Goji Play is a gaming system designed to promote fitness. It includes two controller sensors that can wrap around the handles of an elliptical machine, stationary bike or stair steppers. The controllers communicate with a tablet or smart phone to track a player’s physical activity in a variety of video games. Credit: Contributed
This week's Digital Savant column, which ran in Tuesday's print edition of the American-Statesman and on MyStatesman.com, is a look at an Austin company launching the second edition of a device that combines tech and exercise and the larger issue of how challenging it is to make games and gadgets to make people more active.
Here’s an excerpt from the column:
Coleman Fung, the CEO and co-founder of Blue Goji, the company behind Goji Play, says that despite a lot of interest in marrying fitness with technology, there hasn't been a lot of innovation in successfully "gamifying" — that is, turning activity into a game — health. He believes adding the element of gaming is one way to get those who need more physical activity, especially kids, to exercise in short intervals every day.
"People have good intentions," Fung said, "That's why they join a gym or buy a cardio machine at home. Then they just kind of stop. There's lots of complex reasons why they stop."
The Goji Play system, which is part of a larger fitness/wellness ecosystem Blue Goji is developing, joins a series of gadgets, games and tech gear that have, with varying degrees of success, tried to get people off the couch with the promise of digital fun. Nine years ago, Nintendo's Wii game console overcame major video game industry skepticism to become a huge hit, as families played virtual bowling, tennis and other games by standing up and swinging a game-controller around.
You can read the rest of the column, which also includes Austin's Atlas Wearables and some thoughts from the founder of It's Time Texas, in the piece.
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