Global Kids’ D.I.D.I. Initiative: Serious Games For Dream It. Do It.

Serious Games launching a Venture in a Virtual World

Via: Global Kids’ Digital Media Initiative

Global Kids launched a new Teen Second Life project called Dream It, Do It, or DIDI Interactive. The project awards grants up to $1000 U.S.

Teen grid residents have worked extremely hard to help the DIDI Interactive team develop the simulator by building and scripting objects.

At recent DIDI workshops teens can find out how the D.I.D.I. Initiative can help them start their own ventures such as clubs, organizations, and businesses.

Please find the details below.

THE D.I.D.I. INITIATIVE
Dream It. Do It.

In Teen Second Life

Can you launch a Venture in a virtual world to create real change?
Youth Venture invites you to explore the virtual world of Teen Second Life and find out how you can launch a Venture there!

What is Teen Second Life?

Teen Second Life is an international gathering place for teens 13-17 to make friends and to play, learn and create. It’s more than a videogame and much more than an Internet chat program –
it’s a boundless world of surprise and adventure that encourages teens to work together and use their imaginations.

What is The D.I.D.I. Initiative?

The D.I.D.I. Initiative is a partnership in Second Life between Youth Venture and Global Kids to improve health and healthcare. Through generous support of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the D.I.D.I. Initiative provides young people the seed funding and the support they need to launch their own ventures that create lasting community benefits. The Ventures can take place entirely within the virtual world of Teen Second Life, in the real world, or some combination of the two!

The D.I.D.I. Initiative encourages young people to launch their own sustainable ventures both within and outside of Teen Second Life to benefit their local communities. In Teen Second Life—a virtual gathering place in which teens aged 13-17 socialize, learn, and create digital media—the D.I.D.I Initiative encourages young people to learn, collaborate, and take action in key healthcare concerns.

Workshops start in the D.I.D.I. Institute Boardroom where kids go over the GK Guidelines and do some fun getting to know youth activities!

The D.I.D.I. Initiative “Island” in the teen grid of Second Life is a place for young residents to learn about important social and health issues like poverty, food insecurity, discrimination, poor housing, and vulnerable populations. Youth have the opportunity to create and lead their own social ventures to address these issues.

With the Initiative’s support, teams of youth develop an action plan to design and launch their own social entrepreneurial projects. Once organized, the Initiative offers:

• Seed funding of up to $1,000 per team in the US

• Technical allies to provide additional advice and expertise

• Ongoing tools and support (e.g. workshops, online forums, how-to booklets)

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Venture Capitalist Sees Growing Investment Opportunities In Serious Games

What makes Serious Games attractive to investors

Via: Richard Carey - Digital Media Solutions, Serious Games & Learning Smiluations

As anticipated on my prior posts focused on Serious Games Market Size, funding has started to become available from foundations, governmental agencies, non-profits and venture capitalists.

The following article by Richard Carey, offers a unique opportunity to get a venture capitalist perspective on investing in the educational technology market, including educational games and simulations.

A VC’s Perspective on EdTech Investment - Published November 29th, 2007

The SIIA’s annual Ed Tech Business Forum, the leading business and finance conference for the K-12 and postsecondary education technology market, attracts senior management from education software companies, platform technology firms, solution providers, publishers, private equity firms and venture capitalists.

The keynote speaker for this years conference was John Martinson, Managing Partner of the Edison Venture Fund. With 31 years of venture capital experience, including 8 investments for Edison from $3-10M and 12 investments from $250K-12M as an individual, Martinson has significant experience and a unique perspective on investing in the educational technology market.

In his presentation, Martinson provided a candid appraisal of what makes educational technology attractive to investors, as well as its unique challenges.

He also shared his “tired or wired” list, highlighting emerging segments of the market — invaluable insight for anyone managing an educational technology portfolio or investing in new products for this market.

K-12 Software is a Sizable Niche Market

Among his obserations: K-12 software is a sizable niche market with 55M students, 125K schools and 12K districts.

There’s tremendous public pressure to improve student performance, reduce costs and improve productivity.

It’s a market of passionate entrepreneurs, a market with a high SAS (software as a service) renewal rates. Equally important, if somewhat below the radar of many departments of education and school boards who make purchasing decisions, today’s students are digital natives as are many of their parents, so the demand for educational technology will only increase.

On the downside, there’s a long tradition that schools pay for hardware and expect software and services to be free. Add to that regulations that differ by state, a long (and seasonal) sales cycle, decision making by committee, and disbursed sales (12 thousand districts, 125 thousand schools) and the challenges become clear.

Growing Investment Opportunities

In spite of these negatives, Martinson sees growing investment opportunities on several fronts, including instruction management (learning management systems), data management (assessment reporting and analytics to drive individualized instruction), portals and communication systems, special education (see individualized instruction), online schools and courses (distance learning), educational games and simulations -- "Serious Games”, and in mobile computing devices.

Martinson is particularly bullish on the post-secondary market. Despite being much smaller than K-12, the technology infrastructure is more robust, there are fewer cumbersome regulations, there are business-like initiatives to increase revenues and lower costs, and decisions are more timely compared with those made by state and local school committees.

In a nutshell, while educational technology remains unarguably a niche market with unique challenges, Martinson feels the need for applied technologies, rapid acceptance of web-delivered software as a service, recurring revenue business models, and pent-up demand from years of restrained investment in K-12 point to increased opportunity for investors, publishers and product developers.


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Serious Games Meant To Be Fun But Serious About Educational Value

Serious Games let kids make their own stories online

Via: KerPoof - Kerpoof is testing new activities

Following my prior post Serious Games To Rethink What Is Important For Children To Learn, fully dedicated to KerPoof, an enriching destination site for children, I came across the video where Krista Marks Demonstrates Kerpoof.com.

Krista Marks, KerPoof CEO, has a bold vision to change the way kids interact with the computer and learn about creativity, and her new website is a giant leap forward in that direction. Krista shared her vision in this demonstration of Kerpoof at Dust or Magic 2007.

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Serious Games & Dual Reality: Interplay Between Real & Virtual Worlds

Commonalities between SGI and Dual Reality Lab

My fellow Blogger Sven Johnson has left a new comment on my post "Serious Games Combining Mobile Learning & Virtual ...", which addresses the Serious Games Institute (SGI) partnership with Cisco and Giunti Labs to turn all of Coventry University into a meshed real-world/virtual-world learning environment.

Since I utilized the above visual as the opening illustration, he has swiftly recognized the picture “The Dual Reality Lab” and asked if there was a connection between Lifton’s work (Joshua Lifton, Responsive Environments Group - MIT Media Lab) and the SGI effort.

My immediate (and “jumping to conclusion”) response was:

“You are absolutely right! The picture does belong to The Dual Reality Lab. However there's no connection between the two efforts (to my best knowledge, at least). The picture is simply the best visual I could find to represent the SGI initiative, where students at Coventry can activate educational content based on their physical movement across the real campus or the digital movement across the virtual campus.”

I believe my today’s earlier response deserves a revisit: there are more commonalities between the two efforts than a great picture.

“Dual reality" is the concept of maintaining two worlds, one virtual and one real that reflect, influence, and merge into each other by means of deeply embedded sensor/actuator networks. Both the real and virtual components of a dual reality are complete unto themselves, but are enriched by their mutual interaction.

