TY - JOUR
T1 - NEAT-o-Games
T2 - Blending physical activity and fun in the daily routine
AU - Fujiki, Yuichi
AU - Kazakos, Konstantinos
AU - Puri, Colin
AU - Buddharaju, Pradeep
AU - Pavlidis, Ioannis
AU - Levine, James
PY - 2008/7/1
Y1 - 2008/7/1
N2 - This article describes research that aims to encourage physical activity through a novel pervasive gaming paradigm. Data from a wearable accelerometer are logged wirelessly to a cell phone and control the animation of an avatar that represents the player in a virtual race game with other players over the cellular network. Winners are declared every day and players with an excess of activity points can spend some to get hints in mental games of the suite, like Sudoku. The racing game runs in the background throughout the day and every little move counts. As the gaming platform is embedded in the daily routine of players, it may act as a strong behavioral modifier and increase everyday physical activity other than volitional sporting exercise. Such physical activity (e.g., taking the stairs), is termed NEAT and was shown to play a major role in obesity prevention and intervention. A pilot experiment demonstrates that players are engaged in NEAT-o-Games and become more physically active while having a good dosage of fun.
AB - This article describes research that aims to encourage physical activity through a novel pervasive gaming paradigm. Data from a wearable accelerometer are logged wirelessly to a cell phone and control the animation of an avatar that represents the player in a virtual race game with other players over the cellular network. Winners are declared every day and players with an excess of activity points can spend some to get hints in mental games of the suite, like Sudoku. The racing game runs in the background throughout the day and every little move counts. As the gaming platform is embedded in the daily routine of players, it may act as a strong behavioral modifier and increase everyday physical activity other than volitional sporting exercise. Such physical activity (e.g., taking the stairs), is termed NEAT and was shown to play a major role in obesity prevention and intervention. A pilot experiment demonstrates that players are engaged in NEAT-o-Games and become more physically active while having a good dosage of fun.
KW - Pervasive gaming
KW - Ubiquitous computing
KW - Wearable sensors
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=49449101604&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=49449101604&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1145/1371216.1371224
DO - 10.1145/1371216.1371224
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:49449101604
SN - 1544-3574
VL - 6
JO - Computers in Entertainment
JF - Computers in Entertainment
IS - 2
M1 - 21
ER -