Exergaming getting hot in healthcare!

9-8-11: Taken from Mobihealth....good stuff! Ernie

Video games are hot in healthcare right now
Posted By Neil Versel On September 8, 2011

A fringe topic not too long ago, the subject gained a sense of legitimacy in July, when publisher Mary Ann Liebert Inc. introduced a new journal called Games for Health: Research, Development, and Clinical Applications. The first issue is due out this fall.

That’s right, there’s now a peer-reviewed, scientific journal specifically examining the role video games can play in advancing individual and population health, the healthcare industry and personal wellness. And this week, Liebert announced a companion newsletter called Games for Health Industry Insider, which starts publication on Sept. 29. I can see both titles being good resources for MobiHealthNews.

If you think this is an anomaly or a journal that’s ahead of its time, may I remind you that the Journal of the American Medical Association published a paper earlier this year that said video games deserve “serious attention” in healthcare.

Adding further weight to the notion that gaming can be an important part of healthcare, the University of Missouri just released news about a study underway at the school that incorporates Microsoft Kinect motion-sensing technology to help prevent falls and spot other potential health problems in seniors. A related study uses motion sensors from widely available security systems.

Researchers from Mizzou’s Sinclair School of Nursing and School of Engineering installed Kinect for Xbox 360 in a Columbia, Mo., nursing home and gave wearable sensors to residents to help measure changes in gait, a key indicator of the likelihood of falls. Additional sensors on beds were used to detect changes in sleeping patterns. Alerts get sent to nursing staff when there is a change that might signify a health issue.

“The potential that we’ve learned for early illness detection could revolutionize what’s happening in the way that we diagnose problems of older adults. We know from the research that we can pick things up 10 days to two weeks before critical health-change events happen,” nursing professor Marilyn Rantz said in a video released by the university.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, Microsoft itself joined in. On the Microsoft HealthBlog, Dr. Bill Crounse, the Redmond Empire’s senior director for worldwide health, promoted the latest episode of Microsoft Health Tech Today, the company’s online talk show about how the company’s technology is advancing healthcare.

The subject of the newest video? Kinect.

Gaming in health—particularly mobile gaming—also is the subject of a forthcoming MobiHealthNews report. If you recall, Dr. Leslie Saxon, executive director of the University of Southern California’s Center for Body Computing, said last month that she’d like to take a mobile gaming app like Angry Birds and “diabetize it.”

Yes, we’re hearing a lot lately about gaming in health and healthcare. I don’t think it’s a coincidence. Ever since Nintendo debuted the Wii Fit as a fitness tool in 2008, gaming for health has started to break out of a niche and become mainstream. It seems as if we’re now reaching critical mass.

Article taken from mobihealthnews - http://mobihealthnews.comURL to article: http://mobihealthnews.com/13078/health-gaming-reaches-critical-mass/

New article on exergaming!

2-4-11: Thx to Sir Richard for posting this article in FB. Read this article from the Health Journal and check out my comment after it. Let me know what you think!

Ubisoft's Godin on exergaming

1-25-11: Excellent interview of Ubisoft Montreal game desiner, Nicola Godin, on the state and future of exergaming. Read it here. (Thx to Parker for posting on Motion Fitness's blog!)

BullsWhitesox Academy's Vault!

1-6-10: Check out this video clip from a news station in Chicago on this lastest exergaming vault!

 

Kinecting Experience

11-9-10: The Kinect is here! Last Thur., picked up my Kinect at Gamestop, along with some of the games like Kinect Sports and Dance Central. Also picked up Your Shape as well, to check that out.

Couldn't try it right away because I had to update the OS of my Xbox and after trying it with the USB and a CD of the update, I finally had to lug it upstairs near my Airport/router so I could hook it up to download the update from Xbox Live (didn't want to spend the extra $100 just to get the wifi adapter since I don't plan to do a lot of online gaming at the moment). Fortunately, that worked and soon, my Xbox was ready for Kinect to connect to it.

