HealthGAMERS is pleased to introduce you to Greg Kendall, President and CEO of Kendall & Son Solutions LLC. Greg has begun a family game development business which has plunged straight into mobile gaming for health. His company’s first game is called Allergies Attack and it gives players a chance to get back at all of those allergies for just $0.99, available now in the iPhone Apps Store.

The interview.

HG: Describe the general gameplay of Allergies Attack. What is the win/lose proposition?

GK: Allergies Attack follows a little boy named Richard through his dream of getting back at his allergies.  The opening story shows Richard’s mother trying to explain why he can’t go on a field trip, and as Richard begins to fall asleep, he starts imagining what he might be missing.  The game play is arcade-like with Richard in an anti-histamine pill-shaped jet, shooting his allergies as they appear on the various scenes.  Eliminate the remaining enemies, and you move on to the next of six levels of play where your allergens can be fish, dairy, gluten or peanuts.

HG: I understand that your sister inspired the creation of this game. How was development guided by her personal health experiences?

GK: Both my father and I, as well as my other older sister Erica, are asthmatics.  It was ironic that as a small child, Jessica showed no signs of asthma or any other allergies.  However, in college, we watched my sister develop severe adult-onset food allergies, most notably an allergy to soy.  We quickly learned that soy is virtually in every type of prepared food product on the grocery shelf.  We watched her frustrations grow, as we all discovered just how widespread the use of soy is in the foods we eat everyday.  When we began planning our company and creating our mission statement, we quickly decided to begin by developing a fun and entertaining game for the tens of millions of people around the world to attack back at their allergies.

HG: Where can our readers obtain the app and how much does it cost?

GK: Allergies Attack is available on Apple’s App Store, and additional information on the game can be found on our website.

On his health game mission.

HG: We have seen the concept of “fighting back” in other popular health games like HopeLab’s Re-Mission for young cancer patients undergoing treatment.  Do you feel you’re taking a similar approach–empowering the player?

GK: I would say that we are taking a similar approach as Re-mission by empowering the player to attack back.  Often the afflicted feel hopeless and not in control, but with these games they are given a fun way to deal with their issue even if just for a short time.

HG: What do you hope to accomplish by releasing the game to the public?

GK: We hope that Allergies Attack will increase awareness of food allergies, that it is a serious issue that millions of people have to be conscience of everyday.  Without generating downloads the game will not promote awareness, so they are dependent on each other; synergy. Additionally, promoting awareness creates a drive for research to ultimately find a cure.  We therefore will be making a donation towards allergy research, education, and advocacy.

HG: You said that you specifically hope your game will increase awareness about food allergies, yet the character Richard is combatting his peanut allergies by shooting antihistamines.  Most know that avoiding peanut consumption is the safest way to avoid horrible food allergy reactions like anaphylaxis. Does this mean your health game is purely for fun and not about sending specific allergy-related messaging or pharma-focused messaging?

GK: If a person has severe allergies, anaphylaxis can be induced by any of the foods depicted in Allergies Attack.  We are not trying to convey a pharma-focused or accurate treatment plan through our game play.  If we can provide a fun outlet for allergy sufferers and get one person who is not afflicted by allergies to Google “how many people suffer from food allergies” then we are successful.

On business and development.

HG: Who did the programming and design of Allergies Attack?

GK: Allergies Attack was designed and produced by Kendall & Son Solutions LLC.

HG: Is this Kendall & Son Solutions’ first game? How did you get into this business?

GK: This is Kendall & Son Solutions’ first game.  It all started with a discussion we had during Thanksgiving about allergies and technology. It all did not come to fruition until a couple of months later when my sister with food allergies became pregnant.  During her last trimester, she was put on bed rest and needed assistance getting groceries, cooking etc. Being allergic to many foods, we needed to be careful of what we bought and cooked for her.  My father and I then developed our first basic application Am I Allergic, which is an allergen thesaurus.   For example, if a person is allergic to egg they most likely would be allergic to livetin, an egg protein.  Am I Allergic was originally intended for our family’s personal use, but then we decided that we wanted to publish it in the App Store in the hope that it could be helpful as it was to us.  After that, Kendall & Son Solutions was born.