The dual reality concept, in turn, incorporates two key ideas – that data streams from sensor networks are the raw materials that will make media creation as trivial as media consumption and media communication, and that online 3D virtual worlds are an ideal venue for the manifestation of the content generated from such sensor data streams.

Instrumenting the real world with a sensor/actuator network is a necessary step toward enabling a dual reality. Just as microcontrollers can be found in nearly every type of electronic device manufactured today, sensors will soon be embedded in every part of our environment.

The next step in Coventry's plans to create a smart campus by 2010 is to make the real world and virtual world interoperable with position matching across the worlds. The SGI hopes to help students telecommute with avatars positioning themselves next to real people.

After all, maybe there are dual reality promises across the board.


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Apply Group: Serious Games Events Being Assembled For 2008

Serious Games events for the next 12 months

Via: Apply Group

Towards Best Practice: Designing & Developing Serious Games for Learning & Communications - London NOW BOOKING for 31st January.

Event Details

This event addresses what makes a serious game truly effective - including measuring efficacy across a range of business and educational games and across platforms: the 3D web, virtual worlds and handhelds.

Learn from the market leading developers and clients what best design and development practice truly is, setting the bar higher.

Hear from seasoned games developers who have developed educational games, what you need to think about for effective design and how the retail educational games will impact your business.

Take-away a design and project plan that helps you to maximise your return on serious games.

Apply Serious Games 2008 - London Date TBC

ASG is entering its third year!

The conference was conceived and is sponsored by angils (the alliance for new generation interactive leisure and simulations): a networking trade association started in 2003 for organizations involved in services and technologies that are - and will be - important to a range of new and emerging applications across simulations, games, productivity tools and virtual worlds.

Apply Group has worked with angils to realise the conference, bringing together the key stakeholders in Serious Games. ASG is the first major conference of its type where the emphasis is on bringing these experts together to explore the opportunities, efficacy and challenges associated with building and deploying dynamic serious games environments.

Full Programme & Schedule Coming Soon

Key themes

• Effective immersive environments & virtual worlds


• Casual games


• Connected systems


• Innovation in action with many case studies


• The global market
  

There are plenty of case studies, debate and panel discussions from leading experts about to be lined up where you will be able to ask questions directly of the speakers, plus the opportunities for networking over refreshments.

Provisional programme details coming soon and Call for Papers - Now Open

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Seeriously: Serious Games From China

Serious Games challenging us to play a better future

Client: Yi Da, Chinese Logistics Company. Virtual 3D game in which logistic processes are simulated. Users can log on, choose their own virtual character and perform related tasks accordingly. The game offers a wide variety of fun and educational game play and is built for training purposes.

Via: Seriously

Serious Games and Virtual Worlds are at the start of something that will change how people live, train and work in the future.

Seeriously was founded in 2005 to make these new emerging technologies available to consumers and companies worldwide. Seeriously is based in Shanghai, China, and part of worldwide leading online gaming portal operator Spill Group.

SPILL GROUP is the world’s leading generator of online game traffic. They own more than 20 online game portals worldwide. According to their site informaon, "over 55 million unique visitors per month go for gaming entertainment to their portals."

The current portfolio contains 2.000 free online games of all genres; casual games, skill games and download games.

Client: Morgan Stanley. Research analysts and Portfolio managers, can interact with each other engaging in an investment banking 3D simulation world. The game features a Wall Street like integration with stock exchange simulation

Second Life presence was built in which visitors can make use of communication functionalities like sending text messages to real life phones and watching digital television. Small games integrated to make the experience more engaging.

Marc van der Chijs, CEO, set up Spill Group Asia early 2006 as a subsidiary of the leading Dutch online casual gaming company Spill Group. Spill Group Asia is in charge of all Spill Group's online gaming websites and game development companies in Asia. Marc came to China 8 years ago as an expatriate for DaimlerChrysler. Later he set up several companies in China, among others he is co-founder of China's leading online video site Tudou.com.

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Serious Games Combining Mobile Learning & Virtual Worlds

Serious Games challenging us to play a better future

Via: Virtual World News

The Serious Games Institute has partnered with Cisco and Giunti Labs to turn all of Coventry University into a meshed real-world/virtual-world learning environment.

To help the Institute build a platform for modeling the real campus, students at Coventry can activate educational content based on their physical movement across the real campus or the digital movement across the virtual campus.

The system is based on Cisco wireless location services and Giunti's learn eXact content management system. Any existing digital content can be applied to either mobile or virtual learning devices based on location. "Blending mobile and virtual worlds technologies has unmatched potential for producing effective technology-based learning," said Giunti Labs' CEO, Fabrizio Cardinali.

The learn eXact Suite - learn eXact is a powerful Learning Content Management System (LCMS) that allows you to speed up the processes of creating, indexing, storing, revising and managing eLearning and Mobile Learning content.

The next step in Coventry's plans to create a smart campus by 2010 is to make the real world and virtual world interoperable with position matching across the worlds. The SGI hopes to help students telecommute with avatars positioning themselves next to real people.

"We set ourselves the goal of transforming Coventry University into a destination of choice for students and academics from around the world," said John Latham, pro vice-chancellor for business development at the university. "Supported by the technology and expertise provided by Cisco and Giunti Labs, our SGI has a number of advanced virtual learning capabilities, such as drag-and-drop positioning of digital learning contents, three-dimensional hotspot positioning, and triggering and tracking of learning content by an avatar. We also have the tools and functionality for the creation, packaging and management of Shareable Content Object Reference Model [SCORM]-compliant contents which can be contextualized and delivered to Windows Mobile 5 personal digital assistants within the SGI Cisco Wi-Fi network. And we can also reuse location based content also in other virtual worlds platforms, such as Forterra and Second Life."

About the Serious Games Institute (SGI)

The Serious Games Institute is the first of three new Institutes being opened at the Coventry University Technology Park. The SGI, the first of its kind in the UK, aims to support regional development through bringing together subject matter experts, applied research and dedicated showcasing and demonstration facilities to support the development and application of virtual world applications, game-based learning and interactive digital media resources for a range of uses.

The Serious Games Institute is a regional development project, founded by Advantage West Midlands, which has grown out of a desire to identify and encourage growth areas for West Midlands industry. With computer games companies already being well established in the Leamington Spa and Solihull areas, many of the skills in evidence in this sector can be transferred to the serious games sector.

The SGI is a centre of excellence and a hub for serious games which aims to provide access to:

• Relevant applied research through Coventry University;

• Office space for serious games companies, and

• Facilities for demonstrating and showcasing serious games and immersive environments.

About Giunti Labs

Giunti is unique in the international publishing industry.

In 1497, Giunti publishers and typographers in Florence, together with others in Venice, began modern book manufacturing. Over the years Giunti has built a ‘historical catalogue’ of huge dimensions, through a gradual process of ‘fusion’ of different publishers, but also through the creation of new brands, including Giunti Labs. Giunti Editore now includes 20 companies in the publishing sector.

Giunti Labs, which has its EMEA headquarters in Italy and offices in Milton Keynes (UK), Frankfurt (Germany) and in Boston (US), provides a wide range of services, in response to any content, learning and knowledge management need, covering:

• Content production

• Research and development

• Technological solutions for content, learning & knowledge management

• Architectural and technological solutions for mobile & wireless

• Training and consulting

Giunti Labs provides the learn eXact® suite, Europe's leading e-learning and mobile learning content management technology. This suite is interoperable with all major vendor-driven and open source LMS and VLE solutions in the market including Plateau, Oracle, SumTotal, Saba, WebCT, Blackboard, Sakai, LRN and Moodle.

