Star-Phoenix from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada • 6

A6 LOCAL TheStarPhoenix.com Saskatoon, Saskatchewan Monday. November 16, 2009 Getting gamers into gameshape focus for of researchers By Anne-Marie Hickey fur The SUirPhoenix Debora Campbell (left) and her mother Irene Mullock hope someone will find the handmade quilts stolen Saturday from the trunk of Campbells car Treasured quilts stolen from womans car By Jeremy Warren of The SUirPhoenix In turn, Campbell was making a quilt for her daughters wedding. Its white with pink, Young people who play online role-playing ideo games tire often stereotyped as anti-social geeks Ik) need more exerc ise and sunlight in Lheir lives. Youve got your hardcore gamers tluit almost take priilc in the fact that tfiey are sitting and not being physically active," says University of Saskatchewan computer science graduate student Lin Livingston. litis is echoed in some blogs and by game reporters tluit denounce physical activity games.

They play games to not be active," Adding to Uk problem is the fact that studies show a huge drop in physical activity once young people hit university. But would gamers aged 1 8 to 24 increase their daily physical activity level if doing so resulted in better performance in role-playing games? Livingston spent much of his summer trying to find out lie is part of a research team that has developed a game that is fun to play and increases the physical activity of players without alienating them. The game is called Gemini because there's a digital twin who represents live players real-life physical activity. The team is led by computer science assistant professors Regan Mondiyk and Kevin Stanley and funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council. This study is the first of its kind, said Man-diyk.

There have been simple studies, but none that incoiporate a players real-world activities such as walking, running or riding a bicycle into a role-playing computer game." The team built tine game using Neverwinler Nights 2, a role-playing computer game based on the popular game Dungeons Dragons. Participants were fitted with a sensor tine sire of a cellphone that they wore every day for a week to collect data about their exercise activities, such as how much time they spent outside or how far they walked. The device sends data to a file on the teams computer server and the information is fed into the computer game. If the player engaged in physical activity while wearing the sensor on the previous day, points are awarded to the players character. Findings to date, based on eight research participants who were already familiar with massive, multi-player online games, showthe concept can be successfully incorporated into a jame and there was greater user awareness of physical activity.

But larger-scale experiments are needed to verify the game can actually increase physical activity levels, said Mandryk. Our goal was to see if you could make a game compelling enough to change the real- HOW I SUMMER yellow, purple and blue flowers. "The quilt isnt even finished," said Campbell. Ive been working on it for 20 years. Campbell took some of her belongings into her motel room Saturday night.

She returned to her car for dog food and noticed the trunk was popped. The police figure someone was watching me, she said. 1 was gone for five minutes. They broke a rear window, unlocked the door and popped the trunk. The quilts were in a blue Carnival Cruise Line bag.

Campbell drives a silver 2008 Chevy Impala The thieves also took a box of Harlequin romance novels, among other items, but the quilts are what have her worried. They took the one thing that matter to me the most in the whole car, said Campbell. They might try and sell the quilts theyre worth money to people who like that sort of thing but they might just throw it away. jjwarrensp.canwest.com The two quilts stolen from Debora Campbells car Saturday night might seem like mere bedding to most, but to her the handmade items are irreplaceable family heirlooms. Campbell, who has just moved to Saskatoon from Edmonton, is staying at the Super 8 Motel on Circle Drive.

At some time between 8:30 p.m. and 9 p.m. Saturday, her car was broken into and the quilts were stolen. The stuff isnt valuable to anyone but me, so Im sure when the people who took them open the bag and see it's tedding theyll just turf everything," said Campbell, her voice trembling from exhaustion and discouragement. Shes hoping somebody might spot the articles and bring them back to the hotel.

They are precious items, laboured on for years by Campbell and her mother, Irene Mullock. One is a crocheted bedspread of different shades of blue. Mullock spent more than a decade making the quilt she gave to her daughter as a wedding gift. Pholo by Robby Davit Prof. Regan Mandryk and student Ian Livingston are studying gamers and exercise world activity of players," said Livingston.

We didn't want to make diem run laps or anything. It was about making small decisions, such as chixising tlie stairs instead of the elevator in order to advance your character in tlie game. So far, we are seeing players make subtle changes in their blest) les, such as exercising outdixirs or walking ith a friend." The team hopes the researc will lead to new gaming technology that would increase physical activity in otherwise sedentary people, bringing down health-care bills and improving quality of life of those ho are inactive. Tlie project could also lead to new design strategies by video game companies that spend millions of dollars on research and development. The game was meant to be different from other exercise games such as Nintendos Wii Fit Our gad was to make tlie activity in this game less obvious and in your face," said Livingston.

We didnt want players to feel forced to be physically active to take part, but we did want them to think about the decisions they make and perhaps modify their behaviour. There is no doubt that players found the game fun and engaging. We made the design decisions without sacrificing the fantasy that people experience when they play these games, said Mandryk. They can still be intense gamers." Livingston helped design and implement the game. Fellow student Alan Bandurka did a lot of the programming and Mohammad Hash-emian programmed tlie sensors that collect the user activity data The team has already presented its research at several conferences, and hopes to publish a paper this fall.

They are also working on developing an iPhone game aimed at getting kids aged eight to 12 and their families to exercise together. -Anne-Marie Hickey is a student intern for the of research communications office. Visit www.usaskresearchfor more stories of student research MY VACATION Murder charge laid following death A 20-year-old Onion Lake man is charged with second-degree murder in connection with an incident Saturday on the Onion Lake First Nation. Cassidy Stanley Lewis was taken into custody on Saturday and was charged with murder on Sunday. He is expected to appear today in Lloydminster provincial court.

Onion Lake RCMP and the RCMP major crimes section conducted a homicide investigation during the weekend after officers responding to a call around 1 a.m. Saturday found the body of 16-year-old Keeley Winslow Crook- edneck at a residence on the First Nation. RCMP said in a news release that the death is the result of foul play, but the cause of death will not be released. An autopsy is scheduled today. We wont release the cause of death because thats part and parcel of maintaining the integrity of the investigation, RCMP spokesperson Cpl.

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