HG: How long did it take to develop Allergies Attack?

GK: My father and I spent four months of nights and weekends designing and developing the game.

HG: Why did you choose the iPhone platform?  Were there any challenges associated with using the iPhone?

GK: We felt the iPhone platform had the most mature development environment as well as a very sizable market for distribution of our games and applications.

HG: How long has the game been live?  Has it been doing well in the App Store?

GK: The game has only been live in the App Store for a couple days and we will still be working hard to promote the game and having the rest of the world. Join us in attacking back!

HG: What can we expect from Kendall & Son Solutions down the road?

GK: The future looks bright for Kendall & Son Solutions.  We currently are in development and pre-development of a number of games that above all are fun and exciting to play but also champion an issue.  These issues will include health, social and environmental issues that the world is facing today.

Other allergy and flu health games on healthGAMERS.

• Interview: Nasonex’s “Don’t Blow It” Allergy Game
• The Great Flu: Global Pandemic
• Gaming the Flu: Having fun with H1N1

Top Doc combines high-quality medical images of conditions and abnormalities affecting various parts of the body with challenging real-life questions that help medical students, residents and junior faculty improve their visual diagnostic skills. For an online demo, visit topdocgame.com.

“We want users to feel as though they are facing and dealing with relevant scenarios within a virtual medical clinic,” said James Studdiford, MD, FACP, the product’s lead author and Associate Professor at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia.

More than 600 fill-in-the-blank style questions are presented for skill levels ranging from novice to expert. Medical students can use Top Doc to prepare for exams; practitioners can use it to sharpen their diagnostic skills.

Navdeep Chehl, a fourth-year medical student at Jefferson Medical College, said the “clear, vivid images and user-friendly format” provided “an effective and enjoyable way to test, refresh and increase” his knowledge.

Meeting a Need

Elsevier has been developing various medical products to meet the growing demand for digital and mobile access.

“As medicine continues to move into the digital space, products like Top Doc will be excellent resources for medical education,” said Randy Charles, Managing Director of Global Clinical Reference. “By offering the program as an iPhone app, Top Doc provides mobile access to medical students and practitioners who value on-the-go learning opportunities and high quality technology capabilities.”

How it Works – and Why

Top Doc users view clinical photographs depicting a physical sign or symptom and try to make the correct diagnosis as quickly as possible. In the game version, the player enters single letters of the alphabet, which fill in spaces to form the correct answer. Three wrong letters result in no credit. But as the student fills in correct letters, the number of remaining characters and the location of these letters serve as clues to prompt memory of the right answer. Questions automatically adjust to the player’s knowledge level.

Players must navigate through multiple levels of difficulty and through all body regions to become the Top Doc. Learning in this way has a scientific basis. Recruiting neural networks to perform pattern completion from partial cues triggers and strengthens memory associations each time the game is played, according to Dr. Patric K. Stanton, Professor of Cell Biology & Anatomy at New York Medical College and an expert in cellular mechanisms of learning and memory. This increases the likelihood of retrieving the appropriate information in future test and diagnostic situations, he said. At the conclusion of each fast-paced game,  players are given a final grade based on their performance, which they can automatically post to their Facebook account. A review mode is also available for those who want to study the content in a  non-competitive flashcard format.

“Users are able to experience and react to realistic patient encounters that require quick, concise clinical responses,” said co-author Amber Tully, MD, Assistant Professor of Family Medicine at Jefferson Medical College.

Top Doc is available for purchase in the iTunes App store and retails for $14.99.

About the author

This article was written by Lisa Haasbroek with the Consumer Marketing / Product Management division of Legacy Interactive. If you wish to know more about Top Doc she can be reached by email: lisa [at] legacyinteractive [dot] com. Thank you so much for providing the information, Lisa!

HardCORE Swimming is an Exertion Game prototype that combines the use of a Wii Fit balance board, Wii controller and nunchuk to swim through a shark-infested sea while collecting treasure.  In our last healthGAMERS interview we talked Floyd Mueller, an instructor at the University of Melbourne, Australia, who is teaching students the art of computer game design through Exertion Games: games that not only require exercise input but also rely on exercise for game outcomes. Today we talk with one of these innovative student teams.  Kane, Alex, Amber, Dean and Christian have created an exertion game they call HardCORE Swimming, a game that their instructor feels is ready to pitch to Nintendo today.

