Gaming Against Obesity

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Gaming Against Obesity

• Ben Falconer
• Supervised by Kurt Debattista

2
Introduction

• Climbing game
• Aimed at children
• Using Nintendo Wii hardware

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Background - Obesity

• Obesity among children is growing
• In 2006 over 17 of Year 6 children in the West
  Midlands were obese
• Department of Health priority

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Background Serious Games

• Serious Games
• Games with serious applications
• Used for
• Education
• Corporate training
• Health

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Background - Exergames

• Exergames - games requiring exercise to play
• Examples
• Dance Dance Revolution
• Wii Fit
• Playstation Eye Toy
• Used in schools for PE

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Idea

• Create a game that
• Requires exercise to play
• Introduces the player to a new sport
• Is attractive to children

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Implementation

• We aimed to create
• A game using the Nintendo Wii
• A rock climbing game
• A fun game

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Development - Tools

• C
• Object Orientated
• OGRE
• Easy 3D engine
• WiiUse
• Use of Wii Remote over Bluetooth
• All cross platform

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Development - Cycle

• Feature driven development
• Define intended product
• Create feature list
• Design each feature
• Write each feature

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Development Feature List

• Basic Framework
• Basic Controls
• Wii Remote Connectivity
• Wii Remote Controls
• Character Movement
• Wii Balance Board Connectivity
• Wii Balance Board Controls

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Development - Features

• Basic Framework
• Initial basic framework
• Used OGRE to create basic 3D engine
• Allowed loading and displaying 3D models

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Development - Features

• Basic Controls
• Keyboard and mouse control
• Used the Open Input System (OIS)
• Allowed control of the camera

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Development - Features

• Wii Remote Connectivity
• Making the Wii Remote interact with the PC
• Bluetooth connection to PC
• Used the WiiUse library to access the Wii Remote

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Development Features

• Character Movement
• Movement of hands and character separate
• Grab onto holds to move
• Let go of both hands and fall off

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Development - Features

• Wii Remote Controls
• Hard to find movement in specific direction
• Rotation much easier
• Assumes the Wii Remote is held vertically
• High pass filter eliminates most rotation
• Very buggy
• The game often has over a seconds lag
• The characters hands will jump about the screen

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Development - Features

• Wii Balance Board Connectivity
• Could not get the Balance Board to connect
• Others have reported success before
• Wii Balance Board Controls
• Lack of connection meant that the Balance Board
  could not be used

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Result

• Playable game
• Hard to play with Wii Remote
• Placeholder models

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Conclusions

• Needs more work to be viable
• Wii Remote controls
• One of the main features of the game
• No exercise with keyboard controls
• Graphics
• The current place holder graphics are unlikely to
  appeal to children

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Thank you for listening

• Questions?