Moreover, Giunti Labs does not just adhere to the international standards relating to the LMS/LCMS world, it is one of the organisations that helps to determine and drive these standards: co-writing and developing them.

Giunti Labs plays a key role in most of the international institutions for the definition of eLearning specifications (IEEE LTSC, ISO/IEC JTC1/SC36, CEN/ISSS WSLT, AICC, IMS, ADL-SCORM and OKI).

About Giunti Labs’ learn eXact® suite

Giunti Labs’ learn eXact is an e-learning and mobile learning content management system (LCMS) that enables users to create, manage and deliver content based on learning objects, XML, standards and international specifications. It delivers learning content to location-based mobile devices, interactive TV and wearable computer devices. Now the solution with its new eXact VLW plug in also delivers standard learning contents into 3D Virtual Worlds.


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Joyful Learning: Serious Games Reach Nordic Countries

Serious Games challenging us to play a better education

Via: Arctic Startup - HappyWise Shows Way In Doing Serious Business With Games

Nordic countries have versatile expertise for cross-sector excellence in the emerging field of Serious Games.

The Nordic Serious Games Project aims at uniting and strengthening the Nordic serious games industry with various collaborative actions for raising Nordic countries in the forefront of the field.

The project explores Nordic Serious Games potential. The focus of the project is in discovering and analyzing quality practices as well as game concepts and prototypes in the field.

The project also aims at building novel business models and envisioning roadmaps for this technological field, which is closely related to the public sector. An essential challenge is to find and connect interested actors for building an active and inspiring network.

The diverse actors in the field must be found and connected with a network. The main activities include compilation of a wiki-based Serious Games community portal, organizing of a series of workshops, Second Nordic Serious Games Conference and communication for wider audiences for making them aware of this field.

The aim is also to participate in the European Living Lab process for starting a Nordic Living Lab for user-centered Serious Games design.

The Nordic Serious Games Project is a co-operation between the Agora Center and the Institute of Educational Research in the University of Jyväskylä. The project partners are Nokia Research Center, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, Learning Lab Denmark, The Danish University of Education, Swedish National Defence College, Norut IT AS, University of Oslo (National Network for IT-Research and Competence in Education), Serious Games Interactive and HappyWise Oy .The NSG project is funded by the Creative Industries programme of Nordic Innovation Center.

HappyWise Oy

HappyWise Ltd. develops Serious Games aimed at the educational sector and Corporate (training) markets. Games with educational content are motivating tools for learning in various fields and industry branches. Games are also suitable for any age group. They can be tailored to meet the organisation or educational institution specific demands.

In addition to games HappyWise offers services related to the game development process such as graphic design. HappyWise is also active in networking with universities who conduct research on educational games.

The HappyWise team consists of computer scientists, game designers, content providers, graphic designers and business expertise, as well as theme specific experts for each project. The company was founded in spring 2006 and currently the team consists of 10 people. HappyWise is based in Oulu, the famous IT-city of Finland, and is owned by six of its employees.

In addition sustainable development is a significant factor in the company's values and can also be seen in the theme of the main product, Growwwings.net game.

Growwwings.net is a cross curricular internet based educational game, whereby players learn about nature and how to care for it in a sustainable way. The game also helps to understand why it is important for people to respect nature. The game is set in a village-like environment and consists of several interconnected sections. The player has his own virtual garden to tend and to protect from various challenges. In Spring 2007 the game was in the pilot phase and has been ready for schools to use since August 2007.

Joyful Learning Game for Schools

Growwwings.net is intended to children in the lower level of comprehensive school. The educational content of the current version of Growwwings.net is especially suited for children between 9-13 years. The game is a handy tool for teachers and a motivating learning environment for children. The game integrates ecological sustainable development to subjects like biology, geography, environmental studies, natural history, chemistry and physics. The concept is planned to be extended to both younger and older students.

Growwwings.net in teaching

Using the Growwwings.net educational game combines important themes of the National Curriculum in Finland such as integrating sustainable development into various subjects at school, and the effective use of IT in teaching.

Many schools are interested in increasing the amount of internet-based teaching. Due to its extensive information content and functionalities that serve different types of learning styles Growwwings.net is a ready-to-use material for web-based teaching.

The game contains the following themes: Water, Air, Energy, Cultivation, Natural diversity, Recycling, Sustainable development and Tips for action.

Growwwings.net has been developed in cooperation with teachers of comprehensive schools. The information content sources consist of research material and information from public authorities as well as from reliable actors in the field of environmental protection.

Read more on the homepage of Growwwings.net.


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Serious Games For Training Critical HAZMAT Skills

Serious Games challenging us to play a better future

Forterra Today's Press Release - National Institutes of Health Award Contract to Forterra Systems to Evaluate Gaming for Training Critical HAZMAT Skills

Forterra Systems, (see also my prior posts Forterra's Olive: An Attractive Platform for Serious Gaming, Serious Games To Address National Security Challenges and Serious Games To Support The Mission Of US Intelligence Community ) today announced that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded a contract to the Company to study the use of commercial gaming technologies to produce a distributed, multi-player, on-line virtual environment for training individuals and teams in critical HAZMAT skills.

Under the NIH contract, a hazardous material (HAZMAT) emergency response scenario will be designed using gaming technology to test the basic principles of the study and to gather qualitative and quantitative data to measure the efficacy of the technology.

Forterra has proposed a solution to NIH that leverages developments in the commercial gaming industry and adapts these rapidly growing technologies to produce an online virtual simulation in which individuals and teams collaborate to increase their readiness to deal with HAZMAT emergencies.

The NIH-sponsored study will include a training task analysis to determine a proper instructional system design. User tests will be conducted with target audiences and the results will be analyzed to determine, among other outcomes, what the impact is on cost effectiveness and distance learning.

“The current obstacles to effective training are often geographic or cost driven, but there are also learning and retention limitations associated with traditional training that involve video and slide presentations as the mediums for this training. This experience is devoid of realism and engagement for participants,” said David Rolston, Forterra’s Chief Executive Officer.

“As part of this NIH contract, we will develop a distributed learning and instructional environment that will put users in an engaging and realistic virtual world where they are able to collaborate with other people rather than be inundated with boring web pages and endless PowerPoint slides. A rich, interactive environment based on game technology offers the most effective, cost-efficient way to facilitate the rapid transfer of learning and the development and sustainment of necessary skills.”

In addition, the focus of the NIH study recognizes that new training technologies are needed that allow remote access to large audiences and highly qualified trainers. As a result, Forterra will integrate the subject matter expertise of Rohde & Associates and the instructional system design expertise of the Federation of American Scientists to create a compelling on-line immersive training experience in which to practice the interactions of HAZMAT first responders, incident commanders and site workers.

“We are excited to be involved with this important study sponsored by NIH,” said Dr. Henry Kelly, President of the Federation of American Scientists. “People acquire new knowledge and complex skills from game play. We as an organization are working on strategies that harness the potential of emerging technologies to improve how people teach and learn. Gaming technology, like the virtual world platform developed by Forterra, provides a tool that can be leveraged by instructors and subject matter experts to provide a rich environment for the rapid transfer of learning.”