The interview.

HG: HardCORE Swimming seems to utilize several Wii peripherals.  Can you describe the general gameplay for us?

HCS: The gameplay of HardCORE basically involves the player or players lying on their stomachs in the middle of the Wii balance board and holding the Wii mote and nunchuk in their hands. They lie in the a superman-like pose with their arms outstretched. Basically the player is constantly falling and the only way to stay up is by shaking the Wii mote and nunchuk.

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HG: What makes HardCORE Swimming entertaining?

HCS: At intermittent times a flashing message will appear on the screen saying ‘SHARK INCOMING – LEAN!!!” and a second or so later a shark will rush past the screen. If the player leans to the left on the balance board (basically balancing on their side) then their character will lean and dodge the shark. If they don’t lean to the side they will get eaten. There’s also treasure spawning randomly at the right side of the screen that can be collected to add points to their score.

HG: The ultimate purpose of Exertion Games is to get a great workout while still having fun.  What muscle groups should a player expect to work while playing HardCORE Swimming?

HCS: This game is particularly great for people who want to do abdominal exercises whilst still having fun. Your body’s core is one of the most important things to build when being involved with any physical exercise. In our game, the player is in an existing exercise position called the superman which is designed to work the core. By lying down in a superman pose waggling the remotes out the front and leaning to the side, the player gets quite an abdominal work out.

HG: Is gameplay designed for one player or two?

HCS: There is multi-player mode where two players vie for treasure to stay alive. Two player mode has a slight limitation because each player must haves their own Wii Fit board.  We wanted to figure out a way to make the game more economical and utilize only one balance board, but we need to keep designing.

HG: How did you come up with the concept for HardCORE swimming?  Was there any particular inspiration?

HCS: The concept of HardCORE swimming was originally formed when we were searching for a game idea and one of our team members who is competitive swimmer suggested incorporating something to do with swimming.  The central idea was to get the players to engage in what is actually a very strenuous core body exercise but to distract them using a simple game they could focus on.  Thus hardCORE swimming was created! However, I must stress that we ploughed through many, many ideas before finally settling on this one and as a result we had to rush on the final technical implementation – but it still worked!

HG: Who do you see enjoying this game? Does it appeal to a specific age group?

HCS: HardCORE swimming is a game that is suitable for all ages and gamer skills. It is fun for children whilst teaching them good skills for a balanced lifestyle. It is good for swimming professionals to take time out from real training and enjoy simulated training whilst still having fun.

HG: Studies show that many exergames like Wii Fit are played for two weeks and then never played again. What about your game gives it replayability?

HCS: Our game’s constant replayablility is drawn from the way that it is based on a core exercise. Many people involved in sport or just general fitness already do the superman core exercise, and we have made it more enjoyable to do. The idea that you can beat your existing score or compete against a different opponent also adds to the interest of playing the game over and over.

HG: Your teacher, Mr. Mueller said that he believes this prototype game in particular is ready to market to Nintendo.  What makes your game special compared to other class prototypes?

HCS: We think HardCORE Swimming would appeal to Nintendo because it is a fun game for all people of all ages. It is marketable because it is a simple concept to understand, and the easy interface makes it basically unnecessary for the use of complex instructions. It would be a very suitable game for the Wii console.

Closing remarks.

I think this game has a lot of potential both from an entertainment and physical activity perspective.  I haven’t seen a Wii game that utilizes the core muscle groups, specifically the abs, yet. Perhaps we will see this game or one like it on the market soon.  Congratulations to the HardCORE Swimming team, and best of luck with their prototype!  To see more amazing Exertion Game prototypes from RMIT, Australia, visit their Lecture 2130 website.

I first found out about Floyd Mueller and his creative “Lecture 2130” at the University of Melbourne, Australia from the Games For Health listserve.   Mr. Mueller is doing some pretty amazing stuff with his computer game design students using Exertion Games.  Here’s my fascinating interview with this innovative instructor and how his students are taking exergaming to the next level.

