Exergaming Platform Research Articles

Design, Implementation, and Wide Pilot Deployment of FitForAll: An Easy to use Exergaming Platform Improving Physical Fitness and Life Quality of Senior Citizens.

Many platforms have emerged as response to the call for technology supporting active and healthy aging. Key requirements for any such e-health systems and any subsequent business exploitation are tailor-made design and proper evaluation. This paper presents the design, implementation, wide deployment, and evaluation of the low cost, physical exercise, and gaming (exergaming) FitForAll (FFA) platform system usability, user adherence to exercise, and efficacy are explored. The design of FFA is tailored to elderly populations, distilling literature guidelines and recommendations. The FFA architecture introduces standard physical exercise protocols in exergaming software engineering, as well as, standard physical assessment tests for augmented adaptability through adjustable exercise intensity. This opens up the way to next generation exergaming software, which may be more automatically/smartly adaptive. 116 elderly users piloted FFA five times/week, during an eight-week controlled intervention. Usability evaluation was formally conducted (SUS, SUMI questionnaires). Control group consisted of a size-matched elderly group following cognitive training. Efficacy was assessed objectively through the senior fitness (Fullerton) test, and subjectively, through WHOQoL-BREF comparisons of pre-postintervention between groups. Adherence to schedule was measured by attendance logs. The global SUMI score was 68.33±5.85%, while SUS was 77.7. Good usability perception is reflected in relatively high adherence of 82% for a daily two months pilot schedule. Compared to control group, elderly using FFA improved significantly strength, flexibility, endurance, and balance while presenting a significant trend in quality of life improvements. This is the first elderly focused exergaming platform intensively evaluated with more than 100 participants. The use of formal tools makes the findings comparable to other studies and forms an elderly exergaming corpus.

The Effectiveness of Exergames in Patients with Ankylosing Spondylitis: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

Exergames are a well-known type of game based on a virtual avatar's body movements. This hightech approach promotes an active lifestyle. The aim of this randomized controlled trial was to evaluate the effects of exergames on pain, disease activity, functional capacity and quality of life in patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS). The study involved 60 patients, who were randomized into either the exergame group (EG) or the control group (CG). The EG patients engaged in exergaming, and CG patients did not engage in any exercises. The exergaming sessions were performed five times a week for eight weeks (40 sessions in total). The patients were assessed before and after the eight-week program on a visual analog scale (VAS), the Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Functional Index (BASFI), the Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Index (BASDAI) and the Ankylosing Spondylitis Quality of Life (ASQOL) questionnaire. A statistically significant improvement was observed in VAS, BASFI, BASDAI and ASQoL scores in the EG group after completion of the exercise program (p < 0.05). This study is a first step in investigating the possibilities of using an exergame platform to help patients with spondyloarthropathies to adopt a more physically active lifestyle. The results of this study suggest that exergames increase physical activity and decrease the pain scores in AS patients and also could, therefore, be feasible and safe.

Exergaming to increase the exercise capacity and daily physical activity in heart failure patients: a pilot study

BackgroundRegular daily physical activity is recognised as important in heart failure (HF) patients, but adherence to physical activity is low (<50%). To improve adherence to exercise in HF patients, alternative approaches to motivate and increase self-efficacy to exercise are needed. Therefore, we have studied a new phenomenon: exergames (games to improve physical exercise). The aims of the study were to assess the influence of the exergame platform Nintendo Wii on exercise capacity and daily physical activity in heart failure patients, to study factors related to exercise capacity and daily physical activity, and to assess patients’ adherence to exergaming.MethodsA 12-week pilot study with a pretest-posttest design was conducted. The intervention consisted of an instruction on how to use the Wii and 12 weeks’ access to Wii at home. The main variables tested were exercise capacity (measured with a six-minute walking test), daily physical activity (measured with an activity monitor), and time exergaming (daily self-report with a diary). Bivariate correlations were used to assess associations between symptom experience, self-efficacy, motivation, anxiety, and depression.ResultsIn total, 32 heart failure patients were included. More than half of the patients (53%) significantly increased their exercise capacity after 12 weeks. No significant difference was found in daily physical activity between baseline and 12 weeks. Lower NYHA class and shorter time since diagnosis were factors significantly related to the increase in exercise capacity. The daily mean time spent exergaming was 28 minutes, and having grandchildren and being male were related to more time spent exergaming.ConclusionExergaming has the potential to increase exercise capacity in elderly, chronically ill cardiac patients. Although the daily physical activity did not change over time, exergaming was feasible for heart failure patients and might be a rehabilitation option for patients with heart failure.