Forterra’s OLIVE™ (On-Line Interactive Virtual Environment) software platform enables end-users and partners to support realistic, collaborative, 3D Internet solutions.

Applications developed using OLIVE allow users to sit at their PCs with a network connection, log on, and appear in an interactive, virtual environment represented as a fully animated avatar (3D character controlled by the user).

Through a choice of simple keyboard, mouse or game controller interface, users are able to navigate through realistic environments, access and deploy equipment, drive/fly vehicles, don personal protective equipment, and communicate with one another. As a scenario is executed, the results are captured by a built in session replay system that support debrief so users can learn from the simulation exercise.

“This virtual gaming technology from Forterra will bring the HAZMAT classroom to the student, reaching them at locations that are currently unreachable through contemporary delivery systems, enhancing the experience through interactive discussion and virtual task accomplishment,” said Mike Rohde, Principal of Rohde & Associates.

“The OLIVE platform possesses the ability to construct an entirely new paradigm and regime for hazardous material training. Ultimately, the system has the potential to become a central point for the accumulation and archiving of instructional materials and case histories, becoming a virtual nation-wide lessons-learned center for the ‘all hazards’ and emergency response industry.”


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RealWorld: Serious Games With Unprecedented Realism

Serious Games for highly realistic behaviors and complex scenarios

Via: Serious Games Source

Total Immersion Software selects Kynapse for DARPA's simulation platform RealWorld

What Makes A Game Immersive?

Like a book you can’t put down, an immersive game won’t let you go. To be immersed is to be enveloped in the environment of the game. Whether by taking action or thinking through strategy, whether a fantasy game or flight sim, the environment, the action, the choices available to the game player must be true to the world they are in.

Fidelity, anticipation, surprise are all results of the immersive experience. Truly, game immersion is in the mind of the player.

Kynogon, the leader in Artificial Intelligence solutions for the game and simulation industries, announced yesterday that Total Immersion Software has selected Kynapse as its AI middleware solution for the RealWorld simulation platform.

RealWorld, developed by Total Immersion Software under contract to the

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), delivers an intelligent tool suite providing drag and drop ease to rapidly create simulations so real that it can be used to train teams of professionals to handle complex situations such as military missions, rescue operations, and natural disasters.

"We have been very impressed by the Total Immersion Software vision. They perfectly combine military expertise and gaming technologies to reach the ambitious goals of "next generation" military simulations," says Pierre Pontevia, CTO of Kynogon. "We expect our automatic path data generator to contribute highly to one of the most ambitious goals of RealWorld: the rapid and low-cost generation of simulation scenarios for real-life mission rehearsal."

"Adding the AI capabilities of Kynapse to our RealWorld platform will help the users create quickly highly realistic behaviors and complex scenarios" said Pete Bonanni, CEO of Total Immersion Software. "It is one more essential step in our strategy to bring the best-in-class technology from the video game industry to the serious game arena."

RealWorld - Ready-To-Order World for Battlefield Training

The military has been using games to get its troops ready for battle since World War II. But mostly, when the soldiers have plugged in to train up, they do so in generic simulated environments – “whereveristans,” if you will. And it takes forever to build those pixilated places.

But the folks at Total Immersion Software have a different approach in mind: digital battlefields that look just like the ones soldiers are about to hit, and can be whipped up in a few hours. They call it RealWorld.

The way to pull it off is to let the troops design their own pixilated rehearsal spaces. To give the soldiers a set of software tools to they can drag-and-drop together satellite images, ground photos, and drone footage to make a pixilated battlefield.

Think of it like Second Life, but for war.

RealWorld's intelligent tool suite empowers users to develop custom scenarios with drag-and-drop ease. In the hands of game makers, this flexibility means the ability to deliver robust immersive games in months rather than years. By compressing the time between the idea and the final game, our creative teams can deliver more titles in more genres for more platforms — at a lower cost.

RealWorld represents a new business model for game development and a seismic shift in how games are made.

RealWorld's modular architecture enables developers to easily craft many types of multiplayer games. The Scenario Author rapidly constructs the environment with actual geospatial information from numerous data sources, including elevation models, aerial photography, satellite imagery, 2D vector and 3D building data.

The system enables people to plan, rehearse and review scenarios as well as control the physics, artificial intelligence (AI) and business logic in the simulation or game.

About Kynogon

Kynogon develops and markets Kynapse, a unique A.I. engine.

Kynapse is used by the world's leading game developers such as Electronic Arts, Activision, Bethesda Softworks, Lionhead Studios, Real Time Worlds, SEGA, Sony Online Entertainment, Spark Unlimited and Turbine, for the development of their AAA titles.

Kynapse has been used in the development of more than 60 of some of the best known game titles including Crackdown, Alone in the Dark 5, Fable 2, Sacred 2 and The Lord of the Rings Online™: Shadows of Angmar™.
Kynapse has also been selected by industry leaders such as EADS and British Aerospace Systems as their preferred AI solution. For more information please visit www.kynogon.com.

About Total Immersion Software, Inc.

Total Immersion Software is a game platform and tools innovator expanding the boundaries of fidelity and flexibility in game making.

The RealWorld platform enables Total Immersion Software to develop AAA titles with unprecedented speed and realism. Total Immersion Software can accelerate the creation of blockbuster titles in both the entertainment market and the training, simulation and mission rehearsal markets. For more information please visit http://www.totimm.com/

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Global Kids: Building A Serious Games Focused Curriculum

Serious Games challenging us to play a better education

Via: Global Kids' Digital Media Initiative - Motorola Foundation Grants $3.5 Million to Inspire Next Generation of Inventors

Motorola announced this past week the recipients of their new Foundation Grants program. Global Kids was picked as one of the recipients with their proposal of creating further virtual world focused curriculum, this time spotlighting teaching science through virtual worlds.

Read the press release below.

Science, Technology, Engineering and Math Educational Programs Will Reach Children Across the Country

SCHAUMBURG, Ill. – 14 Nov. 2007 – The Motorola Foundation announced today the recipients of its Innovation Generation Grants, a $3.5 million initiative to inspire young people to embrace science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).

The 2007 Innovation Generation Grants support 106 breakthrough programs that use innovative approaches to develop interest in technology-related fields while strengthening leadership and problem-solving skills. The grants target programs that encourage girls and ethnic groups currently underrepresented in technology fields. Of the recipient programs:

▪ 41 percent serve African American students

▪ 19 percent reach Hispanic youth

▪ 31 percent specifically target girls

“Motorola wants to show the next generation of inventors that science is fun, challenging and possible,” said Eileen Sweeney, director of the Motorola Foundation. “Through the Innovation Generation Grants, organizations across the country are helping students develop a passion for science and math by making the connection between the cool technology they enjoy every day and the educational foundation they will need for greater success in the classroom and beyond.

”According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, jobs requiring science, engineering or technical training will increase 24 percent between 2004 and 2014 to 6.3 million, making critical thinkers and practical problem solvers fluent in today’s technology even more crucial.

The programs supported by the Innovation Generation Grants range from after-school and summer science enrichment programs to activities that promote innovative technology use and teacher-training initiatives, including:

* Global Kids, Inc. in New York will develop and test a high school curriculum that will enable educators to utilize the virtual world of Second Life to engage students in exploring global science, technology and programming.

