• Login
    View Item 
    •   Home
    • Graduate Theses, Dissertations and Projects
    • Queen's Graduate Theses and Dissertations
    • View Item
    •   Home
    • Graduate Theses, Dissertations and Projects
    • Queen's Graduate Theses and Dissertations
    • View Item
    JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

    Heart Rate Balancing for Multiplayer Exergames

    Thumbnail
    View/Open
    Stach_Tadeusz_B_201209_PhD.pdf (2.778Mb)
    Date
    2012-09-27
    Author
    Stach, Tadeusz Benedict
    Metadata
    Show full item record
    Abstract
    Exergames combine physical activity and entertainment in an effort to increase people’s motivation to exercise. Multiplayer exergames attempt to include the motivating aspects of group activity by allowing two or more people to play together. In most multiplayer exergames, a player’s in-game performance is limited by her physical abilities. Less fit players are demotivated by repeated losses to more fit opponents, while fitter players face a lack of competition from unfit opponents. This situation makes it difficult for people of disparate physical abilities to play exergames together.

    This research presents heart rate balancing, a novel player balancing technique to better support engaging experiences in multiplayer exergames. Heart rate balancing bases players’ in-game performance on their effort relative to fitness level rather than their raw power. More specifically, heart rate monitoring is used to set in-game performance based on how closely a person adheres to her target heart rate. Experiments with heart rate balancing show that the technique improves competition between players. A strong correlation was found between people’s perceived effort and their in-game performance with heart rate balancing. The degree to which players noticed the balancing mechanism varied depending on game type. However, heart rate balancing did not interfere with people’s ability to play exergames. These results indicate that the heart rate balancing technique is a promising approach for improving enjoyment and engagement in multiplayer exergames.
    URI for this record
    http://hdl.handle.net/1974/7525
    Collections
    • Queen's Graduate Theses and Dissertations
    • School of Computing Graduate Theses
    Request an alternative format
    If you require this document in an alternate, accessible format, please contact the Queen's Adaptive Technology Centre

    DSpace software copyright © 2002-2015  DuraSpace
    Contact Us
    Theme by 
    Atmire NV
     

     

    Browse

    All of QSpaceCommunities & CollectionsPublished DatesAuthorsTitlesSubjectsTypesThis CollectionPublished DatesAuthorsTitlesSubjectsTypes

    My Account

    LoginRegister

    Statistics

    View Usage StatisticsView Google Analytics Statistics

    DSpace software copyright © 2002-2015  DuraSpace
    Contact Us
    Theme by 
    Atmire NV