Got to try it out a bit Friday afternoon, but Sat. night was the "big" test with a bunch of kids at a friend's house. You an see some of the pictures of this session here. Here's the link to theYoutube clip of them trying out the Kinect.

Here are my first impressions:

1. It's big! When I first opened the box, I was struck with how large it was--not bad--just, wow! The connecting cable & power cord are connected, and initially I wondered if it would reach both the Kinect camera and the outlet at the same time, but the design hasn't proved to be a problem, so far.

2. Immersive - It's really NICE not to have to hold anything, and the 3D feature is a whole lot better than the Eye Toy's 2D. You also can't cheat it--if you do a little overhead motion/hit in v-ball, you do a dink shot. If you do a full-on spike motion and time it right, you can do a power spike, which leads me to...

3. Better in the virtual world! I can do things in Kinect that I can't do in real life, like crush my spike in v-ball. It felt awesome and just made me jump higher and swing harder to see how hard I could spike that ball.

4. It's a blast! I've only played a couple of games on it so far (v-ball and soccer), but so far, my initial impressions is that it's a blast! It's the first time (for a home console) that I feel like I'm really IN the game. The only other exergame that is similar to that is the Trazer...and that costs quite a bit more than the Kinect (even if you have to get the Xbox bundled with it).

Is it perfect? Not quite...

1. Updating Xbox: If you have an older Xbox, you have to make sure you have the latest OS. I mentioned my experience for updating that I went through above. When I downloaded the update from Xbox's website, I put it on a flash drive as they instructed, but when I tried to insert my flash drive in the back of the Xbox, it DID NOT FIT because the port is recessed in! I ended up having to use a little "hub" as an extension that would fit into it. Once I did that, I never got the "update" screen the instructions said I should see. So I tried plan B--putting the update on a CD. That too, didn't get my the update screen. You can read above how I ended up hooking it directly to my router. Fortunately, I still had my ethernet cable that came with the Xbox so I lugged it upstairs near my router and then lugged our pre-flat screen CRT 20-inch TV into the hallway to connect it to the Xbox so I could do the update. Once I had that all set up, the update went smoothly and automatically, even without having an account with Xbox live. Too bad they don't just give you a CD with Kinect that would do the update automatically without all this fuss.

2. Navigational challenges. Playing is lifelike; navigating takes a bit more practice (or tech perfection). If you watch my video clip on youtube or FB, you'll see the kids sometimes hunting around for the little white "hand" that you use to make selections, etc. Even then, when you found it, it would sometimes not move the way you wanted to. You have to make sure you keep your body in one place and just move your hand--sometimes, the kids would "walk" there body over which messed up the camera for some reason. This was really the only frustrating part of the whole experience, especially for younger kids. Too bad you didn't have the option of using the xbox controller to make selections or control the white hand with the joystick.

Challenges aside, if and when a lot of Kinect games come out quickly, Wii and Move should be worried because it truly is the most immersive of all the platforms as far as the "human joystick" concept.

I can't wait for more games--wonder if they'll make a "ninja" type of game or other martial arts games--I could really get into that since I really can't do those things in real life! (Shhhhh, don't tell my daughter's friends who all think I really AM a ninja!)

Also, from a games for health perspective, I really hope that we can get developers to make entertaining and immersive games for health that we lifestyle medicine practitioners can recommend to our patients. Not only that, but can also track their exercise, nutrition, and other health behaviors we're trying to change.

And while we're at it, I hope that the xbox can someday connect with electronic medical records (EMRs), especially Microsoft has a whole division on health and lifestyle, and their own personal medical vault or cloud. I would love to be able to recommend a FUN game that helps my patients stay active, and in the background, that game would connect with their EMR or even to me, notifying me when that patient didn't meet their weekly exercise goals (eg. 150 mins/wk of moderate intensity) so that I could intervene right away and help them get back on track instead of waiting to hear about it a month down the road at their monthly follow-up. Given that healthcare is focusing more and more on lifestyle medicine, we will need tools that not only help our patients keep compliant with the prescribed behavior changes, but also EASILY keep track and report to healthcare professionals when a patient is BEGINNING to lapse from their behavior.

