by Johnny Minkley, Nov 24, 2011
You could point to Wii Sports as the active gaming's 'Big Bang' moment, or, going even further back, Konami's Dance Dance Revolution series in arcades and on PlayStations – the first game series, to my knowledge, to feature a calorie counter.
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Showing posts with label fitness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fitness. Show all posts
Saturday, 10 December 2011
Sunday, 13 November 2011
Game your way to healthy living
Friday, Nov 04, 2011, AsiaOne
SINGAPORE - Exercising and working your body to better health does not have to be boring, as new gaming technologies being introduced in Singapore hospitals show. Using video games and interactive technologies to improve health is fast catching on in Singapore, with The Straits Times (ST) reporting that several rehabilitation centres here have taken up offering interactive technologies alongside conventional therapies to improve conditions ranging from stroke, burn wounds to even learning difficulties.
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In the National University of Singapore (NUH), a Nintendo Wii game designed by Singapore Polytechnic students encourages stroke patients to exercise their arms by playing games such as flipping burger patties on a barbecue grill. The sweeping movements work the patients' hands and wrists and help strengthen muscles and another game, designed by Temasek Polytechnic students, gets patients to move a spaceship side to side on a screen using the Kinect to avoid getting hit by asteroids. The award-winning game does not allow patients to maneuver the spaceship using their bodies or legs, and similarly helps in the rehabilitation of arm nerves and muscles affected by a stroke.
The Kinect and Wii are a motion-sensing gaming devices that use hand controllers to interact and play games on a screen. Therapists and rehabilitation doctors interviewed by ST say this is just the start, and there is much potential in harnessing gaming technologies for therapeutic purposes. Already, Singapore General Hospital (SGH) uses a webcam-based program called Ovogame while Changi General Hospital and TTSH use the Wii or Kinect.
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SINGAPORE - Exercising and working your body to better health does not have to be boring, as new gaming technologies being introduced in Singapore hospitals show. Using video games and interactive technologies to improve health is fast catching on in Singapore, with The Straits Times (ST) reporting that several rehabilitation centres here have taken up offering interactive technologies alongside conventional therapies to improve conditions ranging from stroke, burn wounds to even learning difficulties.
+/- Click for more/less
In the National University of Singapore (NUH), a Nintendo Wii game designed by Singapore Polytechnic students encourages stroke patients to exercise their arms by playing games such as flipping burger patties on a barbecue grill. The sweeping movements work the patients' hands and wrists and help strengthen muscles and another game, designed by Temasek Polytechnic students, gets patients to move a spaceship side to side on a screen using the Kinect to avoid getting hit by asteroids. The award-winning game does not allow patients to maneuver the spaceship using their bodies or legs, and similarly helps in the rehabilitation of arm nerves and muscles affected by a stroke.
The Kinect and Wii are a motion-sensing gaming devices that use hand controllers to interact and play games on a screen. Therapists and rehabilitation doctors interviewed by ST say this is just the start, and there is much potential in harnessing gaming technologies for therapeutic purposes. Already, Singapore General Hospital (SGH) uses a webcam-based program called Ovogame while Changi General Hospital and TTSH use the Wii or Kinect.
Click here for more
Tuesday, 25 October 2011
Red Hill Studios Parkinsons Game Research
The University of California San Francisco School of Nursing and Red Hill Studios, an educational games startup, have collaborated to help people with Parkinson’s disease by developing a suite of therapeutic games. After a recently concluded three month pilot study, the researchers showed that playing computer-based physical therapy exercises can help people with Parkinson’s improve their gait and balance.
(taken from link to news piece)
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Taken from Red Hills landing page:
Games for people with Parkinson's Disease? Cool!!
Red Hill Studios and the School of Nursing at the University of California San Francisco have recently begun the second phase of a project to build a suite of therapeutic games that will help people with Parkinson's Disease (PD) improve their balance. Patients play the games by performing movements that have been shown to be beneficial for improving balance in people with PD. The patients' movements are captured by custom hardware and then processed by custom software developed by Red Hill Studios. These games will provide people with PD an immersive and interesting world in which to practice gait and balance exercises.
