Race Yourself to a Fitter You With Google Glass (Mobile Fitness #Exergame)

Race Yourself integrates Google Glass information and presents an augmented-reality #exergame that will definitely make you see things that don't resist in reality. I'm wondering if you see a zombie rushing towards you in your Glass viewfinder if you'll duck and try to run away?! If you already have Google Glass (I'm still looking for mine in the mail?! Hint Hint Google) and you don't want to just listen to the Zombies approaching (a la Zombie Run), this free app might be for you. Race Yourself or a zombie to a fitter and maybe happier you!

Exergaming Points to Ponder (ExP2P)

• I know whenever I run on a virtual trail (treadmill screen) or when using  BitGym's Virtual Active I tend to jump over logs and lean from side to side according to the video. I'm wondering what I might do if I'm flying/skydiving while running using Race Yourself. How much of the HUD (heads-up display) and video will you eyes and brain be able to process plus watch out for real world objects.
• I'm a big believer that the heart doesn't really care what type of activity it does (for the most part) and there's no difference if you're running outdoors or running outdoors with some game elements and extra visual data and feedback. It might even be more immersive than traditional #VR because you have to process both real and virtual visual stimuli. 
• I cannot wait to try this app to see how real the zombies seem and to train with your past performances (or training partner).
• How comfortable are they to wear on runs given the Glass seems to be weigh slightly more on one side (right side with HUD) and will the runner notice this imbalance.
• Will heart-rate monitoring or accelerometer data be available through an API or wrist worn #wearabletech like FitBit, Basis, Nike +, Polar, etc...

Click here to read more of ExerGame Lab's archived posts involving Mobile Exergames

Click through after the jump to see more photos of Race Yourself

PhD Defense: Comparing MVPA, EE, RPE, & Enjoyment in Adolescents Playing Exergames

A couple of weeks ago I defended my dissertation titled: "Comparing MVPA, Duration, EE, RPE & Enjoyment of Adolescents Playing Exergames". I would like to thank everyone who has been so helpful and instrumental in getting me to this point, especially my Committee Chair Dr. Melissa Bopp; Committee Members:  Dr. Linda Caldwell, Dr. R. Scott Kretchmar, Dr. Karl Newell; and Dr. John Challis (former Grad Coordinator) all of Penn State University; PSU & SUNY Cortland Faculty and Staff; the Cortland YMCA staff and participants, and of course my wonderful and loving family. Some of the details have been omitted as the separate papers are in the process of being submitted to separate journals but it gives you a rough estimate of what I was investigating. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me.

Click here to explore more of ExerGame Lab's archived posts involving research studies. 

Gamer Health Record (GHR) debuts as Kinect PlayFit to track exergaming calories

Launching today on Xbox Live is a free new downloadable dashboard for Xbox LIVE members. Kinect PlayFit is hoping to be a stepping stone to the Holy Grail of the Quantified-Self movement as it will track the time and calories you burn while playing exergames like Dance Central 2 and Your Shape Fitness Evolved 2012. Indeed it is the first time a major console will integrate fitness tracking across games as previously it only existed in game info from games like DDR, EA SPORTS Active, and EyeToy Kinetic. 

Exergaming Points to Ponder (ExP2P)

If more developers make user-generated data available to the dashboard - we might be witnessing the start of something incredible as a health application, research tool, and social engagement tracker. Some might say that the gamification of this data is not enough, but it just might be once they pair the Joule Heart rate monitor, mobile phone, and other motion trackers to this Gamer Health Record as predicted by many including Ben Sawyer at the Games for Health project. This is truly a step in the right direction, now if we can only get all the makers to use similar or standardized caloric expenditure guidelines to make the tracking more reliable and consistent.

• Kinect PlayFit is a new fitness dashboard that aggregates and tracks the calories you burn as you play a variety of Kinect games, from “Dance Central 2” to “Your Shape Fitness Evolved 2012” to “Kinect Star Wars.”
• Kinect PlayFit lets you view your personal stats over time and see leaderboards that show how you rank against Xbox LIVE members across the globe. Get credit for the calories you burn while having fun with Kinect, and earn Kinect PlayFit Achievements, Gamerscore and Avatar Awards.

Kinect PlayFit inspires an active and healthy lifestyle through fun and play:

• First of Its Kind – This is the first ever fitness tracking application on a video game console.
• Social Motivation – Kinect PlayFit keeps it social with activity challenges, rankings on leaderboards and integration with the Xbox LIVE community to break a sweat together.
• Survey Says – According to a recent survey (presumably the UnitedHealthcare study) *nearly 75 percent of respondents believe that video games should include a component that encourages physical activity. Also, 70 percent said that physically active video games can complement or supplement traditional exercise.

Click here to explore more of ExerGame Lab's archived posts involving Kinect PlayFit.