Have this cycle between healthcare practitioner, patient, and EMR would greatly increase the practitioner's effectiveness and efficiency, tracking for their EMR, and compliance on the patient's part. All of this should lead to reduce cost, reduced utilization, and improved outcomes (biometrics)....a win-win-win for the patient, healthcare provider, and healthcare system in general.

Finally, I looking forward to trying Kinect with my dad (post-stroke) to see how he does it with it. We got him a PS2 and Eye Toy way back when he first had his stroke, and that worked out very well. So as soon as I get back home from this conference, I will get him playing on it and do a follow-up report on that specific aspect.

I'm hoping to set it up as a demo here at the American Public Health Assoc. annual meeting in Denver, where I lugged my Xbox in my carry-on and checked in the kinect. We'll see if I can find a place to set it up and demo it! Unfortunately, I can't seem to get the RCA jacks in my hotel room TV to work, so I haven't been able to play more of the games after hours--so much for lugging my Xbox here to Denver! LOL!

That's my initial report on the Kinect. Stay tuned for part 2! Overall, a huge 2 thumbs up to Microsoft for the Kinect. This is a huge homerun for bringing exergaming into the homes of the end users.

BTW, I have no financial connections with Microsoft or Xbox, but hey, if they want to send me more Kinect games or Kinects to outfit our XRtainment Zone, I'll be happy to disclose that in future blogs and presentations! ;-)

Speaking of which, Dr. Bryan Haddock just got some Kinects as well and will be doing some kcal expenditure studies on it, so stay tuned for that, too.

6th G4H Conf. history!

5-29-10: The 6th Annual Games for Health Conf. is now history! It was the best one yet, as they seem to keep getting better each year.

Check out the pictures from my FB page here:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=31313159&l=a2fac16f76&id=1012620518

You'll see quite a few pictures of the first ever at a conference--the Exergame Challenge! While we didn't reach the 1 million step goal (the non-profit still received their check), it really increased testing of the exergame equipment brought out by Ed, Tommy, Parker, and staff from Motion Fitness. This was a great trial run for a bigger conf. in Nov...the American Public Health Association annual meeting in Nov, in Denver, where over 14,000 public health folks from all over the world will be there. Talk about exposing exergaming to a world-wide audience!

So it was a great conference, and you can see from the pictures we had a great time. Having said that, it seems that we are now reaching a point where this conf. is poised to take the next step...CEU's? Bigger? Post-Conf. evaluations? Live streaming of sessions? These are just some of the questions discussed. 

Ben Sawyer and Beth Bryant did an AWESOME job as always, and deserve a nice break after this. 

If you weren't here, you need to make sure you can make it next year!

RIP Phil

4-24-10: It's with sadness that I just learned that one of exergaming's pioneers, the original "exergaming evangelist", passed away last night. Phil Lawler, the creator of PE4Life, finally lost his battle to cancer.

When I first got into this field, back in 1998, Phil was the first exergaming expert to contact me and offer his help and support in anything that I was doing. Over the last decade, Phil would call (he rarely e-mailed) to see how I was doing, tell me about the latest thing he was working on, or give me the scoop on some "inside" info that was happening in the exergaming world. He always had things that escaped my ever-expanding radar!

He was most excited about his latest endeavor, Spark, and the work of Dr. Ratey and the effect of exercise on the brain, kid's academics, etc.

As the field of exergaming continues to grow, mature, and gain credibility, it is sad that Phil won't be around to see the fruits of his labor come to fruition. He fought the good fight, and now is at rest, free from pain and suffering, and for that, we are thankful.

My only regret is that Phil and I never got to meet in person. We kept joking that one day, we would end up at the same conference, or that I would visit his place whenever I was in Chicago, but alas, that day never came. I guess I'll meet him in the next life, for sure! We'll set up an exergaming zone in heaven!

May we all be inspired by his tireless work for the kids, and strive to continue his legacy in whatever work that we do.

