Top 3 concept into prototypes

EXERGAME-project focused on concept design from December 2005 - February 2006. From the hundreds of ideas, 14 concepts were written more in detail. After quick evaluation top 3 ideas were selected and/or combined.

The project will continue with top 3 concepts. We will do market survey focusing on these three ideas and their potential in youth and occupational health 'markets'. We will develop all these three into prototypes and test the ideas with users in summer-fall 2006.

Exergame: Consumer survey

Exergame-project did a consumer survey (N=1489) in January 2006. Our aim was to get more detailed information about motivation factors, self-efficacy, resources and social attitude towards sport and digital game play. The findings were analysed prorata four scenarios of playful sport activities aka 'exergaming'.

Survey focused on youth (13-18 year olds), 19-30 (young adults), 31-65 (working population) and 66-76 (seniors).

Just to put up a few preliminary findings from the material:
As assumed physical activity was highest at the age group of 13-18 year olds.
Computer gaming and physical activity did not correlate.
Against general assumptions, seniors were active computer game players. 21% of the respondents reported to play games daily. Naturally the games seniors find interesting are very different from the age group 13-18.

General attitude towards exergaming was positive and we get encouraging comments to exergaming scenarios.

More thorough analysis will be published in a report format (VTT Publications).

EXERGAME-project co-operating

Currently we are co-operating more closely with two partners. This first is a development that started with a title MBM (Movement by Music). The multidisciplinary group is utilising computer vision (ceiling camera) in a social play situation. Probably we will arrange joint user tests in summer/fall 2006.

The other interesting group is laser taggers. We do co-operation with local laser tagging enthusiasts here in Helsinki, Finland. We will do a joint test with a few players and follow their improvement (playing skills, condition, activity level) from March to December 2006.