Children with CP Benefit from #exergames

#Exergaming can one way to incorporate more physical activity into the day and hopefully reduce the amount of sedentary time (The irony is not lost as I'm sitting down to write this). Seventeen children with Cerebral Palsy played exergames such as DDR, Wii Tennis-Bowling-Boxing and doubled their energy expenditure (above resting MET) ~ 2.22 MET. Boxing had the highest EE (3.36 MET) while DDR elicited 3.2 METs which is at the threshold of moderate intensity (MPA). Although this is not vigorous enough for cardiovascular endurance or strength training, it effectively burns twice as much as sitting down.

Exergaming Points To Ponder (P2P)

• Did the researches have them play a version of the same games while seated? 
• Are there condition specific cut-offs for children with CP for cardiorespiratory fitness indicators? 
• Would an exergame system like the GameCycle have been more appropriate to establish a baseline fitness level?

Howcroft J, Klejman S, Fehlings D, Wright V, Zabjek K, Andrysek J, & Biddiss E (2012). Active Video Game Play in Children With Cerebral Palsy: Potential for Physical Activity Promotion and Rehabilitation Therapies. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation PMID: 22571917

Click here to explore more of ExerGame Lab's archived posts involving research studies. 

Related articles

• Playing Video Games May Benefit Kids With Cerebral Palsy (medicalnewstoday.com)
• Kids with cerebral palsy may benefit from video game play (eurekalert.org)
• Kids with cerebral palsy may benefit from video game play (medicalxpress.com)

Energy Expenditure and Enjoyment playing #Exergames (study)

What are the differences between #exergaming and sedentary gaming in terms of energy expenditure and enjoyment?  This is one of my main research interests but primarily in children and adolescents.  Unfortunately, Wii-Fit and DDR only increased metabolism 3 times above resting MET which is considered to be of low intensity level (3.1 MET) whereas in other studies, we've seen much higher levels including moderate and even some vigorous.

Exergaming Points 2 Ponder (P2P)

• The sample was on 18-35 young adults but the 30-35 range seems a little high to be considered a young adult, no?
• As in many exergaming studies, the genre, interaction, and user-interface are so different it is hard to really compare them.
• Were all these participants novice users to all of the games?
• Were the participants novice game players?
• What level of motor (gross and fine) or musical skill did they have?
• Their conclusion of finding "Less active but more enjoyable video games may be a promising method for decreasing sedentary behavior" is a little disheartening as the PA intensity levels are so low with these games - how much lower can they be yet still have an impact on reduced sedentary activity. Perhaps we should be supporting ways to adapt the enjoyable games to make them more vigorous without taking away from the game-play.

Click on my Mendeley Advisor profile to see more information about my publications:

Stephen Yang is a member of Education on Mendeley.

Click here to see previous post on Using Exergames in Schools

Click here to explore more lessons with ExerGames

Purpose: Play of physically active video games may be a way to increase physical activity and/or decrease sedentary behavior, but games are not universally active or enjoyable. Active games may differ from traditional games on important attributes, which may affect frequency and intensity of play. The purpose of this study was to investigate differences in energy expenditure and enjoyment across four game types: shooter (played with traditional controllers), band simulation (guitar or drum controller), dance simulation (dance mat controller), and fitness (balance board controller).

Methods: Energy expenditure (METs) and enjoyment were measured across 10 games in 100 young adults age 18-35 yr (50 women).

Results: All games except shooter games significantly increased energy expenditure over rest (P < 0.001). Fitness and dance games increased energy expenditure by 322% (mean ± SD = 3.10 ± 0.89 METs) and 298% (2.91 ± 0.87 METs), which was greater than that produced by band simulation (73%, 1.28 ± 0.28 METs) and shooter games (23%, 0.91 ± 0.16 METs). However, enjoyment was higher in band simulation games than in other types (P < 0.001). Body mass-corrected energy expenditure was greater in normal weight than in overweight participants in the two most active game types (P < 0.001).

Conclusions: Active video games can significantly increase energy expended during screen time, but these games are less enjoyable than other more sedentary games, suggesting that they may be less likely to be played over time. Less active but more enjoyable video games may be a promising method for decreasing sedentary behavior.

Lyons EJ, Tate DF, Ward DS, Bowling JM, Ribisl KM, & Kalyararaman S (2011). Energy expenditure and enjoyment during video game play: differences by game type. Medicine and science in sports and exercise, 43 (10), 1987-93 PMID: 21364477

Related articles

• Obama administration teams up with the ESA on fitness promotion
• Study: exergaming may have more benefits for seniors than "traditional" exercise
• 'Exergames' Can Improve Cognitive Function in Older Adults
• Kids get more active when given more toy choices, studies show

Kinect Sports: Calorie Challenge Food Fights Back (DLC)

In announcing their new nutrition-themed DLC, makers of Kinect Sports (Rare Studios) are taking a different stance on using food to be your opponents. To play the challenges, you need to beat your opponents like Blazing Banana and Mighty Milk over a given time period. You compete against the food as each food mascot represents a calorie goal to burn.

