December 19, 2007, 4:03 pm
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Computer game translates physical activity into video games
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| Devices/Technology |
| Published: Monday, 17-Sep-2007 |
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Finding a way to motivate the billion people in the world who are overweight to lose excess pounds can be an overwhelming task, but a University of Houston professor is meeting that weighty challenge with a challenge of his own.
Ioannis Pavlidis, a UH computer science professor, and research assistants Yuichi Fujiki and Kostas Kazakos, have developed a computer game that translates physical activity into video games, such as races and logic puzzles. Dubbed Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (NEAT-o) games, they can be played on any hand-held personal digital assistant (PDA) with users wearing a lightweight, wearable sensor that detects movement like running, walking, bending over or even foot tapping.
(more…) |
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December 19, 2007, 4:00 pm
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prevention,
research Video Games: Good for the Body, Good for the Brain
Mon Oct 1, 2007 5:48PM EDT
Treadmills and stretching are out: Physical therapists are turning to the Nintendo Wii to help the injured and infirm get their grooves back while increasing flexibility and strength. Click on over to see a
video of a 70-year-old patient looking awfully spry as he hits a few balls in Nintendo’s
Wii Sports tennis game… all part of a medical therapy regimen.
(more…)
From the NYTimes…
April 30, 2007
P.E. Classes Turn to Video Game That Works Legs
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Children don’t often yell in excitement when they are let into class, but as the doors opened to the upper level of the gym at South Middle School here one recent Monday, the assembled students let out a chorus of shrieks.
In they rushed, past the Ping-Pong table, past the balance beams and the wrestling mats stacked unused. They sprinted past the ghosts of Gym Class Past toward two TV sets looming over square plastic mats on the floor. In less than a minute a dozen seventh graders were dancing in furiously kinetic union to the thumps of a techno song called “Speed Over Beethoven.”
(more…)
Lengthy, but Interesting…
December 19, 2007, 3:49 pm
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“COMPLETE FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT”: VIDEO GAMES AS GENDERED PLAY SPACES
by Henry Jenkins
[Download PostScript version for printing] A Tale of Two Childhoods
Sometimes, I feel nostalgic for the spaces of my boyhood, growing up in suburban Atlanta in the 1960s. My big grassy front yard sloped sharply downward into a ditch where we could float boats on a rainy day. Beyond, there was a pine forest where my brother and I could toss pine cones like grenades or snap sticks together like swords. In the backyard, there was a patch of grass where we could wrestle or play kickball and a treehouse, which sometimes bore a pirate flag and at other times, the Stars and Bars of the Confederacy. Out beyond our own yard, there was a bamboo forest where we could play Tarzan, and vacant lots, construction sites, sloping streets, and a neighboring farm (the last vestige of a rural area turned suburban).
(more…)
Full Body Games…
Full Body Games, by Jonah Warren (US), is a set of three video games where the player can affect the game’s action by using his or her body, free of wires and controllers.
The user�s silhouette is extracted from a video image and projected in front of him/her. The silhouette can then interact with graphic game objects such as moving colored blocks and balls.
![all_03[1].gif](http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/xxx/all_03%5B1%5D.gif)
http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/002496.php
Parrellel’s to be Drawn from Guitar Hero…?
December 19, 2007, 3:16 pm
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motivation,
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overcoming,
play It seems for every Guitar Hero video posted by anyone, there will inevitably be comments like, “Go buy a real guitar!”, “What’s the point?”, “Get a life!”, and so on. I think people overestimate how much time it takes to learn how to play these games. If you play other music/rhythm games, the concept is similar and the learning curve is a lot lower. Even if you’re playing for the first time, it’s pretty simple.
(more…)
Get Out of the Rut…
Stuck in a Fitness Rut Why it’s bad for you: If you never vary your fitness routine, your body adapts to it after time, and muscle will stop growing, says Pamela Peeke, MD, author of Fit to Live and Prevention’s medical advisor. You’re likely to get bored with your workout if you’re doing the same thing every time, making it easier to find excuses to skip the gym altogether. A University of Florida study found that exercisers who varied the type of exercise were 15% more likely to work out regularly than those sticking to the same routine and 63% more likely than people who had no set schedule or rules.
(more…)
Play, Personal Health and Well-Being
Play is the gateway to vitality.
By its nature it is uniquely and intrinsically rewarding. It generates optimism, seeks out novelty, makes perseverance fun, leads to mastery, gives the immune system a bounce, fosters empathy and promotes a sense of belonging and community. Each of these play by-products are indices of personal health, and their shortage predicts impending health problems and personal fragility.
(more…)
Adolescent Boys report…
Male adolescents’ reasons for participating in physical activity, barriers to participation, and suggestions for increasing participation
Kenneth R. Allison Physical activity and fitness are generally recognized as contributing to enhanced physical and mental health as well as prevention of a number of diseases and other problems later in life (Blair et al., 1989; Haskell, Montoye, & Orenstein, 1985; Powell & Blair, 1994; Stephens, 1988; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1996). Furthermore, concern about greater numbers of overweight and obese children, and the question of whether this pattern will continue into later adolescence, also suggest the benefits of physical activity among children and youth (Dishman, Sallis, & Orenstein, 1985; Sallis, Prochaska, & Taylor, 2000; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1996). The normal pattern during adolescence, based largely on cross-sectional studies in North America and other settings, indicates a decrease in activity with increasing age (or grade), compounded by consistently lower levels of activity among females compared to males (Allison & Adlaf, 1997; Tappe, Duda, & Ehrnwald, 1989; Trost et al., 2002). Because of the health and other benefits of physical activity, these lower levels of physical activity among older adolescents are of concern.
(more…)
Teen Girls report…
December 17, 2007, 3:13 pm
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personal Teen Girls Report Barriers To Physical Activity
05 Apr 2006
Teenage girls perceive lack of time as the number one barrier to physical activity, according to a new study published in the March issue of Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise�, the official journal of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM). The three-year survey assessing black and white adolescent girls reveals sedentary habits are mostly linked to internal barriers (interest, motivation), which were unrelated to external factors (jobs, recreation).
(more…)
Treadmills and stretching are out: Physical therapists are turning to the Nintendo Wii to help the injured and infirm get their grooves back while increasing flexibility and strength. Click on over to see a video of a 70-year-old patient looking awfully spry as he hits a few balls in Nintendo’s Wii Sports tennis game… all part of a medical therapy regimen. (more…)