GDC 2010

3-10-10: Finally, a dream come true--my first Game Developer's Conf.! Thanks to Ben Sawyer for inviting me to be a presenter on an exergaming panel during the Serious Games Summit. It was awesome!

I was part of a panel that consisted of the following (above, L-R): Stephen Yang, Barbara Chamberlin, Sheryl Ashford, and myself.

To see more pictures, go to this facebook album. Had a great time meeting and networking with attendees afterwards.

Now I can relax and focus on networking and checking it all out for the next 2 days. Stay tuned for more updates!

ACE's 2010 health predictions!

12-31-09 Check out ACE's Cedric Bryant's health predictions for 2010. Two of them are things I've been promoting all along! Can you guess which two they are??? It was in today's San Bernardino Sun newspaper. Here's the link:

http://www.sbsun.com/health/ci_14095829

Happy New Year to all and looking forward to a great 2010 in Games for Health!

Ernie

Cool presentation on exergaming - exposed!

12-20-09: Check out this cool "prezi" presentation created by the tech guru herself, Biray Alsac!



Find out more about this at The Exergame Network (TEN):

http://exergaming.pbworks.com/THE-EXERGAME-NETWORK-%28TEN%29-PAGE

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!

 

UCLA Tech & Aging Conference

10-30-09: Had the privilege of being part of a panel, speaking on exergaming, games for health, and seniors at this conf., held at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles. The theme was "Living Longer and Better Through Technology" so the topic of exergaming fit right in!

Besides presenting, had the chance to network with other folks interested in gerontology and hopefully, will be collaborating with some of these researchers in the near future on exergaming studies in seniors, since there is hardly any research in this area.

Lisa Hansen visits XRTZ!

9-1-08: Lisa Hansen, co-director of the XRKade Research Lab at the Univ. of South Florida, was in town to speak at the Int. Conf. on Physical Activity. This was her first time in the Loma Linda/Redlands area, so she just had to visit the 2 locations of XRTZ! It was great seeing here here on my "home turf", hearing her present, and touring her around.

Trying out the Gamercize

Maine Exergaming Summit

Aug. 14 & 15, 2008 - Ben Sawyer and Beth Bryant, thanks to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, convened the first-ever Exergaming Summit, bringing in exergaming gurus and evangelists from various industries, to discuss the state of exergaming in beautiful Portland, Maine. Results from this summit will be published in a white paper and presentations at the upcoming Games for Health conference in 2009.

While many of us knew each other by name or e-mail, it was nice to actually meet in person and get to really know each other (not the brief meeting we sometimes experience at conferences!).

It was neat to have representatives from various industries related to or interested in exergaming: healthcare, fitness, insurance, academia, business, foundations, and videogames. You can see the various participants and their companies below.

It wasn't all work and no play! We got to enjoy some of the tastes, sights, and sounds that Portland, Maine, has to offer. Sailing, lobster, and beautiful weather was enjoyed by all.

Thanks to Ben and Beth for organizing and putting this on, and for RWJF for helping to fund this so we could all attend. Stay tuned for results from this summit in the near future!

Exergaming gurus hard at work!


What a great bunch of exergaming gurus and evangelists! Though we're all into tech, it was nice to be able to interact in person and get to know each other better. That will just make our tech communication experience better!


Of course we took time to enjoy beautiful Portland, Maine.

My visit to E3!

7-16-08: This year was my first year to go to E3 under the new format. Gone are the days when it took up several halls and had 10's of thousands of people. It seemed very small by comparison. There did seem to be a lot more HD camcorder equipment all over the place, with editor and reporters of video game magazines and blogs shooting and uploading on the fly.

I was only able to spend one day there, due to my day job obligations back at the clinic. But since there was only one small room with games in it, I was able to see everything in just over an hour--AND play some games! (Before, it took me several days to roam all the halls...and that was barely taking time to play the games!).

Thanks to my friend, Rob, at Golin Harris, I was able to score an invitation to Nintendo's press conf. at the Kodak Theater.

