Human Factors of Speed-Based Exergame Controllers Taiwoo Park1, Uichin Lee2, I
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Human Factors of Speed-based Exergame Controllers Taiwoo Park1, Uichin Lee2, I. Scott MacKenzie3, Miri Moon4, Inseok Hwang1,5, Junehwa Song1 2Dept. of Knowledge Service 3Dept. of Electrical Engineering 1Dept. of Computer Science, Engineering, and Computer Science, KAIST, Korea KAIST, Korea York University, ON, Canada 4Div. of Web Science Technology, 5Center for Mobile Software Platform, KAIST, Korea KAIST, Korea {twpark, miri.moon, inseok, junesong}@nclab.kaist.ac.kr, [email protected], [email protected] ABSTRACT Exergames – games involving physical activity – have Exergame controllers are intended to add fun to monotonous shown potential to increase the enjoyment of repetitive exercise. However, studies on exergame controllers mostly exercise [24, 29, 39]. They usually involve new technology, focus on designing new controllers and exploring specific such as an exergame controller that adds a gaming interface application domains without analyzing human factors, such to exercise equipment. The transformed device serves as a as performance, comfort, and effort. In this paper, we medium to introduce fun factors such as coordinated examine the characteristics of a speed-based exergame interactions and competition to repetitive solitary exercises. controller that bear on human factors related to body The device also provides an opportunity for game developers movement and exercise. Users performed tasks such as to design interactive exergames similar to commonly changing and maintaining exercise speed for avatar control enjoyed video games. We envision that new exergame while their performance was measured. The exergame controllers will emerge featuring rich interactivity and controller follows Fitts’ law, but requires longer movement immersive game play. time than a gamepad and Wiimote. As well, resistance force Academia and industry strive to develop new exergames and and target speed affect performance. User experience data game controllers. Yet, the design of an exergame is confirm that the comfort and mental effort are adequate as challenging. The reason is simple: Exergames require and practical game controllers. The paper concludes with promote exercise, unlike traditional video games which discussion on applying our findings to practical exergame primarily seek to entertain. Mueller et al. describe the design. property of exergames as follows: “The outcome of Author Keywords exergames is predominantly determined by the physical Exergame; Game Controller; Speed-based Control. effort” [26]. In contrast, designers of traditional games ACM Classification Keywords generally strive to minimize physical effort [33]. It is thus H.5.2 [Information Interfaces and Presentation]: User important to correctly understand exergames and to Interfaces-evaluation/methodology, input devices and strategies accumulate appropriate design knowledge – to guide designers. INTRODUCTION Sports are an entertaining and engaging part of many Existing studies, however, are generally limited to exploring people’s lives, enhancing both athletic performance and how exergame controllers influence the design of in-game physical condition. However, busy urban lifestyles make content and user interaction. A deeper understanding of social sports difficult to participate in since they usually controllers will help designers predict, organize, and require a pre-determined schedule. Solitary exercises such as evaluate exergame experiences. stationary cycling or running on a treadmill are popular As our research goal, we evaluate an exergame controller to alternatives; however, the monotonous and repetitive nature help designers accommodate characteristics and limitations of these exercises present challenges to increasing people’s of input devices in exergame design. We study human factors motivation to exercise. Moreover, it may be hard to motivate of speed-based exergame controllers (e.g., performance, people to exercise using rewards that are not immediately comfort, effort) under two different types of tasks: a observable, such as better general health [14] and appearance. maintenance task (maintaining exercise speed) and a Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for pointing task (moving between points). Also, we examine the personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are user experience with a speed-based controller. The following not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies contributions emerge from our investigation with bike-based bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. exergame controllers: Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to • The performance of a steady-speed maintenance task is post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]. dependent on target speed and resistance force of an CHI 2014, April 26 - May 01 2014, Toronto, ON, Canada exercise device. Contrary to expectations, performance Copyright 2014 ACM 978-1-4503-2473-1/14/04…$15.00. http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2556288.2557091 130 a b c d 120 e f 110 100 90 80 70 60 50 (RPM) Angular speed (RPM) Analog stick tilts up/down Avatar’s position Avatar moves up/down Figure 1. Games which can be controlled by speed-based controllers: (a) shooter, (b) paddle game, (c) puzzle game, (d) action game. Players can relocate the avatar’s position using (e) a stationary cycle or (f) a traditional controller. does not proportionally degrade as the target speed and devised prototype games such as a racing game. Similarly, resistance force increase. The performance rather abruptly AutoDesk developed HighCycle, which allows users to drops when these values exceed certain thresholds, even explore a virtual landscape using an exercise bike. Recent though they fall into the recommended aerobic exercise products include Cateye GameBike and PCGamerBike, ranges. This finding implies that exergame designers which support the control of a variety of games (mostly should carefully select a proper speed range and consider a racing games) on Sony PlayStation and personal computers. user’s preferred resistance level to provide users with a Fisher Price’s Smart Cycle offers educational exergames for consistent perception of controllability. young children, with a control mechanism similar to the • The results of a pointing task show that speed-based games shown in Figure 1a and 1d. Park et al. [31] recently exergame controllers follow Fitts’ law but with a steeper demonstrated the potential of existing exercise devices as slope than with other devices. exergame controllers for repetitive body movements (e.g., treadmill running, cycling, rowing, rope jumping). • Our interviews and questionnaire provide detailed reports about user experiences in using the speed-based controllers. A large body of work focuses on developing new exergame These results help game designers anticipate players’ controllers (e.g., smart wall) [5, 25] or evaluating well- performance and user experiences. known motion-based controllers such as Wiimote [28]. To our knowledge, a comprehensive study on fitness equipment- • We discuss a number of design implications in a case study based controllers has yet to be reported. This study aims to of a practical game design. We show how exergame bridge this gap and deliver practical game design designers can consider the findings, such as speed mapping, implications. Our work complements other exergames object placement/control, and difficulty setting. studies on context (e.g., education [1], medical [12, 40]) and RELATED WORK benefits (e.g., exercise effectiveness and adherence [41], Novel game controllers permit new ways of interacting in social relationships [40], and cognitive function [9]). exergames. A foot pad in Dance Dance Revolution by SPEED-BASED EXERGAME CONTROLLERS Konami [19] allows players to perform rhythmic stepping This work focuses on fitness equipment with repetitive with music. In Remote Impact [25] and LightSpace by physical movements, such as treadmills, indoor Exergame Fitness Co. [5], players punch or touch a large cycles/rowers, and elliptical trainers. Speed-based exergame contact-sensing smart wall. Similarly, in Table Tennis for controllers require continuous physical effort, a major Three, users hit a virtual object on a smart wall with a ball departure from existing devices for games, such as a mouse [27]. Several exergames incorporate physiological sensors or gamepad. The intensity of exercise (i.e., linear/angular (e.g., heart rate) [24, 29, 39]; for instance, remote joggers speed) is used to realize one-dimensional speed-based exchange heart rate information for a balanced running movement control. On a stationary cycle, for instance, the experience. angular speed (or pedaling speed) is mapped to the speed of Motion-based game controllers have recently received a an avatar. Speed is altered by pedaling faster or slower great deal of attention following the release of popular (Figure 1e). Such speed-based movement control differs gaming consoles such as Sony EyeToy, Nintendo Wii, and from existing distance-based movement control in traditional Microsoft Kinect. These devices can detect a player’s body pointing devices (e.g., mouse, Wiimote) where linear motion using cameras and motion sensors. The popularity of movement of the device is directly mapped to an avatar’s these gaming