Towards Physical Activity via Game Play: an AR/VR based Game for Minimizing Childhood Obesity

Abstract

The problem of childhood obesity is becoming a major issue because it often persists into adulthood and causes many illnesses during the childhood. Most of the children who suffer from obesity are reluctant to adapt physical exercises. This study is an effort to introduce a novel gaming approach with the intention of providing a better solution to the obesity in a medically recommended way. The objective of this study is to explore whether an augmented reality or virtual reality based game developed in a medically recommended way has more potential to reduce obesity and overweight among the children. This study also explores whether the children are willing to play the game when medically recommended activities are included. In order to achieve the project objectives, a prototype system was developed. It was aimed at providing medically recommended physical exercises with calorie burning physical activities through the game play. A pilot study and a main study were conducted during the research. Pilot study was conducted to refine the main evaluation process. Main study was conducted with two experiments. First experiment was done by using the implemented game prototype. In the first experiment, game interest and the energy expenditure during the game play were measured. Second experiment was conducted to identify whether virtual reality or augmented reality has more potential to motivate children to involve with the game. With the evidence presented from the evaluations conducted in western province of Sri Lanka, the statistical analysis was conducted. Experiment results have proven that, the proposed game based solution can be used to address the childhood obesity in a medically recommended way. Results of the first experiment showed that, most of the children are willing to play the game up to 30 minutes and they have achieved their fat burning heart rate during the game play.