The first famous person to come out to promote one of the newest games was Shaun White, Olympic gold medalist in snowboarding! It utilizes the Wii Fit board, as you can see him demonstrating.
Another game coming out soon is a Star Wars game. I'm a big fan of Star Wars, so I can't wait for this to come out. Yes, it's a bit violent (sword fighting and all), but it utilizes the newest accessory for the Wiimote, the Motion Plus!
This new attachment to the bottom of the Wiimote allows true 3D movement, more so than the original Wiimote. Once you use, it, you'll see what I'm talking about.
It will come bundled with this new game, Resort, which has a bunch of fun games you can play.
One is a frisbee dog catching game, where you can actually tilt the frisbee to do different curves! It isn't quite set up to be able to throw forehand, backhand, or hammers yet, but hopefully they'll work on it and then maybe they'll have an Ultimate Frisbee Game for the Wii!!! Now THAT would really rock and I will stand in line for that and that would cause me to buy my own Wii for home use, even if that means risking sleeping on the couch!!! LOL!
Here's another game from Resort. It reminded me of the American Gladiator's Joust game, where you had to knock off your opponent of the raised circular platform with the big Q-tip. Here, you're using non-cutting swords to knock your opponent's Mii off the raised platform. In this picture, Cammie Dunaway (middle), Exec. VP for Sales and Marketing, is battling her boss, Reginald Fils-Aime (left), President and COO of NOA. Guess who won? ;-)
Another cool use of the Wiimote and the Board is this new drumming game so you can add to the rock band experience. See the video clip below.


Here's another music game...you can play in a band! At the far right end (stage left) is none other than the famous Shigeru Miyamoto, the creator of over 100 Nintendo games including Donkey Kong, Mario, and the Wii games and hardware. I was hoping to get my picture taken with him, but no way could I get near him!!!


Here's a close up of the Motion Plus, attached to the bottom of the Wiimote.
Here's a clip of 2 guys battling it out on Resort.


Here's an interesting dancing game by Ubisoft. Check out the video clips to really get an idea of how it's played.




Finally, I saw Beth Bryant (bummed I didn't get her picture!) running the Serious Games booth. No exergames, but other games for health were on display here. (With all the companies making Wii games, there were plenting of exergaming going on!)

Finally, speaking of Ubisoft and games for health, I actually did get into one of the meeting rooms--Ubisoft! I didn't have an appointment, but I made one on the spot and said I wanted to see more about their Quit Smoking game, to be released in Nov. Marcella, a pro gamer on Frag Dames, sponsored by Ubisoft, demo'd it for me. Turns out she's a smoker herself and has just started really using it to see if it'll help her quit smoking! (She's a pharmacy tech by day but doesn't want to use Chantix.) I gave her my card and told her that I help people quit, so we'll see! I also wanted to see their Weight Loss Coach game, but since that's already out, they weren't promoting it there at E3.

Exergaming on Telemundo!

Airing this Sunday, July 13, 6:30 PM PST...don't miss Teacher Conchita Portilla NP's debut, speaking about her Spanish Family Fit Zone class on Telemundo (Ch.52).

If you miss it, you can see it later on their website: Telemundo

She did a great job!!! Here are some shots of her during her interview...

Freelance producer Vanessa Zuniga and cameraman watch correspondent Guadalupe Vicon interview Conchita
Conchita even does the difficult "walk and talk" for the first time without tripping on anything!
Guadalupe plays the Wii Bowling (she's definitely not a newbie!)...
...then explains about her experience on camera. I have no idea what she's saying as it's in Spanish, but I'm sure it's all good.

Seniors play Wii

6-30-08: Another local story about seniors playing Wii and getting into exergaming! There's a reference about the county setting up seniors centers with exergaming--that's us! Check out the article here at the Sun.

Exergaming in the news!

6-28-08: This past week, XRTZ was featured for a 2nd time on Fox 11 news. Check out this news segment, featuring both kids and seniors into exergaming.