It is surely the first commercial
product in history to make a selling point out of its
ability to injure the unwary customer. Nintendo's Wii
game console had only been on the market a few days
when reports began flooding in of cut fingers, bruised
faces and sprained ankles.
The manufacturer initially downplayed
the incidents, but quickly remembered that any publicity
is good publicity. Soon, the Wii (pronounced 'we') was
being touted by reviewers as a game console so exciting
that users can't help braining each other with the controls.
The Wii is a radical departure
from all other video game consoles on the market, in
that it relies on motion capture technology. Rather
than pressing buttons and levers on a controller, the
user waves the controller around to mimic the movements
of a golf club, tennis racquet or other virtual instrument.
An infra-red detector tracks the movements and replicates
them on the screen.
The basic package comes with five
games: tennis, golf, baseball, bowling and boxing. In
theory, the user should play the game as if it were
the real thing. It's easy to see how this can lead to
injuries in enclosed spaces.
There are now entire websites devoted
to documenting Wii injuries, some of which can be quite
nasty. A common theme is the overhead tennis serve,
performed under an unnoticed light fixture. Another
is the flying controller to the bystander's head, generally
blamed on a failure to wear the included safety wrist
strap. More upsetting to most users is the flying controller
through the TV screen. There are also a surprising number
of lower leg and foot injuries.
LOSING
IT
It didn't take long for the thought to occur that all
of this wild flailing about might have its upside. Computer
games are frequently blamed as a cause of our couch-potato
lifestyles. But here is a computer game that, in theory
at least, demands the player get off the couch. A Mayo
Clinic study published in January's issue of the journal
Pediatrics suggested that active video games like the
Wii could help in the fight against child obesity.
The console has already been enlisted
in the war against adult obesity. Mickey DeLorenzo,
a computer programmer in Philadelphia, is on his way
to becoming "the new Jared of Subway fame," according
to Time Magazine. He has a book deal to write
The Wii Workout, a guide to losing weight with
30 minutes' play a day. His story is featured on the
fitness website Traineo.com.
MY
EMPIRICAL JOURNEY
Is it too good to be true? In the spirit of scientific
inquiry, your correspondent rented a Wii and put it
to the test with a couple of friends.
Sadly, we have no injuries to report.
One of us did lightly whack the dog on the head as he
passed by at an inopportune moment. Another tripped
backwards over a piece of furniture, but his fall was
interrupted by a wall. We did have a few near misses,
though, and all in all the device showed a solid potential
for causing mishap and mayhem in confined spaces.
In my experience, Wii's reputation
for simulating vigorous sporting activity has been a
little overblown. I began the evening swinging my bat
or club from the shoulder, but soon found I scored higher
with a gentler swing from the elbow. By the night's
end, when my friends had departed, I was playing prone
on the sofa, moving the controller with a gentle flick
of the wrist - and scoring much higher.
Overall, I probably burned more
calories walking to the video store to rent the thing.
A
PIONEER'S TAKE
That's my opinion, but I've been overruled by an expert.
William Li, an engineering student at the University
of Toronto, has been working with the staff and patients
of Bloorview Kids Rehab Canada's largest children's
rehabilitation hospital to develop an active
video game console which trains hemiplegic children
suffering from cerebral palsy to use their weak arms.
His console, which predates the
Wii's release, is built around the older Sony EyeTool
motion capture technology, the same device used by the
Mayo Clinic researchers. It can only be played when
the user holds down a button under their chair using
their strong arm. The movement of the other arm is then
captured on screen, and the user performs a range of
tasks such as picking fruit and throwing it into a bowl.
Working with kids mostly aged five
to nine, Mr Li's machine has been shown to replicate
exactly the kinds of movements that are used in physical
therapy to improve strength and fine motor control.
It will be presented at the Canadian Medical and Biological
Engineering Conference in Toronto this June.
"We're also planning to test it
using some validated clinical measures of motor control
to really quantify any improvements in performance,"
he says. Its great strength, he says, is that "the kids
don't see it as work or therapy, but as just another
game. They seem to genuinely enjoy playing it."
FUTURE
FLEX
So, what does he think of the claim that the Wii might
help healthy people lose weight? "Actually, I think
it has considerable potential in that field. All of
these active games involve far more movement than traditional
video games, which can only help," he says. "Of course,
the Wii is surely just the first of many active games
to come along. They're likely to get more engrossing,
and future models may well demand more activity."
Perhaps I'm simply a lazy player.
It's notable that many people who use the Wii are newcomers
to computer games. First exposure to computer games
can be very exciting, which might go some way to explaining
all the injuries. A lot of the injury cases involve
unlikely players, often people who grew up before computer
games were even invented.
Those who have wasted significant
chunks of their lives playing computer games, like myself,
are far more likely to highlight the Wii's defects,
in particular its rather primitive graphics, than to
sing its praises.
Quite a lot of adults never grew
out of playing video games, it seems. In fact the average
age of the American video gamer today is 29 years old,
according to the Entertainment Software Association.
FOR
DOCS TOO?
Video simulation has become an essential training tool,
especially for pilots. And latterly, video simulation
has moved into the field of surgery. February's issue
of the journal Archives of Surgery carries research
from the "Top Gun Laparoscopic Skills and Suturing Program"
at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York, which suggests
that surgeons who play video games are simply better
at their job than those who don't.
Thirty-three surgeons from Beth
Israel participated in this study. Perhaps the most
astonishing finding was how many of them played video
games already. Fifty-eight percent reported playing
at some point, while 30% said their peak use had involved
playing almost every day. The typical participant had
eight years of video gaming experience, with men more
likely to report extensive gaming than women.
The surgeons played three games
- Super Monkey Ball 2 for Nintendo Gamecube, Star Wars
Racer Revenge for Sony PlayStation 2, and Silent Scope
for Microsoft Xbox, then went on to drill and suture
porcine bowels and perform a range of other tasks with
laparoscopic tools.
Surgeons who never played video
games took significantly longer to perform the laparoscopic
tests and made significantly more errors than those
who played frequently. Skill in each of the video games
"was highly correlated with laparoscopic skill and suturing
ability," the researchers found. Wasted hours? Perhaps
not.
Get
out those joysticks
Want to know how your surgical
skills would measure up in the virtual world?
Check out Trauma Center: Second Opinion, just
released for Nintendo Wii.
The premise: It's 2018.
Researchers have found a cure for cancer and AIDS
but mankind is now facing the threat of a terrorist-designed
virus called GUILT (Gangliated UtrophinImmuno
Latency Toxin).
The hero: You are Dr
Derek Stiles, a gifted surgeon who's just completed
his resi-dency. Only you, and your joystick, can
save the world from the threat of medical terrorism.
Your arsenal: You have
everything you need to perform a successful procedure,
including scalpel, forceps, sutures, drain, surgical
laser, ultrasound and antibiotic gel. You even
have a defibrillator to shock uncooperative patients
back to life. Don't forget to watch those vitals.
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