Weight Watchers, the Video Game

Here’s an interesting article from Clive Thompson over at Wired comparing Weight Watchers Online to MMORPGs like World of Warcraft. There are many similarities, Thompson notes, including leveling and rewards. He’s got a great point. I noticed the same thing about my kids’ tae kwon do classes. Of course the idea of designing work teams modeled after WoW guilds is not new, either. Here’s a closer look at the idea of “Corporate Warcraft.”

Beck and Wade pointed out, and are echoed by people like Karl Kapp, that young workers often approach work in a gaming framing of mind. Work objectives become “quests,” paychecks bring in “gold,” promotions equate to “leveling up,” and their bosses either become “guild leaders,” or “dungeon bosses,” depending on whether they help or hinder the employees (“players”) in attaining their quests.

So the idea of making other life goals into games, such as placing diet and fitness within a MMORPG framework, makes good sense. I agree with Thompson. Weight Watchers has something going there.

Study: HopeLab’s Re-Mission Game Is Effective

The serious gaming community was buzzing today about the publication of results from a major study in the American Academy of Pediatrics’ official journal, showing that HopeLab’s cancer education and encouragement game, Re-Mission, is effective in accomplishing its objectives.

A total of 375 subjects, ages 13-29, were recruited from 34 academic medical centers in North America and Australia in 2004-05. Subjects were screened by language (if they couldn’t communicate in one of the languages Re-Mission uses (English, French, & Spanish), they were screened out), ability to follow directions (if they ignored screeners’ directions, they were screened out), and, “history of seizures as a result of photosensitivity,” (if the flashing lights of the videogame bothered them, they were screened out).

Subjects played the game at least one hour per week for three months. The control group (n = 178 ) played, “A PC version of Indiana Jones and the Emperor’s Tomb … because the play structure and controller interface closely resembled that of Re-Mission.” All subjects were given a computer. Control group subjects received a computer with only the Indiana Jones game while the experimental group subjects’ computers had both the Indiana Jones game and Re-Mission.

Here is the conclusion:

The video-game intervention [Re-Mission] significantly improved treatment adherence and indicators of cancer-related self-efficacy and knowledge in adolescents and young adults who were undergoing cancer therapy. The findings support current efforts to develop effective video-game interventions for education and training in health care.

“Treatment adherence” means subjects took their medication. Therefore, the study shows an increased willingness to continue chemo or other treatments by young cancer patients when offered the videogame intervention.

The pilot study took place in San Antonio, so local coverage was heavy. Visit the San Antonio Business Journal and WOAI for more details.

Study: Active Videogames Make Kids Break a Sweat

The Wii makes things easy to measure for researchers, as noted here many moons ago. The Wii Fit has spawned research linking active video games with increased health benefits. This seems to be a developing trend, as more research along these lines has been presented recently.

Charlene Laino over at WebMD reports that Gregory Brown, over at University of Nebraska, presented a study at the 55th Annual Meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine.

Brown and colleagues studied 25 youngsters whose average age was 11. The kids burned two to three times as many calories when playing Wii Boxing and Wii Tennis than when engaging in traditional handheld video games.

Their average heart rate shot up from 80 to 120 beats per minute — “about what you’d expect when walking or doing a slow dance,” Brown says.

Brown thought the kids would burn even more calories when playing Dance Dance Revolution, where participants stand in front of the television and boogie in step to instructions and graphics on the screen. But that didn’t prove to be the case; all three games proved equally beneficial.

Also presented at the conference was a study comparing Dance Mat Mania and Eye Toy Boxing, games which require physical activity, with a handheld game and watching a DVD. The less physical activities produced caloric consumption on par with reading; the active games produced heart rates equivalent to jogging. This second study was presented by Viki Penpraze, a doc candidate over at U. Glasgow in Scotland.

Meanwhile, Erica Hendry at USA Today reports all public schools in West Virginia will use Dance Dance Revolution next year, and North Carolina schools will introduce, “the HOPSports Training System into schools through a partnership with Be Active North Carolina, a non-profit group.” It offers simulated basketball dribbling and other sports related skills.