The interview.

HG: For those unfamiliar, define “Exertion Game”?  How is this different from an exergame?

FM: For my work, I use “Exertion Game” because I want to highlight that in my games the exercise affects the game outcome. For example, running on a treadmill while playing Xbox is not an Exertion Game for me. I also use Exertion Game to highlight the game aspect, for example, interactive yoga exercises such as some done with the Wii Balance Board, they are not games. By highlighting these aspects, I hopefully will be able to show designers that there is still a vast amount of potential we have not explored yet!

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HG: Tell us more about your class at RMIT.  How and why did you start teaching physical games “Lecture 2130″?

FM: This is a first year class for aspiring new computer game designers. Through an extensive selection process only the best students with the most potential will be selected, as competition is fierce.  I have been researching “Exertion Interfaces” for almost 10 years now across Europe, the USA and Australia, being interested in designing better technology for the body. This class teaches the important role that physical concepts have in computer games. It evolved from looking at the underlying principles in 3D worlds, as seen particularly in FPS, to the emerging trend of physical games that challenge our understanding of the player’s body. This becomes important when designing for new platforms such as the iPhone, Nike+ and the Nintendo Wii. With this trend from being ‘physical’ in the virtual world to being ‘physical’ in the real world, we realized that there was an opportunity to make a difference to the future careers of young game designers, but also to the future of gamers, as these games can address the obesity issue.

HG: What makes exertion games appealing to students?

FM: Maybe it is a realization that games that go beyond the gamepad experience can be more social, more emotional and healthier. These games will be huge, and change the lives of millions, and students see the market and potential to be creative in an otherwise very competitive market.

HG: I see from your blog that students in your class have to create their own Exertion Games as part of their large final project.  How much did it cost students to create their game?  How long?

FM: The students had 6 weeks from their first class at university, which included forming a group of 5 students, to a Madness session where they had 1 minute to present their idea to 80 other students to get rapid-fire feedback to implementation to demo’ing in week 6, including showcasing the game on their website. They each invested 20 Australian dollars (ca. $US 18), so they had $AU 100 together as a team. Currently, they are preparing for the next demo round to do it all over again with even more exciting games!

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HG: Can you see these games being used in the “real world” such as those made for The Fun Theory?  For example, the Escalatek game could utilize a mall or office building.  How could the game be modified or implemented to benefit the public?

FM: We actually talked about the Fun Theory (it is not actually a theory though) on the blog, and a lot of our games fall into this category. The Escalatek team already has some ideas on this, and I let them (and the others) talk about how they ‘blur the magic circle of play’ (some of the topics discussed in class) in order to benefit the public.

HG: Was there one project in particular (2009 or 2010) you thought had commercial potential?  Why?

FM: I thought the Hardcore Swimming game could be sold for Nintendo tomorrow, so could the Hot Head Balloon game.  The JunkFooders’ Game was loved by everyone because it required so much exertion and could be installed in schools. And another game uses existing Foursquare technology on an iPhone but turns it into a game.

Closing remarks.

There are many, many other creative ideas on the class’s blog.  Each team has a webpage (accessible from the left menu on the class’s blog) where they document their ideas and progress.  Be on the lookout for more ideas from this innovative class, and stay tuned for part 2 of this interview series where we go behind the scenes with one of these amazing student teams.

A Humana press release this morning revealed the three winners of the InsertCoin Game Idea Competition which began last summer.  The goal of the competition was to establish what gamers are looking for in health games and ultimately create better health games for consumers.  Prizes of $5K, $3K and $2K were given to first, second and third place winners respectively.

And the winners are…

Many entered, but only three ideas made the cut.  Here are the lucky winners:

1. Shelly Warmuth of Green Bay, Wisconsin for her idea “Dance Class” where players are taught to dance by virtual dance instructor avatars.
2. John Green of Brooklyn, New York for his idea “Camp Awesome,” a summer camp simulator where players get the full action-packed experience of a camp.
3. Kevin Ray for his idea “Jungle Mayhem,” an activity and social based game.