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(taken from link to news piece)
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Taken from Red Hills landing page:
Games for people with Parkinson's Disease? Cool!!
Red Hill Studios and the School of Nursing at the University of California San Francisco have recently begun the second phase of a project to build a suite of therapeutic games that will help people with Parkinson's Disease (PD) improve their balance. Patients play the games by performing movements that have been shown to be beneficial for improving balance in people with PD. The patients' movements are captured by custom hardware and then processed by custom software developed by Red Hill Studios. These games will provide people with PD an immersive and interesting world in which to practice gait and balance exercises.
Click here for more
Saturday, 3 September 2011
Wii makes rehab merry
August 21, 2011 By Tim Johnson Sunday http://www.southwestiowanews.com
“Exercise can just be so boring, and we just wanted to make it more fun.”
That is why Alegent Health Mercy Hospital officials decided to use Wii games as part of rehab for joint replacement patients, said Andrea Bolte, director of orthopedics.
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“We used to do things in the hallway that, because of fire code, we can’t do anymore,” she said. “As we were kind of brainstorming, we did approach the guild. They donated the Wii, and the staff donated their TV from the break room.”
Patients spend 45 to 60 minutes in joint camp each morning doing conventional rehab exercises and can spend 20 to 30 minutes on the games in the afternoon, said Stephanie Denton, lead therapist. The games score more points with some patients than others.
“We don’t force anyone to do it, if they’re not comfortable,” she said.
Mercy just started including the Wii games in therapy about a month ago, said Jacie Getter, nursing manager for orthopedics.
The game helps keep patients’ minds off their joints and pain. It still requires some movement, and it can trick patients into putting more weight on their new joints than they might otherwise. It also helps test their balance, she said.
For more info click here
“Exercise can just be so boring, and we just wanted to make it more fun.”
That is why Alegent Health Mercy Hospital officials decided to use Wii games as part of rehab for joint replacement patients, said Andrea Bolte, director of orthopedics.
+/- Click for more/less
“We used to do things in the hallway that, because of fire code, we can’t do anymore,” she said. “As we were kind of brainstorming, we did approach the guild. They donated the Wii, and the staff donated their TV from the break room.”
Patients spend 45 to 60 minutes in joint camp each morning doing conventional rehab exercises and can spend 20 to 30 minutes on the games in the afternoon, said Stephanie Denton, lead therapist. The games score more points with some patients than others.
“We don’t force anyone to do it, if they’re not comfortable,” she said.
Mercy just started including the Wii games in therapy about a month ago, said Jacie Getter, nursing manager for orthopedics.
The game helps keep patients’ minds off their joints and pain. It still requires some movement, and it can trick patients into putting more weight on their new joints than they might otherwise. It also helps test their balance, she said.
For more info click here
Monday, 8 August 2011
Fighting diabetes with just a Wii bit of exercise
Max Mason
July 29, 2011
Computer games could be the answer to combatting diabetes according to Dr Hugh Senior, Associate Professor in the school of medicine at the University of Queensland.
New research to be undertaken at UQ's Ipswich campus is set to examine how interactive gaming such as the Nintendo Wii can help improve diabetes sufferers' health and quality of living.
"We're looking at new technology as a form exercise, these new interactive games started out for children are now a new form of doing exercise," said Senior.
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A government survey conducted in 2008 showed that 61.4 per cent of adult Australians are overweight or obese.
"People are ending up with diabetes unfortunately due to the environment they're living in and as a result the prevalence of diabetes is increasing," said Senior. "It's very easy to access high energy density foods and as such people are putting on more weight and also not exercising."
Dr Senior said the correlation between weight and diabetes put a huge amount of the population at risk.
"The prevalence of diabetes type 2 has doubled over the past 20 years, seven per cent of adults now have diabetes type 2 and an additional 16 per cent of adults have glucose intolerance, a precursor for developing diabetes."