Alternative options for prescribing physical activity among obese children and adolescents: brisk walking supported by an exergaming platform.

Physical inactivity has been identified as an important public health concern for children. An increasing sedentary way of life is directly related to obesity; hence, prevention and management of childhood obesity are commonly based on lifestyle interventions wherein increasing physical activity is one of the main targets. The use of exergames can be useful in promoting physical activity, but it is necessary more research. This study analyzes the effects of an exergaming platform that involves brisk walking, on perceived exertion, self-efficacy, positive expectations and satisfaction in a sample of clinically obese children, as compared with normal weight children. Physiological variables like heart rate, oxygen consumption and energy expenditure were also measured. A total sample of 42 children was recruited. Children were randomized into those walking on a treadmill and those using a treadmill with the support of the exergaming platform (Wii-Fit). The obese children scored significantly higher in expectations and satisfaction in the exergame condition but not in self-efficacy, perceived exertion or physiological measures. These results suggest that this exergaming platform could be a tool to assist obese children in the practice of brisk walking as part of a programme designed to treat obesity.

Controlling and modulating physical activity through Interaction Tempo in exergames: A quantitative empirical analysis

Childhood health issues related to sedentary behavior have risen dramatically over the last 20 years. One of the key factors in this rise is that children are increasingly spending more time on sedentary leisure activities such as game consoles and the Internet. Research turned to interactive exertion interfaces, or exergames, to try to compensate for the lack of physical activity in children and teenagers. Part of this research, especially in HCI, has focused on game design to truly guarantee that children are motivated to play with exergames and hence increase physical activity. Other research, essentially medical, has focused on determining whether these existing exergames foster sufficiently high levels of physical activity as recommended by health experts and compared to sports activity. An important part of research, which has almost not been addressed, is that of finding an automated system to control the amount of physical activity APA. Such system would ultimately allow health and physical education experts to draw intensity curves for play sessions to guarantee that children perform a healthy activity. Such system clearly needs a way to control this APA. We have defined a game system variable, dubbed Interaction Tempo, which has been empirically proven to be directly related to the APA performed by children in an exergame platform we have designed, the Interactive Slide. In this paper we define and justify what Interaction Tempo is and how it is related to the game control system. We describe two studies independent factorial designs that we have designed and undertaken with over 420 children. Our current results do not quantify the APA performed by children in an absolute manner. This will be part of future stages of our research with the support of medical experts and relating APA to Energy Expenditure. However, we have now proven that we can control and modulate the change in APA through the change in Interaction Tempo. These results provide a solid ground on which to design new exergames, as well as the underlying mechanism for developing adaptive systems that automatically control gameplay. This way the APA will always be at the level defined by physical education or health experts for the duration of a play session.

What Are the Benefits of a Commercial Exergaming Platform for College Students? Examining Physical Activity, Enjoyment, and Future Intentions

Traditional videogames contribute to sedentary behaviors; in contrast, exergaming is a relatively new concept that uses videogames to promote exercise during game play. Nintendo Wii Fit is a commercially popular exergaming platform geared toward improving fitness, however, limited empirical evidence related to the physical and mental benefits of the Wii Fit platform currently exist. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate possible physical and motivational benefits of Nintendo Wii Fit. A repeated measures design was used with 30 college-aged students to explore physical activity, enjoyment, and future intentions of physical activity associated with Wii Fit exergames. Data supported the efficacy of Wii Fit Basic Run to consistently produce moderate to vigorous physical activity across participants. Future intentions were higher for exergaming compared with generic exercise and obese individuals enjoyed exergaming more than generic physical activity. The Basic Run Wii Fit game provided opportunities for accumulating moderate to vigorous physical activity that provided motivational benefits to these participants, especially those classified as obese. Future research should examine the ability of Wii Fit exergames to produce physical activity and motivation over time.

The design and implementation of an interactive exergaming platform

This article proposes an interactive exergaming platform for sport training or recreation. The platform consists of an impact point measuring subsystem for thrown objects, an LCD projector to deliver gaming screens, and a personal computer to control all the interactions between users and the platform. The impact point measuring subsystem utilizes horizontal and vertical light curtains to detect the impact position of thrown objects by users in a game or sport training screen projected by the LCD projector. The position is then fed back to the exergame software on a personal computer for simulating mouse control actions. The first game implemented on this platform is the ‘Baseball grid-square game’, which was quite popular with both kids and adults in a recent exhibition held at the National Taiwan Science Education Center. The devised platform can be set up easily and it can also be applied to sport training and other exergames.