* Half Moon Bay High School in Half Moon Bay, Calif., will implement a new way of teaching algebra in Spanish that engages students in learning math concepts using new technology and hands-on learning, inspiring interest and pursuit of math, science and technology careers.

* The Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum in New York will work with four public schools from the Young Women’s Leadership Foundation to develop curriculum, train teachers and host student workshops in school classrooms and aboard the former aircraft carrier turned museum to cultivate a deep interest in science among young women.

* The Marine Science Institute in Redwood City, Calif., will engage students in conducting scientific exploration of the San Francisco Bay on its 90-foot research vessel, at its pier lab, in the classroom and through the Internet.

* The National Society of Black Engineers in Alexandria, Va., will meld the engineering design process with math and science knowledge in a fun and interactive environment at its Summer Engineering Experience for Kids (SEEK) Camp.

* Working In The Schools’ (WITS) new Chicago workplace mentoring program will provide a literacy program with a math and science focus, matching elementary school students one-to-one with business volunteers.

“With our Innovation Generation Grant, we are involving girls at an early age in hands-on design and engineering experiences," said Kathy Cloninger, CEO for Girl Scouts of the USA, which will launch new FIRST LEGO League teams across the country and expand its Design and Discovery Camps with its grant. "Thanks to Motorola, we can challenge traditional perceptions of girls' abilities and close the well-documented gender gap – so they can continue to strengthen their role as members of the STEM workforce.”

Beyond funding, Motorola is linking recipients of the Innovation Generation Grants with each other through a new company-hosted portal site that helps expand and enhance the global network of advocates for innovation in science, technology, engineering and math education.

Many of the grants also will engage Motorola engineers and scientists as volunteers to guide, mentor, tutor and provide valuable insight into the opportunities and excitement of their line of work.

Since 2000, Motorola Foundation has contributed more than $35 million in grants to a variety of programs that expand student access to science and technology fields.

For a complete list of Innovation Generation Grant recipients, visit www.motorola.com/giving.

About Motorola Foundation

The Motorola Foundation is the independent charitable and philanthropic arm of Motorola. With employees located around the globe, Motorola seeks to benefit the communities where it operates. The company achieves this by making strategic grants, forging strong community partnerships, fostering innovation and engaging stakeholders. Motorola Foundation focuses its funding on education, especially science, technology, engineering and math programming.


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Second Slice: Serious Games Embed Ambitious Marketing

Serious Games challenging us to play a new marketing platform

Via: One Up Marketing Ltd.

and One Degree – Internet Marketing Insiders

A new Canadian online digital magazine, Second Slice, focuses on issues of marketing in virtual worlds.

According to its publisher and VP at One Up Marketing, Mario Parisé. Second Slice is “an attempt to give marketers who are active in virtual worlds a stronger and more unified voice. It all got started when the more mainstream business press decided to go on a Second Life bashing spree, ridiculing marketers and businesses going in-world.”

The goal is to foster discussion and debate that takes marketers, as an industry, and as people, to entirely new levels that we cannot even foresee.

First Issue Contributors

Sarah “Intellagirl Tully” Robbins has pitched in an article on how virtual worlds fit into the big picture of Web 2.0.

Kate Trgovac is contributing a multi-part series on what marketers can and must learn from indigenous fashion designers in “Our New Competition”.

Nic Mitham has written a multi-part piece “A Buyer’s Guide to Virtual Retailing”.

I would specially highlight Joseph Jaffe’s article “Top 10 Reasons why Marketers hate Second Life”, which includes pearls such as All brands are islands (as opposed to: no man is an Island), Control is not an option and Rabbit holes are not great for people not called Alice.

Second Slice Aspiration

Publishers hope that reading Second Slice means one will be as knowledgeable, if not more so, than anyone else when it comes to marketing in virtual worlds. It should ultimately act as a platform for teaching and debate.

They also hope people contribute.

Contributing to Second Slice helps spread your name and your personal brand as an expert on virtual world marketing. As a bonus, all contributors get the following benefits:

Any advertising revenue generated gets divided amongst all contributors. Second Slice does not keep any of the revenues, even to cover costs.
All contributors get free ad space in the issues they contribute to

If you have something you want to say about marketing in virtual worlds, get your opinion out there. Forget objective journalism. Write about what you believe. Objectivity will be reached when people with opposing viewpoints also contribute.

How to contribute

Deadline for the next issue is DECEMBER 8th '07.
Send your submissions to Evelyne Gervais at evelyne@oneupmarketing.ca.

Technorati Tags:serious games seriousgames future-making serious games virtual worlds

Serious Games Metrics: Understanding Customer Behavior In Virtual Worlds

Serious Games and Serious Metrics

Each point in the figure above represents a visitor's position on a one minute interval. Over time, this creates a type of heat map where a land owner can determine where visitors spend time in their virtual land. Red points highlight where a visitor entered an extended idle period.

Via: Maya Realities

The importance of understanding customer behavior is critical for a successful business. Until recently, the necessary tools have not existed for virtual world environments like Second Life.

Maya Realities allows your 3-D web site based in Second Life to connect with visitors at different levels of analysis. As the emerging 3-D Internet takes shape, this could become a way to verify the return on your investment.

Each step in the above figure represents the total number of unique avatars that spent time on your virtual land summed over the hour.

Maya Realities was formed in April 2007 and focuses on creating the necessary tools to understanding customer behavior in a virtual world environment like Second Life.

Their customers are businesses owning a minimum one “sim” land investment within Second Life. Once they process your order, a consent form is sent authorizing the deployment of their sensor grid. According to their website,upon receipt of the signed consent form, within one business day a setup package is delivered in-world to your organization’s point of contact with detailed instructions.

The above figure show how many frames per second the Second Life physics engine is able to calculate. A number of 45 equates to normal operation of your virtual land. If the number drops below 15, your land is in danger of rebooting.

Also, a kiosk must be installed at a location of your choosing that informs visitors of your organization’s privacy policy and provides visitors the option of opting out of personally identifiable information collection.

This kiosk is not intended to be an advertisement for Maya Realities and can be customized with your organization’s branding. According to Maya Realities site, once initial metrics are collected, your web account should be initialized within three to five business days.

In addition, they offer a survey system where virtual land owners create customized questionnaires.

This figure shows the top visiting countries from around the world. It helps determine what languages to offer your products and services or what cultures warrent focused resources.

They are also developing an API that allows a company to keep track of arbitrary interactions with virtual objects. For example, how often an object is purchased, or how often a note card dispenser gives information.

Maya Realities currently analyzes 724 regions, tracking 264680 unique avatars, from 23138714 measurements.


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Serious Games To Experience Life As A Bartender

Serious Games Future Play 2007 Competition - Nominations

Via: Drinks DS

Following my prior post Future Play 2007 Competition Embraces Serious Games, Drinks was nominated in all three categories of Future Play 2007 - Student, Indie and Serious Games.

Experience life as a bartender. Mix, shake and stir your way through the city nightlife - as you work your way from decrepit biker bars to ever fancier pubs and classy nightclubs.

Drinks is a bartender simulator for the Nintendo DS, currently being developed by a team of students at Gotland University, Sweden.

The development team put together a hype machine blog at http://drinks-ds.com.scorpionshops.com/ they intend to use as a plattform for marketing and introducing Drinks to prospective clients, gamers and competition.

DrinkS won also the hearts and minds of the masses, embodied in the People’s Choice Award.