Everyone at healthGAMERS sends a huge “Congratulations!” to the three winners for their accomplishments.  We look forward to seeing these games produced.  For more information, see the official Humana Games for Health InsertCoin press release.

When I first started healthGAMERS we were in the process of creating a new online health game based on the food pyramid.  At that time, I was researching what was out there.  My conclusion: a call for better Food Pyramid games.  Someone at the USDA must have been reading because the latest news buzzing in the public health sector is the announcement of the USDA Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services (FNCS) Innovations for Healthy Kids Challenge.

According to their latest news release, the USDA is challenging the public to create new web-based learning applications, such as health games, to reach more tweens (kids ages 9-12).  The challenge is designed to highlight the Obama Administration’s commitment to combating childhood obesity and improving the national health of America’s youth.  They are providing open source federal datasets on Data.gov and MyPyramid.gov for those that wish to enter.  Access to this data is great in itself!

Contest details.

• Who can apply? Entrepreneurs, software developers, and students who are U.S. citizens and not current USDA or White House employees.
• Who is the target audience? Kids 9-12 years old, aka “tweens”
• What kind of technology is required? Platform information will be posted soon, but entries are to be fully developed web-based games.  All data in the games must from be the USDA Nutrition Dataset and/or the Source Code.
• When is the deadline? Submissions will be accepted in spring 2010.  Further details are to follow.
• What are the prizes? Four prizes will be awarded including Gold ($3,000), Silver ($2,000), Bronze ($1,000) and Popular Choice $2,ooo).
• How are winners decided? All entries will be judged by a panel of public and private sector nutrition and gaming experts based on the following criteria: potential impact on target audience (40%), quality/accuracy/content of messages (20%), creativity/originality (20%) and potential for further development/use (20%).

For further contest information see the USDA Innovations for Healthy Kids Challenge page or sign up for email updates.

As a matter of fact, Interaction Healthcare, a French Health communication agency has recently announced it will promote and distribute Pulse ! the multi-million dollar cutting edge 3D medical and clinical training professional healthgame developed by Texas A&M University and Breakawaygames.com. This French agency was known for its on-line game “Don’t kid with their eyes” dedicated to vision for the young public and developed with the eye-glass world leader Essilor. Europe is also developing complementary solutions like “Patient Rescue” a UK National Health System supported game or the Spanish Medical Simulator.

North Europe countries have also entered in the game field like in Sweden where the University of Skövde has co-developed Elinor, a game based tool for rehabilitation of stroke patients. Interestingly, this University has launched this year the first European Master Degree in Serious games.

At the European Community level, some effort has been put on ehealth. However, there are few projects dedicated to health games. It is interesting to point out this multi-national initiative eldergames.org where experts from Spain, UK and Norway collaborate to create a video play platform connected to internet to monitor cognitive health and welfare in the growing elder population.

I believe 2010 will be an interesting year as we should have a lot of new free or commercial health games coming to market and could be regarded as a critical year for defining trends either in Europe or US.

Helping children recognize emotions with games.

MyFriendQuest is an interactive animated computer game created to teach children to recognize emotions and respond to them appropriately.  This is important, as difficulty with these skills often stands in the way of children reaching their capacity to communicate and develop empathy. Although initially created specifically for children with autism, MyFriendQuest has also achieved great results in testing with children with ADD, ADHD, dyspraxia, learning difficulties, social anxiety and severe shyness.

The interview.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Fraser Hurrell, CEO and Co-Founder of BrightMind LABS who created the game with the leadership of Clinical Psychologist Dr. Yvette Ahmad.

HG: I have often heard that video games are a great way to teach Autistic children.  What was the inspiration behind MyFriendQuest?

FH: The inspiration for MyFriendQuest – and the future games which we are planning under the BrightMind LABS banner – came from the fact that in no country is the need for child mental health services fully met. It seems unlikely that the planet will ever produce – or fund – enough mental health professionals to provide one-on-one therapy for all children who need it.  Gaming is a means of providing more  widespread delivery of cognitive behavioural therapy to those who need it, but are unable to access one-on-one therapy.

HG: Your site says “clinically designed.” Was an effectiveness study done? If so, can you share any results?

