Virtual Performance Rewards for Real-World Activity Tracking
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Solution Overview
Problem
The increasing popularity of electronic games is leading to a decline in physical activity, which is associated with health concerns such as obesity, and existing solutions that integrate physical activity with gaming are often confined to indoor environments.
Innovation Solution
A system that tracks real-world physical activity through sensors, estimates energy expenditure, and rewards users with virtual items or points in an online world based on their athletic performance, allowing for interaction with a virtual universe without requiring them to be in front of a display during the activity.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If users engage in electronic gaming to increase entertainment, then user engagement and social interaction improve, but physical activity level deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines electronic gaming with physical activity monitoring by integrating sensors that track real-world movements and automatically translate them into in-game actions. This merging allows users to engage in both virtual entertainment and physical exercise simultaneously, converting sedentary gaming into an active experience that improves physical activity levels while maintaining user engagement.
Solution Approach 2:
The system introduces sensors and a processing system as intermediaries between the user's physical movements and the virtual game environment. These intermediaries capture real-world activity data, process it to determine corresponding in-game actions, and transmit the results to the electronic device, thereby bridging the physical and virtual domains to encourage both engagement and physical activity.
2Productivity
If physical activity is integrated with electronic games through sensors, then user engagement improves, but the activity is confined to indoor environments
Solution Approach 1:
The system employs universal sensors that can detect various types of movements and activities across different environments. The sensor system is designed to capture data from diverse physical activities whether performed indoors or outdoors, making the gaming system adaptable to multiple settings and enhancing environmental flexibility while maintaining user engagement.
3Measurement precision
If sensors are used to track physical activity, then energy expenditure can be estimated, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system utilizes the device's existing sensors and processing capabilities to perform energy expenditure estimation, allowing the device to serve multiple functions including fitness tracking, gaming, and health monitoring. This self-service approach leverages already-present hardware and software resources, minimizing additional complexity while achieving precise measurement of energy expenditure through integrated sensor data analysis.
Data Source
AI summary
Aspects of this disclosure relate to rewarding users of an electronic game for real-world physical activity. Further aspects relate to altering virtual items based upon physical activity. An electronic game may comprise or otherwise relate to an online world (such as a “Virtual World”). Users may be represented through customized graphical representations, such as avatars. An account of a user (or entity) may be associated a “virtual region.” A threshold level of real-world physical activity may result in obtaining a reward that may be associated with a virtual item. A reward may be configured to result in: (1) altering visual appearance of a virtual item within a virtual region; (2) altering a virtual characteristic of a virtual item, such that the first user may engage in at least one additional virtual activity using that virtual item; and/or (3) acquiring a new virtual item for a virtual region.