References:
Hendry, E. R. (2008, July 31). Exercise video games get kids off the couch. USA Today. [Online]. Retrieved August 1, 2008 from http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/weightloss/
2008-07-30-exercise-games_N.htm

Laino, C. (2008, May 30). Kids feel the burn with virtual exercise. [Online]. Available: http://www.webmd.com/fitness-exercise/news/20080530/
kids-feel-the-burn-with-virtual-exercise

Guitar Hero Helps Burn Victims

Here’s another Wii-hab story, this one out of William Randolph Hearst Burn Center at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center where therapists are adapting the Wii for burn victim rehabilitation. Burned skin and grafts require movement and stretching, although this is painful. Therapists have found using motion sensitive games for the Wii help patients to move more. Guitar Hero III is used to get patients to move their arms and upper torso.

Industry Research: Casual Games Benefit Children with ADHD

Last time we looked at corporate research sponsored by PopCap Games, they were examining family habits related to gaming. This time they are looking at benefits casual games have for players with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), turning once again to Information Solutions Group for the survey work.

Kids with ADHD playing casual games (for which the kind PopCap is famous) benefitted from an increased sense of control, a boost in self esteem, improved memory, and improved focus.

Some 13,000 casual gamers were surveyed; about 2,700 reported they or their child had a disability; 422 of these were children, with half suffering from ADHD. More details on the survey are available from the companies’ press release.

Update:

Here’s an article from Wink News regarding the work of James Sendelbach in using videogames and neurofeedback with ADHD patients:

In one game, called “glider,” the goal is to keep an eagle on a video screen flying up in the air. As Brody [an ADHD patient] concentrates, the bird flies higher. But if Brody talks to someone, or looks away and loses focus, the eagle starts to drift down.

Over the course of nine months, Brody’s behavior and his grades are better. And he no longer needs medication. “I would never use the word cured,” his mom says, “Does he exhibit the symptoms of ADHD in the continuum that he would be tagged ADHD? No. He’s just better.”

As Dr. Sendelbach explains, “Medication can change it on a temporary basis. What neurofeedback does is change it on a permanent basis.”

Wii-hab Rising: NIH Joins Research Push

David Twitty of the Associated Press writes of an increase in interest and research surrounding the use of videogames for medicinal purposes. Twitty brings up the following points:

- The National Institute of Health has joined research efforts. Carmen Russoniello over at East Carolina University is studying the use of videogames as therapy for sickle cell anemia at a clinical center run by the NIH

- The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation announced a $2 million grant program earmarked for Wii-hab research

- The annual Games for Health conference saw a continued spike in attendance this year, including reps from Humana, Cigna, and Kaiser Permanente who have all backed medical games lately

- HopeLab’s ReMission has been a particular success story, helping young cancer patients understand and deal with the disease

- A survey by PopCap games found a fifth of those surveyed considered themselves disabled somehow, and that casual games helped treat the disability, particularly depression and other mental disorders

References:
Twitty, D. (2008, July 15). Medicinal use of video games growing. Associated Press. [Online]. Retrieved July 16, 2008 from http://www.kansascity.com/382/story/705991.html

Virtual Telekinesis: Mind Control in Time for Christmas?

Here’s a story from AFP about Emotiv and their neural interface helmet which will allow gamers to control videogames with their thoughts. I blogged about this back in February, noting that Brain Computer Interfaces (BCIs), or neural interfaces, were all the rage at GDC.

The news this week is Emotiv’s headset, which includes 16 sensors for a built-in EEG unit to measure brainwaves and facial expressions, along with a gyroscope to determine head movement, will be available for the Christmas shopping season. The $299 unit will include a videogame that works with the headset when it goes on sale direct from Emotiv’s website. The game will involve activities where users lift mountains and other things with their minds, combining virtual telekinesis with the RL interface.