FH: A large amount of clinical testing has been done in trials working with kids on the autistic spectrum during development of MyFriendQuest.  However a proper clinical effectiveness study has only just been started – and we anticipate results before Christmas. We’ll post these on the web site once available.

HG: What kind of results should people who purchase this game expect to see in the player?  For example, are better social interactions an expectation or simply better skills at identifying facial expressions?

FH: Skills at identifying facial expressions are a prerequisite for better social interactions.  The expected outcome is for the child to increase their ability to interact socially, reduce anxiety and build
self-esteem.

HG: Describe the “package” that people who purchase your game will receive.

FH: The package will be a downloadable Flash file which has been designed to run on either a PC or a MAC – although only the PC version will be released initially.  To accompany the download will be a detailed user guide which is downloadable in .pdf format free of charge.

HG: What was your funding mechanism for production?

FH: The production has been funded so far by private investment.  Once we have proven the delivery model with the first game, we will be looking for further investment to develop future games.

HG: Was art and programming done in-house?

FH: We developed the clinical aspects of MyFriendQuest in-house, and also the storyboarding and scripting.  Once we had a good idea of what we wanted, we brought Flux Animation Studios in Auckland into the mix –and they took care of the Flash animations.  Local company Guerrilla managed the programming.

HG: Who is your target market? Should we expect to see this inphysicians’ offices or is it an at-home purchase for parents and their children?

FH: Initially the target market is direct to parents of children on the higher functioning end of the autistic spectrum.  However, we have had a lot of interest from institutions to bulk purchase as a therapeutic intervention they can provide to parents while on the waiting list for one-on-one therapy.  When we release, the game will  initially be marketed just to parents through one-off sales, but we  will work quickly on developing a mechanism for making bulk sales to health institutions.

HG: You mention future games on the horizon.  Will they all be related to autism and childhood mental health?

FH: Future games will be targeted to mental health conditions for children up to 12 years of age.  We do have more ideas for kids on the autistic spectrum – and also some great ideas in the pipeline for other conditions.

About BrightMind LABS.

Winner of the 2009 Global Social Impact Assessment competition at Berkeley, BrightMind LABS exists to improve the lives of children with mental health issues. Their goal is to deliver Cognitive Behavioral Therapy by computer (CCBT) to children using an immersive gaming wrapper. They have coined the term psytainment to define this exciting new space. Their first release, MyFriendQuest, is now available for download at the low price of $39.95 USD.

In my last post on mobile phone-based health games, I gave you an overview of Mindless Eating Challenge, a game by Cornell University Food and Brand Lab, funded in part by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation as part of their health games research initiative.  As I had hoped, I was able to interview JP Pollak, doctoral candidate and lead researcher for the project.  JP gave healthGAMERS an inside look at this amazing project designed to teach middle school children about healthy eating through care of a virtual mobile pet or plant.

The interview.

HG: Why did you choose the book Mindless Eating to create a mobile game?  Who came up with the idea?

JP: The Cornell University Food and Brand Lab, directed by Dr. Brian Wansink has done some amazing academic work on this subject, and the popularized book Mindless Eating has received much well-deserved recognition.  Brian approached us (the Human-Computer Interaction Lab, directed by my advisor, Dr. Geri Gay) looking for a way to reach more people with the Mindless Eating message and the Challenge.  Basically, they have lots of great findings, and many people have had good results when participating, but they felt they could reach more people through technology and a more interactive medium.

After exploring many possibilities, we decided to target kids and make a game out of it.  Of course, the emphasis of our lab’s work is mobile technology, so the fact that it was going to be a mobile phone game was a given.  Then it was just a matter of taking a good look at existing research and games and seeing what worked. Virtual pets have been extremely popular (Tamagotchi, Nintendogs, etc.), and there is actually a fair amount of literature suggesting pet/ plant care can be used to encourage or reinforce behaviors.

HG: What aspects of the book were incorporated into the game?

JP: We use the eating tips from the book and from the Food and Brand Lab’s research as the healthy eating prompts for the game.  There are specific tips for snacks and for each meal and they vary based on the persons goals (losing weight, eating healthier, etc.).

HG: Is Mindless Eating Challenge specifically an iPhone app or is it a general mobile application?

