On my 2nd day of CES 2017, I got a chance to spend some time at the Sensoria booth with an eye on all of their products and their upcoming "pod" which will require a new "2 prong" attachment, which coincidentally the previous version of the snap-in attachment was universally accepted with other sensors (Polar, Suunto, etc...).
The big hit was the Sensoria Sock 2.0 and Smart Shoe and I also got a chance to hold the newer "peanut" sensor which is incredibly lighter, more versatile, and easier to attach to various body parts. Many people wonder if having all this technology and information will actually improve performance and maybe even require less human coaching. Essentially will technology replace humans?
CES presented a lot of new experiences to this conference-hound, but I never anticipated the sheer scope and volume of exhibits, presentations, demonstrations, and hungry entrepreneurs out there. I've been to AAHPERD, IHRSA, GDC....but this was something completely different!
Some of the booths were easily $1M to design, manufacture, ship, and send to Las Vegas in time for the show.
A new company that I had not heard of before is Onitor which displayed their activity tracker and new fitness app. With heart rate sensing and triaxial accelerometer, it has the same basic features as the other dozens of fitness trackers at CES.
I was most interested in how their new app will have customized workouts and meal plans based on user inputs and health and fitness goals.
I was told they have their product in a university-lab to do some validity studies - and I mentioned to them that I would gladly entertain future collaborations for usability or validity projects.
More information can be found at:
http://onitor.com/specifications.html
Newly added games to Blue Goji's mobile exergaming system (iPad) gives it a total of 15 mini-games. (Full Disclosure: I have received two Goji Play units to test and have been reviewing the games). The new games include Plunder Pit, Trivia, and The Experiment to go along with Spin or Die, Smash the Blocks, Try Your Luck: Casino, Beat Drop, Fisticuffs, Ralaga, Riptide, Shine Runner, APO Snow, Goji Reader, and Super Moto X.Although I love the games, the prospect of reading RSS feeds while pedaling is very intriguing. Check back for more information and reviews of this speed-mediated gaming (SMG) system. (Images and video via Blue Goji).
Kids who got access to the Zamzee website moved 59% more on average than kids in the control group, who did not get access to the website.
I guess that answers the questions to whether or not a device and access to a new website could get kids to move more. Now I've been a huge fan of HopeLab for almost 5 years since being introduced to Re-Mission through Ellen and Richard at GFH 2008 or 2009. Keeping up with their product development and trials for Zamzee has been great - even a little cloak and daggerish at times:)
As you've already read, kids who received the Zamzee accelerometer and had access to an innovative website, increased their moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) 59% above the control group that only received the Zamzee.
Below is a picture I took at the 2011 GFH conference where they provided us an update on Zamzee's product development and trial early results.
Besides the great news about the increase in MVPA, and other biological markers - I think its great that the Zamzee group achieved CDC-recommended 60 min MVPA/day at a rate 4.5 times that of controls.
Points to Ponder (P2P)
My only question is the statistic the use (3.1% ± 0.3% of days vs. 0.7% ± 0.4%; p < .0001) sounds quite low - should it be days and not percent (3.1 ± 0.3 days vs. 0.7 ± 0.4; p < .0001)?
Kudos to HopeLab, their partners, and all the participants for such encouraging results about how to improve the health of young people.
Motivating Physical Activity in Tweens: The Zamzee Randomized Controlled Trial and Biomarker Study
Nicole Guthrie, Fred Dillon, Jana Haritatos, and Steve Cole
HopeLab Foundation, 1991 Broadway St. Suite 136, Redwood City CA 94063
This presentation will report results from the Zamzee Impact Trial – a randomized controlled trial of the Zamzee accelerometer /motivational website system in 448 11-14-year-old adolescents recruited from 6 urban, suburban, and rural US middle schools. Zamzee combines individualized feedback, progress monitoring and goal setting, tangible incentives, and intrinsic motivation features to promote long-term increase in physical activity as measured by a 3-axis accelerometer system with automated upload to a central database. In this study, control participants received Zamzee activity monitors that uploaded data but had no access to the motivational intervention website. 186 individuals enrolled in a biomarker sub-study involving pre- and post-study blood sampling. Primary outcomes were accelerometer-based measures of weekly moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) assessed continuously over 6 months. Compared to controls, the Zamzee group showed an average 59% higher rate of MVPA (mean = 118 min/week ± SE 3 vs. 74 ± 5 for controls; p < .0001) throughout the 6-onth study, with no decrement in difference over time (no Group x Week interaction, p = .9415). These effects correspond to approximately 1,120 min MVPA and 8,800 kcal expended per participant over 6 months. The Zamzee group achieved CDC-recommended 60 min MVPA/day at a rate 4.5 times that of controls (3.1% ± 0.3% of days vs. 0.7% ± 0.4%; p < .0001). Within the biomarker sub-study, the Zamzee group showed more favorable pre- to post-study changes in LDL cholesterol (+0.3 ± 1.4 mg/dL vs. +5.1 ±1.6; p = .034), total cholesterol (+0.2 ± 1.5 mg/dL vs. +4.7 ± 1.7; p = .057), and, in protocol-adherent participants, HbA1c (-0.08% ± 0.03% vs. +0.08% ± 0.05%; p = .012). Non-significant effects were observed for CRP (-0.01 ± 0.06 mg/L vs. +0.53 ± 0.06; p = .322) and BMI (+0.34 ± 0.07 kg/m2 vs. +0.37 ±0.06; p = .781). The Zamzee activity meter/motivational website system can consistently increase MVPA over 6 months in middle school-aged children, with favorable effects on blood lipid and metabolic parameters.
ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT01433679.
About HopeLab
HopeLab is a non-profit organization founded in 2001 by Board Chair Pam Omidyar. HopeLab harnesses the power and appeal of technology to improve the health of young people. HopeLab applies a research-based, customer-focused development model to create products that positively impact health behavior. HopeLab is part of the Omidyar Group philanthropic enterprises. For more information, please visit http://www.hopelab.org.
About Zamzee
Zamzee is a social enterprise on a mission to make it easier for tweens and families to be more physically active. The Zamzee meter and motivational website is the result of several years of research and design based on feedback from kids and families. The Zamzee meter is sold for $29.95; access to the Zamzee website is free of charge. Zamzee was established in 2010 by HopeLab, a nonprofit research organization that uses the power and appeal of technology to improve the health of kids. Initial research and development of Zamzee was conducted by HopeLab, with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. https://www.zamzee.com/
Using existing hardware to encourage physical activity is a smart and simple way to harness existing technology and familiar concepts . Take for example neerajjadhav87's school project that used an iOS camera (iPhone, iPod Touch) to play a "Stomp the Mole" augmented reality-type game. It's interesting because six months ago latino1990's STOMP DAH MOLE concept video basically foreshadows the newer project. I say do whatever means necessary to increase awareness and opportunities to increase physical activity and engage in the physical world.
Constance Steinkuehler Squire, senior policy analyst for the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, will discuss the opportunities for videogames to address national challenges, including those in health, health care, and biotechnology.
Bill Crounse, MD, senior director of worldwide health for Microsoft, will present “Connecting & Kinecting Health and Health Care,” which will explore how Microsoft and its partners are merging its information and game technologies to create global solutions for personal health and professional health care.
Jane McGonigal, New York Times bestselling author and co-founder of SuperBetter Labs, will highlight the design and release of SuperBetter, a game-based social application designed to help people boost personal resilience and lead healthier, longer, and more positive lives.
Jay Walker, curator and chairman of TEDMED, a global community of people who passionately believe that the future of health and medicine is here, will provide the end-of-conference special guest keynote: “Gaming the System”.
About Games for Health Founded in 2004, the Games for Health Project supports the development of the health games community, champions efforts to mainstream health games, and brings together researchers, medical professionals, and game developers to share information about the impact games and game technologies can have on health, health care, and policy. The Pioneer Portfolio of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is a major supporter of both the Games for Health Project and its annual Games for Health Conference.
About the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and its Pioneer Portfolio The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation focuses on the pressing health and health care issues facing the United States. As the nation’s largest philanthropy devoted exclusively to improving the health and health care of all Americans, the Foundation works with a diverse group of organizations and individuals to identify solutions and achieve comprehensive, meaningful and timely change. Projects in the Pioneer Portfolio are future-oriented and look beyond conventional thinking to explore solutions at the cutting edge of health and healthcare. For more information, visit www.rwjf.org/pioneer.
GOGOYU is a Health eGame that is powered by the amount of physical activity tracked on a Fit Bit. The game is in Alpha stage across Canada and has accumulated 49,217,607 steps which in turns fills your GOGOYU Power bars to fuel you up to find clues to the energy crisis. Almost sounds like Monsters. Inc collecting screams to power their world. Would love to see more of this Alpha/Beta gameplay and minigames. Any invites? Hit me up at Twitter (@syangman) if you know someone who knows someone!
GOGOYU is set in 2032. It is a time of crisis, according to the game, because people are running out of energy. Children play GOGOYU by wearing a FitBit pedometer that is used to track the amount of steps they take every day. The more active they are, the further their characters go in the online game, which has the avatars doing all sorts of fun things like engaging in snowball fights and placing ingredients into a device that will spit out a virtual “Made in Canada” omelet. An online timer limits game play to 20 minutes a day. While the goal of GOGOYU is to get kids moving, the goal isn’t to have players run themselves ragged.
Nike+ (Nike+ Pressure Sensors) is adding more gear to those things we used to call sneakers. These new pressure sensors and accelerometers will be mounted inside specific hoops and cross-training shoes with all the data being fed back to your iPhone via Bluetooth.
The new shoes feature four embedded sensors – in the toe, heel, ball and outer foot, with an internal accelerometer so that the measured movement is more precise.
Besides tracking sports specific data wirelessly one of the features they are hoping to catch on is the use of leaderboards and the ability to share your stats with your friends to see who is the fastest, jumps the highest, etc.. In many ways we've done these activities to see who can throw the farthest or run the fastest, but these new tools will give all users so much more information about your performance and what I love about it is the long term tracking of skill and health related fitness - one area schools are not particularly good at.
