game did not make the Researchers with the University of Texas, the Marshfield Clinic Re-
ideal as a form of exercise. There were short periods of exertion, search Foundation and the Mayo Clinic, have also commenced on
being roughly two and a half minutes, with sizable gaps between. similar research [Fujiki at al. 2007]. The study is using accelerom-
What this highlights is the need to ensure that in order to be a prac- eters combined with PDA’s to measure activity performed during
tical form of exercise, it is important that the games be carefully the day. The PDA displays the results in real-time on a computer
designed with this purpose in mind. generated race track. The race track shows the competing mem-
bers of a group as animated figures on the race track, where activity
Lanningham-Foster at al. [Lanningham-Foster at al. 2006] followed dictates the distance covered around the track.
up on this study by examining the energy expenditure of activity
promoting video games, compared to standard video games and Lund et al. [Lund et al. 2005] have developed a rubber tile based
watching television. They also used the Sony EyeToy in their study system for building physically interactive games, known as the
as well as a Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) pad. Their study con- PlayWare platform. In order to facilitate physical interaction, each
cluded that there was a significant increase in energy expenditure tile contains a set of four different coloured light emitting diodes
for activity promoting video games, when compared to television (LEDs), which can combine to generate 8 different output colours,
or traditional video games. They also draw the conclusion that this and the ability to produce simple sounds. A force sensing resistor
could be used as a potential method to help combat obesity. is mounted in each tile to provide an input method, generally acti-
vated by being stepped on. Each tile also contains its own internal
Hoysniemi’s 2006 dissertation [Hoysniemi 2006] was on the de- microprocessor and connection ports along the edges to allow the
sign and evaluation of physically interactive games. In this study connection of the tiles, and to facilitate communication between the
she asks important questions on how physically interactive games tiles.
should be designed. She looks at the areas of entertainment, us-
ability and suitability. The results were mainly qualitative and used The authors document two different games that were constructed
three case studies for the research. Two of the case studies used for the system. One called Color Race, involved the participants
camera and audio based interfaces. The first was a game aimed at moving around the tiles to press the sensor for the tile which is lit
children, where the body movement is used to control a game char- with a particular colour. As a tile of a particular colour is pressed,
acter. The second was a martial arts game where the user fights on a new tile would light up with that colour. The participants raced
screen characters by using full body motion. Additionally in both of against each other to be the first to press ten tiles of their particu-
these games, shouting is used to control some aspects of the game lar colour. In the second game called Ping Pong, a coloured light
play. The third case study involved the Dance Dance Revolution moves back and fourth across the tiles in a pseudo random manner.
game. The participants needed to step on the appropriate edge tile in order
to get the coloured light to move back towards the other edge of the
Hoysniemi looked at the use of peer tutors as an evaluation method tile arrangement.
for testing the usability of the game. She also examined the
use of the Wizard of OZ methodology to prototype vision based Yannakakis et al. [Yannakakis at al. 2006] developed a game for the
games, and a methodology for describing the children’s movements PlayWare tile platform called Bug Smasher. In this game the player
recorded during the prototyping. needed to step on the lit tiles, which represented bugs, in order to
squash the bugs. As bugs are squashed, more bugs appeared in a
Finally she looked at feedback from martial artists who played the controlled manner. The authors experimented with the modification
martial arts based game. The results showed that it was possible to of the bug generation parameters, to determine which combination
use low-level computer vision to generate an immersive embodied constituted the most enjoyable game. The games were evaluated
game play that could be intensive physical training. It is important by having players play two versions of the game with different set-
to note that Hoysniemi also states that the martial artists who played tings, and then rate the two games against each other, indicating
the game, found the biggest drawback with the interaction model of which game was more fun. Their study mapped the changes in the

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