Exergames are new video games based on using the Wii. They use physical activity not sight as input and have been developed for use in the fight against obesity. Now they have been adapted so that children with visual impairments can play them, important because these children as a result of sight problems do not find it easy to take healthy exercise and so are at a higher risk of obesity.
Research team leader Eelke Folmer says the modification that enables the games, such as tennis, to be played without visual feedback use audio and vibro-tactile feedback. Like standard Wii games these new ones can be played against other people or the computer. So far these games have been very successful in getting sight impaired people to exercise vigorously, though the sample sizes have been very small.
To play the VI Fit games, a user would need a Wii remote and a Windows PC with bluetooth support or a USB bluetooth dongle. The games can be downloaded using instructions at www.vifit.org. The games are not affiliated with or endorsed by Nintendo.
Posts archived in Media psychology
May 18, 2010 The death of Richard Gregory was announced on Monday of this week
. He was an extremely well-known figure in Psychology, most notably for his work on visual illusions and his classic book Eye and Brain. His website has examples of some of his illusions. He also researched artificial intelligence, was an inventor with many patents to his name and founded the At-Bristol hands-on Science Museum, as well as appearing frequently on radio and TV.
I had the privilege of hearing him speak on several occasions and felt he had quite a magical ability to communicate enthusiasm and ideas.
Interesting footnote – Gregory was taught by Frederic Bartlett as an undergraduate and claimed Bartlett inspired him to take up psychology.
You know I keep thinking about the face on that cheese toastie that Jean Marc wrote about a while back. We seem to have an immensely strong urge to see faces everywhere: on the moon, in clouds, even in the most abstract of shapes and doodles. In our minds, the most random of patterns or stimuli seem to readily coalesce into two eyes a nose and a mouth. Every Read the rest of this entry »
In November 2004 52 year old Diana Duyser from Florida USA, sold on e-bay a grilled cheese sandwich she had made ten years previously for $28,000 and in the process had 1.7 million hits to this particular e-bay item.
Why such interest in a frankly inedible piece of food? Well quite simply because there in the cheese toastie was the quite discernible face of the Virgin Mary and ever since the toasted treat had been in her possession, Ms.Duyser claimed to have had nothing but good luck.However this is not such an isolated incident. People have been seeing faces in all sorts Read the rest of this entry »
Very nice little interactive diagram to be found here. You click on an activity such as ‘speech’ or ‘memory’ and the diagram indicates which part of the brain governs such activity.
The Right Brain vs Left Brain test … do you see the dancer turning clockwise or anti-clockwise?
If clockwise, then you use more of the right side of the brain and vice versa.
Most of us would see the dancer turning anti-clockwise though you can try to focus and change the direction; see if you can do it.
| LEFT BRAIN FUNCTIONS uses logic detail oriented facts rule words and language present and past math and science can comprehend knowing acknowledges order/pattern perception knows object name reality based forms strategies practical safe |
RIGHT BRAIN FUNCTIONS uses feeling “big picture” oriented imagination rules symbols and images present and future philosophy & religion can “get it” (i.e. meaning) believes appreciates spatial perception knows object function fantasy based presents possibilities impetuous risk taking |
This is doing my head in… I’m genuinely perplexed by this….. it’s something to do with the shadow I think…
Comments here might help.
If your eyes follow the movement of the rotating pink dot, the dots will remain only one colour, pink.
However if you stare at the black ‘+ ‘ in the centre, the moving dot turns to green.
Now, concentrate on the black ‘ +’ in the centre of the picture. After a short period, all the pink dots will slowly disappear, and you will only see only a single green dot rotating.
It’s amazing how our brain works. There really is no green dot, and the pink ones really don’t disappear. This should be proof enough, we don’t always see what we think we see.
See this and other illusions at MIGHTY OPTICAL ILLUSIONS.