2011 AAHPERD ExerGame Workshop Rocked San Diego!

Here's the album from the 2011 AAHPERD ExerGame Workshop - San Diego, CA! Thanks to everyone for an awesome international showcase and display of unity for exergaming/active gaming. With experts from the US, UK, Scandinavia, and Canada, it was truly the largest and most diverse ExerGame Workhop ever.


Big Shout Outs to SUNY Cortland PE Students Anthony, Amanda, Lauren, Alison, Edwin, and Andrew for assisting set-up and leading games at the workshop and especially to Anthony for leading the entire group in the Carlton and Running Man on Just Dance.


Special thanks especially to Motion Fitness, Positive Gaming, Exergame Station, Gamercize, and XaviX for arranging equipment for the activity sessions. Thanks to Positive Gaming for sponsoring the great TEN t-shirts, Exergame Fitness for prizes (t-shirts and bags), and Gamercize for the GZ School Handbook.


And of course a huge SHOUT OUT to Helena for her incredible organization and communication skills in organizing our group. Let's keep the momentum going and plan for a bigger and better session next year in Boston!


If you haven't responded be sure to meet Thursday for the first TEN face to face meeting at 10:30


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Kinect 2 StepMania & 2011 AAHPERD Exergame Workshop

Modder MMaximus' newest Kinect hack  has brought two different exergaming technology together - kind of like peanut butter and chocolate.  Both of them good on their own, but entirely something different together,


Be sure to check out the other StepMania hacks by clicking here - including professor David Lippman's Wii Balance Board Stepmania hack. Lippman is a Mathematics professor at Pierce College at Ft Steilacoom in Lakewood, WA.
[Via Joystiq Kinect Hacks: A pad-free StepMania] 


We're only a couple of days away from the biggest Exergame Workshop ever held at the 2011 AAHPERD Convention in San Diego, CA.  We have 15 separate groups on the programs and over 18 people on the panel, this represents the single largest Exergaming Workshop (that we know of)! See you in sunny San Diego!



This experiential multidisciplinary workshop will focus on how exergames (video games that require physical exertion to play) can be used as a means to accumulate more physical activity in today’s sedentary society. Our panel will lead live demonstrations and competitions on the use and benefits of exergames in schools, fitness clubs, and at home. Don’t miss your chance to meet the leaders in exergaming from education, health care, advocacy, fitness, research, manufacturing, and marketing.

Exergame Workshop: Oceans of Opportunities Active Games 4 Better Health
Tuesday, March 29, 2011: 8:00 AM-12:00 PM
Hilton Bayfront: Sapphire Ballroom CDGH
AAPAR/Council for Lifelong Recreational Sports

Positive Gaming sponsors TEN at AAHPERD 2011

(Cross-posted from TEN)

iDANCE and TEN in San Diego!

Positive Gaming is the sponsor with TEN T-Shirts as the Official uniform of the Exergame Workshop: Oceans of Opportunities 4 Better Health, spearheaded by SUNY Cortland.

This experiential multidisciplinary workshop will focus on how exergames (video games that require physical exertion to play) can be used as a means to accumulate more physical activity in today’s sedentary society. Our panel will lead live demonstrations and competitions on the use and benefits of exergames in schools, fitness clubs, and at home. Don’t miss your chance to meet the leaders in exergaming from education, health care, advocacy, fitness, research, manufacturing, and marketing.

The sessions will include presenters from many different aspects of the exergaming world, with support from SUNY Cortland students running demonstrations on stations such as iDANCE2, Gamercize, XaviX and Exergame Station.

The event will take place on Tuesday 29th March from 8:00AM in San Diego and has a Facebook group where you can ask the experts, pick up information and follow the sessions if you cannot attend in person.

Huge thanks to Positive Gaming for the sponsorship of the TEN uniforms with their showcase product iDANCE2, which will be in the forefront of the workshop. Thanks also to Jill from www.bstreethill.com for helping TEN out with the production of the Tees at seriously short notice!