JP: We have a J2ME version, a mobile-optimized web app, and there is an iPhone app currently in development.  Each has pros and cons.

HG: Was program design done in-house?

JP: All of the design was done in house.  The pets and graphics as well as some of the early coding was done by Sara Lin, a fantastic student working in our lab who has since graduated.

HG: What are the major goals of the project?

JP: The goals are two-fold.  First, we want to do good and improve health outcomes for kids.  The game is designed as a persuasive technology that we hope will improve eating behaviors in kids while they eat, and ultimately improve their awareness of what their eating and their self efficacy around eating.

Second, we’re an academic lab, so we’re interested in what we can learn from the game.  For example, what are the underlying mechanisms of gameplay that can be used to change behavior?  How does social influence play a role in behavior change?  These are questions that have been answered in other domains but haven’t been adequately addressed in terms of persuasive technology and health games.  Better understanding of these issues should inform the development of future health games that can be even more effective.  Addressing some of these questions is also the goal of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Pioneer Program grant we received to support our work on the game.

HG: What health results do you hope to see in players who use Mindless Eating Challenge?

JP: We hope players diets improve, that they become more aware of what they are eating and what they should (or shouldn’t) be eating, and that we can improve their confidence that they can make a positive change in their eating behavior.  We completed a study with 70 middle school students in upstate New York this spring and are currently working on getting the findings published.  We think they support some of our goals quite nicely.

HG: Will this game ever be made available for public consumption?  If yes, when should we expect the launch?

JP: This is a goal of ours.  We need to first answer a few more research questions and address some scalability issues, so unfortunately it’s hard to say when this will be available to the public.

Closing remarks.

I hope JP is correct about the possibility of Mindless Eating Challenge being made available to the public.  I think the market, especially the iPhone App market, is ready for a mobile health game.  We look forward to the results of the study!  For more information on Mindless Eating Challenge, visit the following resources:

• Kotaku article “Grants Awarded For Inspiring Health Games Research”
• Cornell University Food and Brand Lab
• Human-Computer Interaction Lab at Cornell University
• Mobile Eating Game Challenge summary page

For a long time I’ve wanted to do a post all about mobile phone-based health games.  After all, visit the iPhone App store and you’re bombarded with thousands of choices.  From the complete works of Plato to real estate prices, there’s a little (or a lot) for everyone.  In the healthcare & fitness and medical sections alone, users have 2140+ apps to choose from.  But are there any health games in the app store yet?  Not really.  These are as close to health games as I could find:

• Nike Training Club – Create an avatar, customize your workout, learn new drills, compete with friends.
• Are You Smarter than Your Doctor? – Quiz game that allows you to compete with friends or one-on-one with your doc to show him/her that you know much more than they do.  A fun way to educate patients with questions based on questions posed by real licensed doctors.

But are these the only health game apps?

I decided to take my question to a higher authority–Google.  The result?  Mindless Eating Challenge from the folks at Cornell University’s Food and Brand Lab.  Based on the book by Dr. Brian Wansink of the same name, Mindless Eating Challenge is a mobile phone-based health game in which players are tasked with caring for a virtual pet, similar to a Tamgotchi.  The player must follow a variety of health and eating recommendations and verify their actions with photos taken from their phone’s camera.  Here is a example of what to expect from gameplay:

For example, the recommendation “Eat a hot breakfast” would require the player to submit a photo of him/ herself eating a bowl of oatmeal.  Photos and compliance are then judged either by judges or peers.  Based on compliance to these recommendations, the pet or plant changes its appearance and gains features or accessories–a tree might grow taller or grow more leaves or fruit in response.  Alternatively, leaves might fall off if the players performance is poor.  A social portion of the game allows the user to see various depictions of their performance in comparison to the performance of others in their group, as well as of their group in comparison to other groups.  The game is designed so that various features can be easily enabled and disabled so it can be used as a platform from which to conduct research into the mechanisms of mobile persuasion in the context of improving health and well-being.

I spoke briefly with JP Pollak, PhD candidate and participant on the project. He and his team are in the process of submitting findings for publication on their first full study using 70 middle schoolers.  Hopefully we’ll get more details on that soon.