Sharing a drink with a rival fan is not something we typically do. At last year's World Cup, Coke commissioned the Fair Play video vending machines that gave away free Cokes, as long as you pressed the button at the same time.
Although this is an old post, it is a great example of using gaming technology (Kinect) to promote exploration and learning. In this immersive exergaming experience, participants are encouraged to move and interact with the digital environment that respond to them. For example, "Some creatures will also only come out when the forest is quiet, so you have to listen for the sounds they make to locate them."
Over at CNN, there is a news piece about "Virtual Reality" Fitness featuring full room projectors while people are spinning. This form of exergaming has been around for many years and has taken many forms and names. There have been plenty of "immersive fitness" rooms that have used bikes, steppers, punching bags, treadmills, rowing machines, dance pads, and more. Of course to provide a "balanced" view, the report switches to a personalized CrossFit individual workout to compare the experiences. Now of course you're going to get a different viewpoint from a group-based workout, especially from the personal trainer working with indvidual clients.
Immersive Fitness is new initiative from fitness guru Les Mills and is available in Hong Kong, London, Paris, Stockholm, and Sant Monica.
Playing Pong used to be played on a couple of dials knobs attached to the console and be on a black and white, then we had Wii controllers, but now you can use your whole living room to play Pong with a Virtual Orb bouncing off walls and your furniture. I think I prefer this most recent version, so long as nothing gets broken.
Thank you to all the staff at the Partnership for a Healthier America Summit for organizing such a wonderful summit. Meeting such a diverse group of attendees, educators, industry experts, and health care professionals has been really rewarding. I had a chance to meet Darryl McDaniels DMC of Run DMC who has been helping out the PHA by releasing music to help the healthy messaging and music cause (songs can be downloaded here)
At her keynote address, the first lady Michelle Obama @FLOTUS encouraged us to use whatever tools necessary to continue the battle against unhealthy foods, neighborhoods, and schools and to improve school meals, physical activity opportunities to enable the nation's youth "to feel like they can move mountains.” Also announced were two initiatives, #GiveMeFive which encourages people to do something healthy for five days in a row like cut out sugar, and the other campaign was the launch of Team FNV which is recruting celebrities and athletes to support the eating of fruits and vegetables. Jessica Alba, Colin Kaepernick, Victor Cruz, Cam Newton,
I will make my slides available here shortly. Interestingly, both @carriebischke and I used Carrie Swidecki as a great example of how exergaming can be used for healthy outcomes.
Finding ways for children to become eligible for clinical trials requires them to be able to walk for six minutes. In using Kinect to track upperbody movements, researchers have proved at Nationwide Hospital that gaming technology can be used to chart upperbody function for children with Duchennes. [Via Medgadget]