Previous research has shown that playing the Nintendo Wii's tennis game for 30 minutes is equivalent to a half-hour brisk walk in terms of energy expended.
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July 29, 2011
Computer games could be the answer to combatting diabetes according to Dr Hugh Senior, Associate Professor in the school of medicine at the University of Queensland.
New research to be undertaken at UQ's Ipswich campus is set to examine how interactive gaming such as the Nintendo Wii can help improve diabetes sufferers' health and quality of living.
"We're looking at new technology as a form exercise, these new interactive games started out for children are now a new form of doing exercise," said Senior.
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A government survey conducted in 2008 showed that 61.4 per cent of adult Australians are overweight or obese.
"People are ending up with diabetes unfortunately due to the environment they're living in and as a result the prevalence of diabetes is increasing," said Senior. "It's very easy to access high energy density foods and as such people are putting on more weight and also not exercising."
Dr Senior said the correlation between weight and diabetes put a huge amount of the population at risk.
"The prevalence of diabetes type 2 has doubled over the past 20 years, seven per cent of adults now have diabetes type 2 and an additional 16 per cent of adults have glucose intolerance, a precursor for developing diabetes."
Previous research has shown that playing the Nintendo Wii's tennis game for 30 minutes is equivalent to a half-hour brisk walk in terms of energy expended.
Click for more
Sunday, 23 January 2011
Wii not so hot for fitness -- but works well for rehab | Standard-Examiner
By Brad Gillman
Standard-Examiner staff
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Video game creators have a new controller -- you.
The phenomenon started four years ago when Nintendo released the Wii console, which uses hand controllers and your movement to control the game. This winter has seen others invade the market, with the Playstation Move and the Xbox Kinect.
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Wii Fit, released in 2008, introduced the idea that fitness and video games could coexist. Now the studies have started trickling in -- and the news is not as promising.
"Nearly all of these research studies have a similar conclusion," said Dale Wagner, health professor at Utah State University, in an e-mail interview. "The interactive video games increase heart rate and energy expenditure compared to sedentary computer games. However, the increase in heart rate with these games corresponds to only light to moderate intensity."
Wagner said the studies show that the games on average raised the heart rate between 40 percent to 60 percent. The American College of Sports Medicine noted that moderate-intensity workouts need to be over 60 percent -- meaning that these video games fall short of moderate intensity.
Read More - click here
Standard-Examiner staff
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Video game creators have a new controller -- you.
The phenomenon started four years ago when Nintendo released the Wii console, which uses hand controllers and your movement to control the game. This winter has seen others invade the market, with the Playstation Move and the Xbox Kinect.
+/- Click for more/less
Wii Fit, released in 2008, introduced the idea that fitness and video games could coexist. Now the studies have started trickling in -- and the news is not as promising.
"Nearly all of these research studies have a similar conclusion," said Dale Wagner, health professor at Utah State University, in an e-mail interview. "The interactive video games increase heart rate and energy expenditure compared to sedentary computer games. However, the increase in heart rate with these games corresponds to only light to moderate intensity."
Wagner said the studies show that the games on average raised the heart rate between 40 percent to 60 percent. The American College of Sports Medicine noted that moderate-intensity workouts need to be over 60 percent -- meaning that these video games fall short of moderate intensity.
Read More - click here
Wednesday, 8 December 2010
Video games rival phys-ed for fitness
While video games have long been considered the foe of gym teachers, new research released Tuesday by the University of Calgary suggests that games may be as capable of keeping kids fit as traditional physical education classes.
The University of Calgary study tested the effects of a number of popular video games that incorporate jumping and balancing, such as dance games.
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After two years testing the games on Calgary elementary school students, researchers found that active video games improved balance by up to 30 per cent, while conventional physical education that included traditional games, such as badminton, had a negligible effect.
The results, released Tuesday, were on par with a six-week phys-ed program that focused solely on improving agility and balance using dance, gymnastics and obstacle courses.
