| Volume 4, Issue 5: May 2009 |
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Athletes Get in Shape With Computing
Technologies
Recent advances in computing
technology have contributed to a new trend that merges
digital gaming with physical sports activities and
combines the advantages of both, offering combined effects
that have traditionally been limited to each
respective domain.
In “Digital Sport: Merging Gaming with
Sports to Enhance Physical Activities Such as Jogging”, an
article from the recent release of Digital Sport for Performance Enhancement
and Competitive Evolution: Intelligent
Gaming Technologies
(edited by Dr. Nigel K. Ll. Pope,
Griffith
University, Australia, Dr. Kerri-Ann
L. Kuhn, Queensland University of Technology,
Australia, and Dr. John J. H. Forster, Griffith University,
Australia), The University of Melbourne (Australia) professor
Dr. Florian ‘Floyd’ Mueller introduces emerging approaches in
the amalgamation of digital games technology and
sports activities.
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"Commerical
systems have already entered households across the wold, and
users have appropriated them for their health goals."
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“Commercial systems have already entered
households across the world, and users have appropriated them
for their health goals,” writes Mueller. “However, many of
these systems that have
their origin in gaming
tradition offer only limited support for
energy expenditure. With a simple example of using mobile
phones for jogging activity, [this study] shows
how technological advances can support traditional sports activity,
while being accessible and affordable to the
recreational athlete.”
Mueller believes digital gaming in
combination
with sports activities now
has the potential to work against
its past criticism of supporting a sedentary lifestyle and
diminishing physical fitness. It is making a
significant leap towards contributing positively to health effects
and enabling novel well-being experiences previously difficult
to achieve.
(Portions of this article are excerpted
from Digital Sport for Performance Enhancement and
Competitive Evolution: Intelligent
Gaming Technologies
edited by Dr. Nigel K. Li.
Pope, Dr. Kerri-Ann L. Kuhn, and Dr. John J.
H. Forster
.)
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