In the Smart Sports Exercises project we developed a series of training game concepts that are predicated on a mixture of sensing athlete actions through movement sensors, sensing position and other actions via a pressure sensitive floor, and presenting game feedback through a display built into the floor. Many of these concepts concern training skills and awareness of movement and formation relative to other players.

With a series of student thesis projects we explore how rowing training can be made more interesting and effective. The work involves measurement of rowing technique and performance, as well as immersive VR based feedback mechanisms to improve training.

Interact with a mysterious water world projected on the bar of your favorite cafe. Your movements above the bar and the objects that you arrange on it determine the growth of a little ecosystem of Anemones and creatures. By making different ecosystems interfere with each other, the Anemone system attempts to bring people into contact with strangers. A first pilot study showed people enjoyed playing with the interactive bar environment. They would invent their own little games to play with the system and with other people. For example, some people actively tried to “protect” all creatures, preventing them from swimming to the other users of the bar. By Richard Loos, Robby van Delden, Daniel Tetteroo, Peter Vel, Boris Zijsling & Michel Jansen.

Our first interactive playground was made by Daniel Tetteroo as part of his MSc thesis work. He explored how abstract visualisations and abstract game mechanics led children to invent their own (shifting) game rules.

The Laser-gait system allows people to practice their gait at home, outside of the therapy sessions. The laser system projects at random moments a line in front of the user that they have to step over. By making this a game to be played throughout the day, people become more aware of their gait patterns and become more active in exercising at home. This student project received a silver award at the SpinAwards Young Talent 2016.

We have built and implemented a set of metaphors for breathing games by involving children and experts. These games are made to facilitate prevention of asthma exacerbation via regular monitoring of children with asthma through spirometry at home. To instruct and trigger children to execute the (unsupervised) spirometry correctly, we have created interactive metaphors that respond in real-time to the child's inhalation and exhalation. Eleven metaphors have been developed in detail. Three metaphors have been fully implemented based on current guidelines for spirometry and were tested with 30 asthmatic children. Each includes multi-target incentives, responding to three different target values (inhalation, peak expiration, and complete exhalation). We postulate that the metaphors should use separate goals for these targets, have independent responses, and allow to also go beyond expected values for each of these targets. From the selected metaphors, most children preferred a dragon breathing fire and a soccer player kicking a ball into a goal as a metaphor; least liked were blowing seeds of a dandelion and applying lotion to a dog to grow its hair. Based on this project we discuss the potential and benefits of a suite-of-games approach: multiple games that each can be selected and adapted depending on personal capabilities and interests.

People with Profound Intellectual and Multiple Disabilities suffer from severe intellectual and physical disabilities. This limits them from participating in many active and engaging activities. The BLOX project uses technology to offer new physical and playful interactive experiences for these people, in which they should be able to take initiative in play. We carried out a user study with 9 participants, 10 sessions with the ball each. Although many participants did not show a clear difference or clearly positive reaction to the ball, some participants were more active or alert or showed more signs enjoyment when playing with ball, compared to watching TV.

The setup consists of a pair of rope pulling boxes, connected to each other via the internet. When you pull the rope, the other person immediately feels this through their own rope: touch at a distance! This interface is used in a collaborative game in which two people control the same egg-catching basket from one side each, moving it left and right to catch as many eggs as possible. A user study showed that social presence is enhanced by rope interface, but only if player actually feels the other’s “touch” as force feedback on the rope.

Tangible interactive games are used for repetitive training of upper limbs in the therapy of children with Cerebral Palsy (CP). Four games were created that trigger different kinds of to-be-trained movements in a motivating and entertaining way. A physical quiz game was especially successful as children kept on playing the game making the proper movements without additional encouragement or instructions of the therapists or researchers.

We investigated whether we can increase coordination in movement between players by changing the game to enforce teamwork. This was done in a distributed exertion game of Pong in which the members of a team controlled one end of a shared paddle each. We evaluated with the members of the team distributed over the two locations vrsus collocated team members (with each team at its own location). Although the results should be taken with care, the comparisons do indicate that we could steer the amount of coordination between players in this way.

In this interactive playground, the person with the red circle is the tagger. Touch a runner’s blue circle in order to tag them! By adding power-ups, adaptive circle sizes, and other mechanisms, the game attempts to influence who is going to be tagger for how long and who is the next target, and to influence runners to take more risk, without breaking down play and without making it too obvious to the players.

This suite of games is developed to cover a range of goals in gait rehabilitation therapy. Treasure Hunt focuses on straightwalking; the Cheese Game on starting, stopping and turning; and the Crazy Object trains "dual task" walking with cognitive distractions.

This suite of games is developed to cover a range of goals in gait rehabilitation therapy. Treasure Hunt focuses on straightwalking; the Cheese Game on starting, stopping and turning; and the Crazy Object trains "dual task" walking with cognitive distractions.