Game Characters

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Serious Games: Bigger Than Movies In Netherlands

Serious Games challenging us to play a better future

The Center for Advanced Gaming and Simulation is a leading edge research center that advances the state-of-the-art in gaming, simulation and virtual reality. Its goal is to create technology for highly effective learning and training experiences. For this purpose Utrecht University, the Utrecht School of the Arts and TNO combine their creative talents and unique professional skills in the fields of computer science, information science, psychology, liberal arts and game design.

Via: Sered Second Life - (Serious) Games Booming Business in The Netherlands

On Webwereld's yesterday news: "Nederlandse Gamesindustrie groter dan filmbranche", which means: in The Netherlands games are bigger than movies - in some respects.

The article cites the chairman of the Dutch gaming industry organization NLGD, who claims that, in 2007, the game industry will employ over 1500 people and generate an annual estimated turnover of one billion dollars - more than the whole Dutch movie industry.

Of course the Dutch movie industry isn't exactly Hollywood, but it's still significant when something new overtakes the old.

What makes this really interesting, however, is that it's especially the 'Serious Games segmen (training, simulation, education) that do well, creating tmost of the games economic activity.

One of the major universities in The Netherlands, the University of Utrecht, has created the Center for Advanced Gaming and Simulation (AGS) in partnership with the Utrecht School of the Arts and TNO.

The ambition of AGS is to be the most productive and most cited research center in Europe and to be the preferred supplier of knowledge for companies dealing with gaming and simulation for education, training, and entertainment.

For more information please download the AGS brochure.

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Serious Games For Brain Rehabilitation

Serious Games rewiring brain’s pathways

VRET (Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy) is effective for patients with acrophobia, arachnophobia and fear of flying. The effectiveness of VRET in other anxiety disorders like claustrophobia, fear of public speaking, fear of driving, post-traumatic stress disorder, and agoraphobia also holds promise for the future.

In the science-fiction thriller The Matrix, the heroes “plugged in” to a virtual world. While their bodies rested in reclining chairs, their minds fought martial-arts battles, dodged bullets and drove motorcycles in an elaborately constructed software program.

This cardinal virtue of virtual reality—the ability to give users the sense that they are “somewhere else”—can be of great value in a medical setting.

Researchers are finding that some of the best applications of the software focus on therapy rather than entertainment. In essence, virtual reality can ease pain, both physical and psychological.

Phobias

Millions of people suffer from phobias that limit their activities and negatively impacting their lives. Many seek psychological treatment in order to manage or conquer their fears. For years, a popular form of treatment was exposure therapy, in which a therapist would expose a patient to stimuli related to his fear in a controlled environment. In many cases, patients would learn to manage their anxiety through repeated exposure coupled with encouragement from a therapist.

Exposure therapy is time consuming. Often it's also expensive and inconvenient, and it can compromise patient confidentiality. For example, treating a patient with aerophobia, or the fear of flying, usually involves a trip to the airport. It might take several visits for a therapist and patient to make their way through security to a gate. Eventually both have to get on a plane and fly to a destination. Now that you have to be a ticketed passenger to pass through security at airports, it can be prohibitively expensive to treat a patient with exposure therapy. Because patients and therapists travel together, the patient's confidentiality is compromised because the public has the opportunity to see the therapy in action.

Virtually Better, Inc. uses virtual therapy to treat a patient's fear of flying

One alternative to traditional exposure therapy is virtual-reality exposure therapy. This kind of therapy uses a virtual reality unit to simulate situations that cause anxiety in phobia patients. It has several advantages over traditional therapy. Doctors don't have to leave their offices. Scheduling treatment is easier. It's less expensive in the long run. And patients are often more willing to participate in a program they know will allow them to deal with their fears in a nonphysical setting. Since patients can undergo therapy inside the doctor's office, confidentiality isn't an issue.

SPIDERWORLD is a virtual-reality program designed to help phobic patients overcome their fear of spiders. The patient wears a headset that shows a virtual tarantula (screen shot from program is shown in background). To provide tactile feedback, the system tracks the positions of a toy spider (suspended by the author, at left) and the patient’s hand, allowing her to “touch” the virtual creature.

Dr. Larry Hodges, a virtual reality computer scientist at the University of North Carolina -- Charlotte, became interested in a possible therapeutic application of VR technology in the early 1990s. He approached Dr. Barbara Rothbaum, a professor of Psychiatry at Emory University, and together they collaborated on a project that would test VR technology's efficacy in recreating patients' fears. They decided to design a simulation for patients suffering from acrophobia, or a fear of heights. Dr. Hodges felt that it would be relatively easy to create a program giving the illusion of height compared to other, more complex fears.

FEAR OF PUBLIC SPEAKING can be treated using a virtual-reality program developed by Virtually Better, a software company based in Decatur, Ga., that leases its programs to psychologists and psychiatrists. Ken Graap, the company’s chief executive, practices a speech in front of a virtual audience, shown on his headset and on the computer monitor.

When healthy volunteers received pain stimuli, functional magnetic resonance imaging showed large increases in activity in several regions of the brain that are known to be involved in the perception of pain (near right and below). But when the volunteers engaged in a virtual-reality program during the stimuli, the pain-related activity subsided (far right and bottom).

Autism

Avatars Help Asperger Syndrome Patients Learn to Play the Game of Life

Computer simulations help Asperger Syndrome patients work through difficult situations in a safe, virtual world.

At the UT Dallas Center for BrainHealth, Adolescents and Young Adults with Autism Practice Their Social Skills in Virtual Worlds

A technology associated with fantasy worlds is helping young adults with autism in the hard reality of life.

Researchers at the University of Texas at Dallas Center for BrainHealth are working with patients diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome using virtual reality training.

People with the disorder have normal intelligence, but they suffer from a variety of social cognitive defects, including an inability to read nonverbal clues and adapt well to change.

These young adults -- considered to have a form of autism -- face many obstacles in life. Interviewing for a job or asking somebody for a date can be monumentally difficult.

To help them succeed, researchers from the center have created a virtual world for them to practice their social skills. Each person creates an avatar/character in his or her likeness, who then navigates through a virtual world, interacting with real people represented by their own avatars.

The virtual world includes settings commonly encountered in everyday life such as restaurants, shops, offices, apartment living and parks, where they can meet “new” people in a safe, controlled environment. For example, if the goal is applying for a job, their avatars substitute for them as they practice their interviewing skills with real people on-line until the fear and anxiety of a real encounter with a potential supervisor diminishes. This method is distinct from role-playing, which is a widely used method, in that they feel the same emotions as they would in direct encounters.

Virtual reality provides a therapy tool to rewire the brain through practical experiences that can be manipulated in ways the real world cannot, says Dr. Sandra Chapman, director of the Center for BrainHealth.

“The clinicians can change the virtual world to increase the complexity of the exercise, control for sensory overload, provide motivation, and record feedback,” said Chapman.
“Unlike other models of intervention, virtual world experiences provide a powerful way to learn new and more appropriate ways to respond to people in scenarios similar to those faced everyday,” she said.

“Our research in brain discoveries tells us that the brain can rewire its pathways with intensive practice grounded in experience – not by learning rules of how to interact – which has been the most common therapy practice heretofore,” said Chapman. “These young adults have the advantage of an intensive, interactive therapy to deal with problems they encounter everyday but in a safe setting to practice their social skills.”

