[games_access] Games for Health

[Barrie Ellis]

Re. Health games:

http://vrsports.net/ (Japanese - click on the various left side links)
http://babelfish.altavista.com/babelfish/trurl_pagecontent?lp=ja_en&trurl=http%3a%2f%2fwww.fukushi.com%2fnews%2f2005%2f05%2f050517-a.html - 
(more on this VR tennis game)

http://hustle-club.com/ - Click round the RT icons - Namco's 
Re-habilitainment work.



Just cribbed this from: 
http://www.wayoftherodent.com/features/adaptive%20tech.htm
Wouldn't proper "VR" help physically disabled gamers play more complex games 
like FPS's?

I've seen VR used as a training device for electric wheelchair use, and also 
for simply crossing a road for a blind person, where turning your head made 
the sounds pan around your head as in real life. I've also heard of a really 
trippy VR application that runs off your heart rate and breathing. You start 
at the surface of the sea and control your ascent and descent dependant on 
how relaxed you become sinking into the sea-bed and into a binary world at 
your most relaxed. In answer to your question, definitely, and in the future 
it should just help about everyone, especially when computers are better at 
interpreting what the intent is behind your particular movements.



"Gasp" sounds very similar.

I also remember years ago at a MENCAP Virtual Reality convention "Enter 
2000" a presenter talking about a controller that was a board on a pivot. He 
was using this with games to develop a sense of balance, and increased 
strength in people that had related brain injury. Sorry - some of these are 
fairly vague I realise.

Barrie
www.OneSwitch.org.uk
www.igda.org/accessibility


> Yes, I too am too overbooked this year :) However, if anyone wants some 
> examples of 'games for health' than I got some examples laying around 
> (somewhere!) here (such as Gasp, a video game in which you play a pearl 
> diver who has to retrieve as many pearls as possible in just one dive. The 
> game is controlled by a breath controller and thus the true challenge is 
> the player's respiration and lung capacity. The game can be used for 
> training purposes for people with astma and hyperventilation...
>
> Greets,
>
> Richard