This add-on will cost 320 Microsoft Points, is available on April 29, and comes with a series of food items to take on, such as:

• Blazing Banana (92 calories)
• Chocolate Challenger (416 calories)
• Mighty Milk (198 calories)
• Peppy Pizza (302 calories)
• Steady Celery (25 calories)
• Supersonic Soda (133 calories)

Points 2 Ponder:

• At first I wasn't a fan of "fighting" and competing against foods - especially the healthy ones. But on second thought, nutrition knowledge is at such an all-time low, if kids who don't know anything about the USDA's Nutrition Guidelines, and they know that a banana is 92 calories....at least that's a start.  Gotta check to see if a banana is 92 calories.  That seems close but I'll check.
• Did the designers use calories from a standard nutrition chart?
• 302 calories for pepperoni pizza seems a little low considering the size and content of many popular slices of pie.
• You can play against your friends on Xbox Live but I'm not sure what that will look like. Will your friend be their own avatar or that of the food mascot?

Wouldn't It Be Cool (WIBC)

• It would be great to have a customizable set of game details to include other nutritional components (fat, saturated fat, carbohydrates, sodium, etc..)
• Imagine if you could QR code the food you ate during the day and fight the food you ate.  Now that would be a really cool way to learn about energy balance.
• If these stats and time working out on Kinect could be exported to another profile aggregator (Raptr) there might be a nice built piece to build on for the National Active Gaming League.

[Via Arstechnica: Kinect Sports: Calorie Challenge makes you fight your food; Photos via Joystiq]
Rare's blog and press release after the break:

Got the Muchchies after gaming? (study)

We don't often think about the foods we eat or the volume we consume.  Researchers from EORI in Canada and Danish collaborators conducted a clinical trial to examine the effects video game playing has on appetite and caloric intake.

Details:

• within-subjects design
• n=22
• 15-19 years old
• excluded regular exercisers

Results:

• When given a meal (ad libitum) to eat after playing for an hour, participants consumed on average 80 kcal more than when in the control setting (sitting in a chair).
• Although 80 kcals doesn't seem like a lot, "eating only 50 additional calories a day — an apple, for instance — will pack on 28 extra kilograms (62 pounds) over 10 years, said Dr. Jean-Philippe Chaput, the lead author." As quoted in the National Post.
• The increase in caloric intake occurred without a corresponding increase in appetite or sensation of hunger.

Points 2 Ponder (P2P)

• Do different game genres illicit different responses?
• Participants only played FIFA 09. Was the study delimited to novive FIFA 09 players or novice game players?
• How often and for how long did these teens play video games and what types?
• If they were new to the game, of course there would be more anxiety and increases in cardiovascular responses. 
• If they were novice game players on that system (Xbox 360), using the game controller is a series of complex motor control tasks, which can certainly cause anxiety and increases to cardiovascular responses,
• I like this statement on page 5-6 "Future research should include novel brain imaging techniques during video game play in an attempt to identify brain areas that might be linked to increased spontaneous food intake."

Chaput, J., Visby, T., Nyby, S., Klingenberg, L., Gregersen, N., Tremblay, A., Astrup, A., & Sjodin, A. (2011). Video game playing increases food intake in adolescents: a randomized crossover study American Journal of Clinical Nutrition DOI: 10.3945/ajcn.110.008680


Check out after the break for more details:

Wii Fit Moves Women into Moderate Intensity Physical Activity - MPA (study)

Image by WindRanch via Flickr

In this recent Wii Fit study, researchers investigated the energy expenditure of young females across different game levels.  Of course it makes sense that different levels will require different movements or more intense or more frequent movements, but until now there has been little in the area of level of game play and energy demands.

Population: Adults (young female)

Number of Participants: n=8

ExerGame Software Title: Wii Fit

Games: Stepping and Hula

Levels: Beginner and Intermediate

Results: Highest energy expenditure and % of VO2 max at intermediate hula - but still in the moderate level of physical activity intensity MPA (~4.5 MET).

Points 2 Ponder (P2P)

• What does the hardest level look like in terms of VO2, METS, RPE, RER?
• Did the participants enjoy the games?
• Was their any correlation between enjoyment and perceived exertion?

Worley, J., Rogers, S., & Kraemer, R. (2011). Metabolic Responses To Wii Fit™ Video Games At Different Game Levels Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research DOI: 10.1519/JSC.0b013e318207eae9

3 New Tricks to Lose Weight: Track Every Step, Measure Every Calorie

I was contacted by Sari Harrar, a health/medicine journalist for OPRAH Magazine, for comments on if the GoWear Fit might help people lose weight.  I have been using the Body Media Sensewear Armband for a number of years and it is the parent company of their commercial unit GoWear Fit.  We had a great discussion and here is the article that was posted online earlier this month (my comments are the concluding remarks).

Exercise researcher Stephen Yang, PhD, an assistant professor of physical education at State University of New York College at Cortland, says this innovative armband takes the guesswork out of one side of the weight loss equation. "Until recently, mainly research labs used devices that measured calorie burn this way," he says. "Seeing the numbers can be a real motivator and will help keep you from missing workouts." Use the GoWear Fit to figure out how much additional activity you need to burn an extra 500 calories a day. If you keep up that effort, you should drop about a pound a week.