Mobile Exergaming: Exergames on the Go

Abstract

Exergames combine exercising with game play by requiring the users to perform some kind of physical activity (and exercise) in order to score points in the game. In this paper, we present mobile exergames that are affordable, fun, ubiquitous, and most importantly portable allowing the players to carry exergames with them wherever they go. Our mobile exergames need two pieces of portable equipment - a smartphone (with an in-built camera, accelerometer and gyroscope) and an ExerPad (custom designed Exercising Pad consisting of various shapes and colors). While playing the proposed exergame on smartphone, the user is required to physically move on ExerPad in order to score points in the game. The experimental results show that the proposed mobile exergames help users to move and burn calories while having fun at the same time.