110 Exergame Workshop: Oceans of Opportunities Active Games 4 Better Health

110 Exergame Workshop: Oceans of Opportunities Active Games 4 Better Health
Tuesday, March 29, 2011: 8:00 AM-12:00 PM
Hilton Bayfront: Sapphire Ballroom CDGH
AAPAR/Council for Lifelong Recreational Sports
Presiders:
Jack Murphy, SUNY Cortland, Rocky Point, NY; Patrick Wingler, SUNY Cortland, Cortland, NY; and John Modina, SUNY Cortland, Massapequa, NY
Speakers:
Stephen P. Yang1; Richard Coshott2; John T. Foley1; Lisa Hansen3; Helena Baert4; Andrea Oh5; Yoonsin Oh6; Daniel B. Bornstein7; Dwayne P. Sheehan8; Aaron T. Hart9; Michael J. Pelletter10; Dan Lawler11; Tommy Seilheimer12; Ed Kassanders12; Parker Johnson12; Alasdair Thin13; Emily Rosenberry14; and Basilius van Houte14, (1)State University of New York–Cortland, Cortland, NY, (2)Gamercize, UK, Cortland, NY, (3)University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, (4)University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR, (5)ITECH Fitness, Denver, CO, (6)University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, (7)University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, (8)Mount Royal University, Calgary, AB, Canada, (9)The SPARK Programs, Cortland, NY, (10)Physical Education Lab Technology, Cheektowaga, NY, (11)Lawler & Reed Education Consulting Group, LLC, Ft. Collins, CO, (12)Motion Fitness, Palatine, IL, (13)Heriot Watt, Edinburgh, Scotland, (14)Positive Gaming, Eslov, Sweden

Myomo - My Own Motion with myGames

The Myomo robot helps you move your arm by detecting EMG waves (via sensors placed on the skin).

But on top of using the device to help recover range of motion, strength and function, they also paired with Northern Ireland's University of Ulster for the myGames platform that includes problem solving and functional tasks. One game even looks like the MyShape Wii game. More via Health Gamers

Can playing Pac-Man make you healthier?

Can playing Pac-Man make you healthier?

Toru Iwatani, Tokyo Polytechnic University and Hitachi are working together on a new fitness machine that combines elements of gaming with serious exercise. After leaving Namco, Iwatani became a lecturer at Tokyo Polytechnic University in 2007.

  More »
[Via Kotaku Pac-Man Creator Wants To Pump You Up [Exercise]]

Kinect Tesla Coil for Ultimate Evil Effects

Image via Wikipedia

Now if we can make a game out of this perhaps adding in some Star Wars Force Unleashed and some simple game elements. Wow. Maybe throw in the VirtuSphere with the Tesla Coils in the background, now that's immersive.

MayaFit (Fitness-Simulator)

Response Design  just released a trailer for their MayaFit. The creative wizards behind the original YourselfFitness!, Your Shape and My Fitness Coach have brought their experience together with the PrimeSense Open Natural Interaction (OpenNI) featured for PC's and TV's.  We heard and saw previews at Games for Health 2010 in Boston last year so it's good to see things moving along. Although some of the graphics haven't changed that much and looks a little like EyeToy Kinetic.  I have to check to see if they were part of that team as well.

The second video highlights a kiosk setup with touch display (probably for gyms and fitness centers). To me, MayaFit and to some extent Dance Central are fitness-simulators or dance-simulators as they provide little game play or game design elements.  They are great in terms of motion sensing; however, my biggest gripe is that the "trainer" is the central figure and not the user.  EyeToy Kinetic and other EyeToy series pioneered the interaction of the "moving-user" with augmented reality game elements.  What do you think?

Move & Kinect Square Off

The newest exergame controllers for consoles (Kinect & Move) are reviewed by Uber Tech site CNET. Check out the video to see which one is crowned the Champ.  Let's get ready to Rummmble.