The design and implementation of an interactive exergaming platform

This article proposes an interactive exergaming platform for sport training or recreation. The platform consists of an impact point measuring subsystem for thrown objects, an LCD projector to deliver gaming screens, and a personal computer to control all the interactions between users and the platform. The impact point measuring subsystem utilizes horizontal and vertical light curtains to detect the impact position of thrown objects by users in a game or sport training screen projected by the LCD projector. The position is then fed back to the exergame software on a personal computer for simulating mouse control actions. The first game implemented on this platform is the ‘Baseball grid-square game’, which was quite popular with both kids and adults in a recent exhibition held at the National Taiwan Science Education Center. The devised platform can be set up easily and it can also be applied to sport training and other exergames.