The software development kit to design products that integrate into the helmet has been downloaded over 1,000 times, according to the news article. Emotiv co-founder Tan Le and company engineer Marco Della Torre noted the device has multiple uses:

- Law enforcement can use it as a cheap lie detector kit, since it is ultimately an inexpensive EEG. “It certainly could be used as a very accurate polygraph,” Le said. “If you have seen something before, there is no hiding it. There is brain recognition”

- Stroke and coma victims could find new ways to communicate using the device

- Music listeners could easily tag the songs they hear, having the songs classified as making them happy, sad, etc.

My take: BCIs hold great promise in educational fields, providing a true hands-free environment and a rich field for research. Students with disabilities may benefit greatly from BCIs. If Emotiv can offer an effective device at a low price point, as seems probable if the publicity is to be believed, we can expect an uptick in related research soon.

References:
Mind games: Computer headset lets brain control action. [Online]. Retrieved July 8, 2008 from http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jJ8pFqcQxTWrU2mZTsgyzefOY8Zg

Lab Research: Drexel Students Create Neural Interface

There’s been a heavy spate of interest at the university level lately to create modified interfaces for controlling videogames; the most exciting of these involves neural interfaces, or brain-computer interfaces. Such research is seen leading toward providing benefit to victims of paralysis and other disabilities.

Students at Drexel University’s Replay Laboratory have experimented with hooking up a neuro-imaging device that fits on the forehead with a videogame. The result is a lab creation called Lazy Brains. Stephanie Abrams with the CBS affiliate in Philadelphia filed a report:

Professors at Drexel think it could be a tool to help students with ADHD focus. They also say since this device will eventually detect more brain activity, it may one day give the severely disabled who can’t talk a way to communicate directly from their brain to the computer.

Grad students who helped create the game and are listed in her report include: Hasan Ayaz, Jordan Santell, and Aaron Bohenick. More information on the Replay research lab at Drexel is available at their website.

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Funds Wii-hab Research

Susan Jenks at Florida Today reports the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has awarded $2 million in research grants to 12 teams in order to study the benefits of videogames for health.

At the University of Central Florida, for example, researchers will receive $200,000 over the next two years to develop a role-playing game for individuals diagnosed with alcohol abuse or dependence to allow them to practice skills in a virtual setting that might help prevent real-world relapses … University of Florida researchers in the College of Public Health and Health Professionals will test the impact of Sony Playstation2 game “Crazy Taxi” on the visual attention skills of the elderly, using a $100,000 grant.

Researchers mentioned in the article include Patricia Belchoir, a postdoc at UF; psychiatrist Marcia Verduin affiliated with UCF; and Clint Bowers, a psychology professor at UCF.

References:
Jenks, S. (2008, July 2). Video games used as therapy. Florida Today. [Online]. Retrieved July 2, 2008 from http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080702/BUSINESS/807020316/1006/news01

Blind Hero: UNev Reno Team Modifies Game Interfaces for the Disabled

Chris Kohler at Wired’s Game|Life Blog writes about Dr. Eelke Folmer’s work over at University of Nevada, Reno.

Folmer’s most awesome project thus far is informally referred to as “Blind Hero.” It’s a guitar-based music game that can be played without looking at the screen. Folmer’s group developed a glove that vibrates your fingers a split-second before you’re supposed to play each note in the game. It’s difficult to play, but with enough practice you can experience the sensation of playing guitar without the onscreen commands.

Kohler noted that “Blind Hero” is the brainchild of UNR PhD student Bei Yuan. Additional work by Folmer & company includes modifying existing games so that they can be played easier by the disabled.

One example of how this works is a modified Mario Kart-style game for PC. The player’s kart automatically accelerates and steers to the right. Pressing the switch allows the player to steer to the left. A modified version of Half-Life 2 that Folmer showed us puts the player into the body of an automatically controlled bot, and the player simply needs to press the fire button when an enemy gets in his sights … Folmer stresses that his group’s ambition is not to create new game designs for people with disabilities, but to modify already-existing games, to show that any game can be rendered accessible.

This continues a long series of efforts to make videogames more accessible, many springing from the minds of university researchers. I’ve noted past efforts on brain computer interfaces that don’t require hands, and more recent presentations on neural networks at GDC this year.