Concerns
Having all students use and own Nike +, a specific shoe, and iPhone is unreasonable....well maybe not to Nike and Apple... but I love the potential health informatics data collection side of this new product. I alsp have concerns because I know I have a hard time wearing Nike shoes because of my foot prontation, wide feet, and Nike typically designs for narrower feet. What other concerns do you foresee for this system or how might you use this with your group, school, family?
Shoes with the new will be available starting June 29th, 2012. You’ll find the new features available in the Nike Hyperdunk+ basketball shoe, and the Lunar Hyperworkout+ for women and Lunar TR1+ for men.
Scosche myTREK Wireless Pulse monitor for iPod and iPhone is one of the newest activity monitors on the market but this one is not relying just on accelerometer data but going back to heart rate monitoring, except this time it is a forearm worn device instead of a chest strap. I am very interested in seeing how the built-in accelerometer filters into total activity energy expenditure. That fact alone is a potential limitation of other arm-worn devices. Price $129.99
WIBC (Wouldn't It Be Cool)- If they could leverage this technology and use a pc driven receiver to monitor more than one device at a time, we might have a killer app/ tech solution for monitoring fitness in schools and gyms (think Suunto, Activio, Polar, Zwphyr, and Ekho's group monitoring solutions).
Getting to the state of being the "New You" is often a goal we seek and even the description of this blog is "Where gaming and technology collide for a healthier you!" This new device (NewYu) is pushing its way onto the busy scene of ubiquitous and pervasive activity-monitors that are user-friendly and intend to impact behavioral outcomes such as physical activity, exercise and nutritional habits.
Using industry-first motion detection and advanced pattern recognition technology that detects and identifies specific body movements, the small and lightweight NewYu easily clips anywhere on the torso or to the pocket. The monitor not only tracks basic activities such as walking and running, but also specifically recognizes complex movements like biking, elliptical and step machine, while also capturing data for daily living tasks like cooking, cleaning and shopping. The result – a more accurate view of how many calories are burned based on every movement made throughout the day.
I am interested in seeing how accurate this graphic is in terms of unique features beyond heart rate monitors, armbands and other devices. Considering the app is Android only, they've got to be preparing at least an iOS app in the near future. Once I get a hold of one, I will let you know how it works and if might be something schools could use.
Is this another fitness watch or something more like a wrist-based monitor a la BodyMedia's SenseWear Armband? Pulse Tracer will soon be releasing their Basis, a watch monitor that packs in a bunch of sensors that monitor not just movement but heart rate, temperature and skin response.The company recently announced the raising of $9 million in funding from Norwest Venture Partners and DCM. Can't wait to get this one in the lab to compare to the Armband.
Announced features and sensors:
Price $199
Accelerometer (presumably triaxial)
Galvanic skin response
Skin temperature
Optical blood flow
Online tools to manage and analyze (and share) data. Think mini PHR/EHR
Novint just revealed its yet to be named dream product mash-up "Self contained, Virtual Reality, Gaming and Training System." Looking at Tom Anderson (tomlucient Novint's CEO) demo the setup, I can't help but think that all of these products have been featured here (ExerGame Lab) over the past 3 years. I can see the comments and discussion boards already lighting up with excitement and anticipation for its commercialization. Get ready to really feel like to "Be in the game!"
With the new Nintendo 3DS debuting to some solid sales (~400,000), besides the "3D display", the units also pack a lot more punch in terms of hardware and software. In particular, it includes a InvenSense MEMS triaxial gyrometer and a STMicroelectronics triaxial accelerometer that makes it more of a motion gaming device and physical activity monitor. In essence, the 3DS is a six-degrees of freedom controller like the Wii Controller, Playstation Move, or other mobile device. By carrying the new 3DS around with you, the accelerometer picks up your movements and assigns you Game Coins that can be used in certain games as a form of virtual cash and track your overall physical activity.
To find out more about mobile exergaming, be sure to check out Yoonsin Oh's great work from the University of Wisconsin - Madison.
"Nintendo has always been at the forefront of active gaming. Getting up, moving around. Obviously the Wii launched that. As you touched on, we've also done it with a number of handheld games. We had a game called Personal Training Walking that leveraged a pedometer. And obviously the most recent two Pokemon games leveraged a similar type of system." [Via MTV]
On my 2nd day of CES 2017, I got a chance to spend some time at the Sensoria booth with an eye on all of their products and their upcoming "pod" which will require a new "2 prong" attachment, which coincidentally the previous version of the snap-in attachment was universally accepted with other sensors (Polar, Suunto, etc...). 
The big hit was the Sensoria Sock 2.0 and Smart Shoe and I also got a chance to hold the newer "peanut" sensor which is incredibly lighter, more versatile, and easier to attach to various body parts. Many people wonder if having all this technology and information will actually improve performance and maybe even require less human coaching. Essentially will technology replace humans?
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