Before entering the program, the participants undergo a series of brain imaging measures and neurocognitive tests. At first, they practice with their avatars with a clinician by their sides.

Quickly, new persons/avatars are introduced to the client and they begin to interact with family members and trusted friends. In addition to the virtual-world therapy, the young adults receive plenty of one-on-one coaching as they are trained to develop the insight to assess their own responses. At first, they watch recordings of their interactions, and gradually they are expected to modify their behaviors to fit the context in real time. The idea is to train their brains in new ways of thinking in contexts that closely mimic real life. That goal is to stop unhelpful responses before they can start.

“There are almost no treatment programs for older children or young adults with autism-related disorders,” said Chapman. “And yet this is a very good time to intervene because it is during adolescence that rapid brain development takes place – particularly in the areas supporting social-skill development.”

Although still in the early stages, the BrainHealth researchers say they can detect dramatic improvements with many of the participants in terms of simple awareness of their social problems, which they say is the first step to improvement.

Virtual-reality therapy has become a new tool in brain rehabilitation.

Therapists are using the gaming technology for people who suffer from autism spectrum disorders, schizophrenia, attention deficit disorder, addictions, strokes and brain injuries.

Sources:

• Hostuffworks
• Virtual Reality Better, Inc
• The University of Dallas At Texas
• Virtually-Reality Therapy

Technorati Tags:health games serious games seriousgames future-making serious games

Serious Games To Understand Nanothech Available For Download

Learning Nanotechnology through Serious Games

Via: NanoMission - 3 Games Modules Available For Download!

Following my prior post Serious Games To Understand Nanotech, PlayGen has made 3 game modules available for download: NanoMedicine, NanoScaling and Nano Imaging.

Game Context

Whilst most young people are familiar with nanotechnology as a fantastic futuristic technology involving miniature robots, very few have a realistic understanding of nanotechnology, realise its impact on the world around them, or are genuinely stimulated about its possibilities.

NanoMission is an interactive 3d learning game based on understanding nano-sciences and nanotechnology. The players are challenged in imaginative environments that promote learning about: Molecular building, Nano-Imaging, Creation of Nano-devices, Nano-medicine, Quantum Behaviour, Manipulating Electrons and Nano-Materials.

Approach

The key factor in the project is a firm grounding in real scientific facts and knowledge played out in an imaginative and exciting game world. As a result of close interactions with the scientific community, the game provides accurate three dimensional view of the nanoworld.

Get Involved

In order to make the game available to as many teachers and young people as possible, PlayGen is seeking sponsorship to cover development costs.

Play

The game's plot is to save the world from destruction by Dr.Nevil and his army of nano-machines and nano-materials, whilst the player stealthily learns about real world nanotechnology.

NanoImaging Module : Dr Goodlove and Lisa are in the science lab, as Lisa explains a serious environmental disaster heading to all fresh water lakes in the world. Dr Goodlove suspects extremely small organisms created by Dr Neevil are to blame and explains how a Scanning Electron Microscope can be used to identify them. The genetically modified algae is manifesting in huge blooms turning lakes red, toxic and fatal to humans and animals.

Your mission is to identify this evil in-order to develop a counter measure and save the world.

Learning Scale Module : The NanoMission scaling module enables the players to visualise and understand the spatial relationships between objects at all scales from the pico-meters through nano-meters all the way up to giga-meters.

Using the 3d environment the player can scroll back and forth through a wide range of familiar and interesting objects, from a single hydrogen atom all the way up to the Sun. Information about the objects and visual measurement references are provided, as is also a Character mode where the player can change their size to be the same as the current object’s and walk around to compare themselves with other objects of various sizes.

NanoMedicing Module : Join Dr Goodlove and Lisa in the demo of the first module, nanomedicine, select a suitable vehicle to deliver an anti cancer compound, and then navigate through the bloodstream to the site of the tumour, avoiding the body's natural defence mechanisms.

Have Fun

The game will be played through Nine challenges covering the following scientific concepts:

• Nano Medicine: How nanotechnology can be used to help fight disease.


• Nano Scale : What the nano scale is like from a first person point of view & how it differs from normal scale.


• Nano Imaging: Imaging at nano scale. Use of atomic force microscope, electron microscopes and scanning tunnelling microscope.


• Nano Manipulations: Modifying and manipulating atoms inside nano structures.


• Nano Electronics: How nanotechnology is used in electronics.


• Nano Machines: Devices created from atoms. Nano robots, nano sensors, nano motors, nano drug delivery systems, nano manipulators.


• Self-Assembly: Understanding self-assembly in the nanoworld.


• Quantum Theory and Quantum Computing : How objects behave at quantum level, wave particle duality, uncertainty principles, applications in quantum computing.


• Nano Materials : How tho create them and what are their properties.

Technorati Tags:serious games seriousgames future-making serious games education games

Amazon Kindle & Sony Reader: Serious Games For Wireless Reading

Serious Games take publications into the 21st Century

Via: Sci Fi Tech

Consumers have long been able to download audio and partial-text versions of books. But now, with a simple button click, a new electronic reading device is poised to do for books what Apple and the iPod did for music.

This week, Amazon officially announced its Kindle ebook reader.

For three years Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos has worked diligently to produce the completely wireless device, which has launched in stores last Monday.

The 10-ounce gadget can hold up to 200 books at a time. And while the mechanism has no monthly fees or wireless bills for purchasers to worry about, Bezos said the added value means consumers should not expect to see a drop in the Kindle's $399 price tag.

The Kindle is not Wi-Fi compatible. Instead, it has its own EV-DO network, called Whispernet, which is affiliated with Sprint. The Kindle not only allows users to download books, but also newspapers and magazines, and they can subscribe to blogs in less than a minute. Bezos said it will revolutionize the way people read, and it's simple to use.

From its inception, the Kindle has been geared toward "road warriors" and business travelers. The device includes a feature to download digital editions of The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal each morning

It has a browser, but only a very basic one. The Kindle's major competition right now is Sony's Digital eBook Reader. That device doesn't connect to the Internet at all, but converts Word documents into readable files for free (the Kindle will charge $.10 per document emailed), and makes it easy for you to read any pdf file.

Using E Ink technology, the Sony Reader is able to produce crisp black-and-white images and lines (along with four scales of gray), which make e-books as easy to read as printed material.

The Kindle is geared much more towards customers who want to buy books from Kindle's Amazon store, which has 90,000 books already, all under $10. Unlike with iTunes, any book that you download from Amazon onto the device is stored permanently on Amazon, in case your Kindle ever crashes.

Part of the Kindle's charm is that it aims to read like a real book with a paperlike display. But unlike old-school periodicals, users control the settings on the eBook. If you want to change the font size you can just come down and pick your font size.

While Bezos is enthused about his new product, the entrepreneur is already working on ways to improve the Kindle.

"The book is a highly evolved object, and it's fantastically, elegantly suited to its purpose, and our job is to even improve on something that is so elegant and so well done and that's what we're working on doing here. And I think people will be pleasantly impressed," Bezos said.

Click here for more information on the Kindle.


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Gaming's Most Influential Outsiders Include Serious Games Groundbreakers

Serious Games sphere of influence

Via: Educational Games Research

Next Generation has recently published an article entitled, “Gaming’s 30 Most Influential Outsiders", categorized by the field they are most closely associated with: Entertainers in Other Mediums, Politicos, Academics and Engineers. Under the Academics group, three out of six so-called "outsiders" are (I'm glad to acknowledge) Serious Games ground breakers.

