Tuesday, November 17, 2009

New study on Wii...

11-17-09: This study on the effectiveness of Wii to provide exercise came out at the recent American Heart Assoc. conf. You can read all about it at the link below. It seems that we still need to keep convincing regular healthcare the exergaming can meet the federal recommendations for physical activity. If they just tried it out for themselves, they would realize that fact!

http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE5AF3AR20091116

Monday, November 9, 2009

APHA Day 2, Mon

11-9-09: Presentation day! The day finally arrived. Our topic was on the use of exergaming in our pediatric obesity program called Family Fit Zone. I also covered some of the challenges encountered so far with utilizing exergaming, and some possible solutions. Robin gave an update on the latest research. Even though she was so wired, hyped, and tired after not sleeping a wink the entire night, she did fine! 

The other two presentations showed very innovative technologies being developed. Dr. Carol Boushey (Purdue University) presented work on their automated food assessment software for pictures taken with a cell phone while Dr. Stephen Intille (MIT) presented work on mobile phones and sensors to identify physical activity type in real time. 

I can see how these technologies can be incorporated into a cool game!

The rest of the day was a blur, ending in our Physical Activity Special Interest Group's social. 

And so ended Day 2!

 

Sunday, November 8, 2009

APHA, Day 1

11-9-09: The first day of the American Public Health Assoc.'s annual meeting, where over 10,400 attendees from all over the world are here in Philadelphia. Our exergaming presentation is tomorrow!

Can you tell Robin Mellecker is nervous giving her presentation on the latest exergaming research?


Naw, she was just practicing before our presentation on Mon. AM. Stay tuned for the actual presentation!

The recently formed PA Special Interest Group (SPIG) within the APHA. Working on getting exergaming and games for health more into APHA. Hey, they have over 10,400 attendees here! All exergaming evangelists should join the APHA and the PA SPIG. ;-)