Sports over a distance

Abstract

____________________________________________________________________________________________Computer games lack the social bonding and collective physical exercise benefits that sports provide. To overcome these limitations, we have been investigating how to apply the benefits of sport, in particular the workout and social bonding effect, in a distributed setting. We designed, developed, and evaluated Breakout for Two, which allows people who are miles apart to play a physically exhausting ball game together. We had over a thousand players who interacted through a life-size video-conference screen using a regular soccer ball as an input device. In an evaluative study, 56 players were interviewed and said that they got to know the other player better, had more fun, became better friends, and were happier with the transmitted audio and video quality in comparison to those who played the same game using a nonexertion keyboard interface. These results suggest that sports over a distance is an exciting new field with an "exertion interface" that encourages remote interaction, where players can achieve both a work-out and socializing.

Motivating reflection about health within the family: the use of goal setting and tailored feedback

“…While players are cycling, they can also enjoy the scenery of a well known region in the Finish Lapland. Many other games have since been created around playful activities (e.g., table tennis for 3; Mueller 2009) or even sport mixing physical exertion, social interaction and networked games (Mueller et al 2007).…”

The pervasive discourse

“…[Benford et al 2005;Flintham et al 2003;Magerkurth et al 2005]. In addition there are articles that are said to discuss pervasive games but no mention of this term appears in the articles themselves [Mueller and Csiro 2005;Newman 2005]. There are also articles that present a case study of a pervasive game, but no definitional motivation is given for presenting it as such [Smith et al 2005].…”

An exergame framework for obesity monitoring and management

“…Some of them are as follows: Nintendo Wii [13][14][15][16][17][18], Wii Fit Yoga [15], Wii Sports [18], Boxing [18], Konami Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) [19], Fisher-Price Smart Cycle, Sony PlayStation Move and Microsoft Kinect. Push'N'Pull [20], Frozen Treasure Hunter and [21], and Guitar Hero [22]. While the existence of the above works indicates the past and ongoing efforts to combat obesity, which shows limited success on weight loss and management, they are clearly not enough since obesity is still rising.…”