Using Multi-Modal Data to Examine Equity in Activity-Monitor Gaming Within Real-World Communities

Abstract

It is rare for research on augmented-reality games to examine equity and access as grounded in features of the actual neighborhoods where game play takes place, and in the affordances of communities and their built environments for gamified ambulatory physical activity in the real world. This chapter studies two diverse groups of middle-school youth, situated in urban and suburban areas, who wore activity monitors as they went through daily activities and played an online game that synced with their monitors. The game drew data from the wearable devices so that the more youth engaged in step-countable physical activity in the real world, the more game-world energy they earned. This chapter analyzes the actual communities where our participants' activity and game play was situated. The chapter lays out the multi-modal data sources in that analysis and provides some potential models that can be employed by others in related work. Finally, the chapter closes by articulating some directions and concerns for future research in a gamified physical world.