Games for Health Conference Kicks Off

The  the sixth annual Games for Health conference might not be the place you would expect to hear Extreme drummer Kevin Figueiredo perform, but that’s just what happened.

Games for Health head Ben Sawyer welcomed attendees to this year’s show, which kicked off today in Boston, by noting that he is “the crazy person who thinks he can pull this off each year.” After a few remarks, Sawyer passed the microphone over to Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Senior Vice President Dr. John Lumpkin. Robert Wood Johnson’s Pioneer Portfolio is a backer of Games for Health.

Lumpkin, an avowed gamer, indicated that he used to keep videogames and his work as “separate disconnected parts” of his life, before he noticed his son playing a game of Dance Dance Revolution and working up a sweat. This is when he realized that his professional field could intersect with his hobby.

Outlining what the future might hold for gaming and health, Lumpkin presented a scenario in which an asthmatic might play a game that informed the player, while also tracking their asthma. Data captured would then be uploaded to an online health record. If troubling results occurred, the asthmatic’s physician could be notified for an intervention. The doctor could also scan the player’s records in order to receive a complete, day-to-day health history. As Lumpkin explained, “Once all these worlds are linked, anything is possible.”

Sony Computer Entertainment Researcher Dr. Richard Marks, inventor of the EyeToy, technology that eventually led to the creation of the PlayStation Move, which also emerged under Marks' leadership, gave the keynote address and wowed attendees with several very cool demonstrations of Sony’s new technology. Marks said he was giving the Games for Health community early access to the demo in the hopes they could start  coming up withways to adapt the PlayStation Move tech to health-based games.

The real capper was the previously mentioned drummer demo however, which was an offshoot of research from a team of University of Chichester researchers. The study, entitled the Clem Burke Project, followed Blondie drummer Clem Burke for a period of years, outfitting him with a mask and probes that measured heart rate and oxygen intake. For this demo, Extreme drummer Kevin Figueiredo’s vitals were measured as he played along to varying click tracks, which increased from 130 beats per minute, to 150, 170 and eventually 190. Figueiredo’s heart rate topped out at 185 bpm, causing a researcher to question whether the drummer was a musician or an athlete.

The probes were then attached to Harmonix employee John Drake, whose vitals were measured as he played the drums in Rock Band. Drake averaged between 150 and 167 bpm, indicating that he was getting a decent workout while playing a game.

We’ll be at Games for Health through tomorrow and will update with details of any interesting games or research that comes across our plate.