“We don’t believe what we’re doing is trying to encourage kids to play video games,” said researcher Larry Katz. “We think there is an obesity problem because of sedentary behaviour and what we’re hoping to do is to get kids who are involved with sedentary behaviour to be non-sedentary, to be active.”
Often children fail to become physically active because they don’t develop balance and agility, he said.
For more information click here
The University of Calgary study tested the effects of a number of popular video games that incorporate jumping and balancing, such as dance games.
+/- Click for more/less
After two years testing the games on Calgary elementary school students, researchers found that active video games improved balance by up to 30 per cent, while conventional physical education that included traditional games, such as badminton, had a negligible effect.
The results, released Tuesday, were on par with a six-week phys-ed program that focused solely on improving agility and balance using dance, gymnastics and obstacle courses.
“We don’t believe what we’re doing is trying to encourage kids to play video games,” said researcher Larry Katz. “We think there is an obesity problem because of sedentary behaviour and what we’re hoping to do is to get kids who are involved with sedentary behaviour to be non-sedentary, to be active.”
Often children fail to become physically active because they don’t develop balance and agility, he said.
For more information click here
Friday, 24 September 2010
Wii technology gets older adults moving
2:50 p.m., Sept. 15, 2010----Video games have been blamed for weight gain and lack of fitness in children and adolescents, but Beth Orsega-Smith is finding that the right games used the right way can actually improve health and well-being. Her target population, however, is about 60 years older than the typical video game player.
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An associate professor in the Department of Behavioral Health and Nutrition at the University of Delaware, Orsega-Smith is conducting research on the use of “exergames” -- games that require physical exertion as an input to gain feedback from the system -- with older adults.
With assistance from undergraduate health behavior science majors, Orsega-Smith is exploring the use of the Nintendo Wii gaming system to promote not only physical fitness but also mental health. During the past two summers, four students have been involved in the project through UD's Service Learning Program.
A study implemented during summer 2009 by Kerrigan Smith and Christine Kukich at the Newark Senior Center and the Howard Weston Senior Center in New Castle, Del., compared the caloric expenditure of playing various Wii sports games -- bowling, tennis, and baseball -- for 30 minutes.
The calories burned ranged from a low of 18-89 for team bowling to a high of 22-114 for baseball.
Link to webpage
+/- Click for more/less
An associate professor in the Department of Behavioral Health and Nutrition at the University of Delaware, Orsega-Smith is conducting research on the use of “exergames” -- games that require physical exertion as an input to gain feedback from the system -- with older adults.
With assistance from undergraduate health behavior science majors, Orsega-Smith is exploring the use of the Nintendo Wii gaming system to promote not only physical fitness but also mental health. During the past two summers, four students have been involved in the project through UD's Service Learning Program.
A study implemented during summer 2009 by Kerrigan Smith and Christine Kukich at the Newark Senior Center and the Howard Weston Senior Center in New Castle, Del., compared the caloric expenditure of playing various Wii sports games -- bowling, tennis, and baseball -- for 30 minutes.
The calories burned ranged from a low of 18-89 for team bowling to a high of 22-114 for baseball.
Link to webpage
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But it wasn't until Wii Fit in 2007 that video game fitness became Big Business. Here's some hardcore stat-porn for you: Wii Fit and Wii Fit Plus have sold over 40 million copies, making them among the biggest selling home console titles in history; the Balance Board, that plastic tray Nintendo made for Wii Fit, had shifted over 34 million units by the end of last year; and Zumba Fitness, the awful cash-in based on that terrifying dance craze enjoyed by wild-eyed women, spent ten weeks at number one in the UK all-formats games chart this year.
The classic hardcore gamer response is either to sneer at fat idiots frittering away more money chasing an impossible dream, or to despair at the credibility collapse of their special hobby.
Me? I think the craze is brilliant. Yes, most fitness gamers are (ironically) lazy, rubbish bandwagon jumpers. But I happen to believe it is a wonderful thing that the entertainment medium I have been obsessed with for most of my life is evolving to become something more than just entertainment, something that actually contributes to the social good (which I wrote about in more detail in a previous column).
cont...
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