Each group brings something different. The academics bring new uses for games. The engineers and scientists bring the technologies that drive the limits of game creation. The entertainers bring innovations from other mediums and greater visibility. The politicians bring the specter of regulation, but also ensure the industry’s continuing responsibility. In this era of the rampant growth and the proliferation of the “casual gamer,” (I would have added "Serious Gamer") these outside forces have become more prominent than ever.

The article states that, as huge and insular as the video gaming industry may be, it’s still susceptible to the influence of external cultural, political and social forces. In this huge feature, Next-Gen takes a look at the most important individuals driving these forces.

The following rules were used when considering people for inclusion:

• The figure cannot be primarily associated with any publisher, developer, or industry body. Figures primarily associated with game consumer advocacy groups and other bodies that exist specifically for a video game-related purpose were also excluded.
• They cannot work for any enthusiast publication or industry trade journal (one-off editorials describing his or her outside viewpoint did not count to this requirement)
• They cannot be aligned primarily with the “indie scene,” which for the sake of this analysis is being considered (whether accurately or inaccurately) as part of the games industry culture.

Find the full list at http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=7780&Itemid=2&limit=1&limitstart=0


Technorati Tags: serious games seriousgames future-making serious games serious games market

ICED! Update: Serious Games To Develop Empathy For Immigrants

Serious Games to walk a mile in immigrants shoes

Via: GamePolitics - Oklahoma TV News Looks at Immigration Game

GamePolitics brings to our attention that reporter Melissa Newton of Oklahoma City’s KOCO-5 offers a balanced look at the emotionally-charged topic of immigration.

The focus of Newton’s report is ICED! (I Can End Deportation), an upcoming online game published by New York-based nonprofit Breakthrough, which describes itself as “an international human rights organization that uses media, education and pop culture to promote values of dignity, equality and justice.”

"ICED! I Can End Deportation" is a downloadable, interactive, 3D role-playing-game that teaches players about the nature of the 1996 US immigration policies, which in the developers view would deny due process and violate fundamental human rights.

The game is aimed at high school and college age students and is scheduled for January 2008 release. The game will be downloadable from www.icedgame.com and the website will house educational materials about detention and deportation as well as information on how youth can impact policy decisions.

In ICED!, players will choose one of five characters to inhabit. These characters each have a different immigration status and ethnicity, to dispel the myth that the majority of immigrants are of Mexican descent and that only undocumented immigrants are being detained or deported.

The player can choose a character and listen to the character's back story. While level one loads, the player is given information on the 1996 laws and how these laws changed immigration policy denying judges the right to rule on immigration cases, the laws are mandatory. The character is then taken to level one- the city.
As the player navigates the city, s/he starts with 100 points as an immigrant youth. They must avoid immigration officers, make moral decisions and answer myth/fact questions about immigration.

If the player chooses incorrectly, these points decrease, and more immigration officers will chase the character. This increases the players chances of being placed in detention.

Civic points, which are gained by doing good tasks in the community, allow players to earn points, which delay, but do not overcome the inevitable- level two, detention.

In detention, the player will be confronted by moral choices, and myth & fact questions, as well as the potential danger of being sent to “the hole” a dark, solitary part of the detention center. Once in detention, the player endures separation from his/her family and experiences unjust conditions often for unknown amounts of time.

The game was built on Torque Game Engine and 3rd party software. Breakthrough and game designers brainstormed with over 100 NYC high school students. The initial drawings for locations, possible characters, as well as game strategies and obstacles were then combined and translated into the actual game environment, which consists of a city, and a detention center.

Breakthrough also consulted with various immigrant rights organizations, such as Families for Freedom and CAIR Coalition, as well as detainees regarding the content of our voice overs, character back stories and myth/fact questions. Breakthrough's goal was to make the game an authentic representation of immigrant experiences.


Technorati Tags:activism games serious games seriousgames future-making serious games

Serious Games Pioneering How We Will Learn & Work In The Future

Computer Games: a solitary past-time has morphed into a social intensive activity

For most people, video games mean entertainment, like TV or the movies. But their
true meaning may be much bigger, impacting every aspect of our world, from education
to business, society and culture

Via: IBM - The Future Of Computer Games

IBM explores how video games may impact every aspect of our world, from education to business, society and culture.

Gamer or Futurist?

What was one a solitary past-time for children has morphed into a social intensive activity. People play games with friends, with family, and in online communities.

Massively-multiplayer communities are stretching the boundaries of grid computing. Games are driving demand for an advanced new breed of computer technology, which can render 3D virtual environments in stunning fidelity.

To understand the true potential of games, think of them as pioneering a new environment—
for entertainment, but also for learning, commerce and culture.

These virtualization technologies have many powerful applications, e.g. from telemedicine to medical imaging. Eventually, most work may be performed inside rich, intensively collaborative environments that gamers are pioneering today.

Games Facts and Figures

As games get more popular...
Video games sales are driven by the games-console cycle. Every five to six years, console
manufacturers such as Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft introduce a new generation of equipment, triggering new growth in games sales. This year marks the start of a new console cycle. According to In-Stat/MDR, next-generation game-console shipments will hit 17m in 2006, 27m in 2007 and 33.5m in 2008.

Facts and figures are originated from two mains sources:

The Entertainment Software Association Report - "Essential Facts About The Computer And Video Game Industry", 2006 sales, demographic and usage data. PDF 65 Kb ...

...gaming is now for everyone
The stereotype of the solitary, adolescent gamer is seriously out of date. More than two-thirds of
gamers are adults, according to the Entertainment Software Association. People who grew up
on games continue to keep playing them— though the sorts of games they play tend to change.
And although the majority of gamers continue to be male, the numbers of female gamers is
rising even more quickly.

... and Irresistible! Markets, Models and Meta-Values in Consumer Electronics (December 2005).

Some online games have become huge virtual communities...
Online games like Everquest II and Dark Age of Camelot have attracted hundreds of thousands of subscribers. World of Warcraft became the fastest selling PC game in North America in 2004-2005, selling 240,000 copies through retailers in the first 24 hours. World of Warcraft has since recorded an astonishing peak of 500,000 concurrent users and 3.5m subscribers

Technorati Tags: serious games seriousgames future-making serious games serious games market

Microsoft Shaping The Serious Games Movement Into A Multi-Billion Dollar Market

The sector may now explode driven by game-based training efficiencies

As Microsoft Corp. announced on Wednesday plans for its new platform dubbed Microsoft ESP, available as of January 2008, “that enables the innovative use of visual simulations for immersive learning and decision-making, supports PC-based commercial off-the-shelf hardware and software, and enables simulations to be built faster and more cost-effectively, I’ve been considering two potential major implications for the Serious Games Market.

My very first thought – SG Market Size

Short, sweet and to the point, my very first thought was:“By no means would Microsoft join either a current $ 150 million dollar market or a to-be $ 1 billion market only in 2011”.

(Please refer to Adobe Serious Games Whitepaper By Anne Derryberry, page 6, for recent disputes on the SG market size).

My derived second thoughts – SG Business Models

Some analysts have stated that “despite the uncertainty of a standard go-to-market model for "serious games," most insiders are optimistic about their commercial future.”

However, the announcement embeds quite a few threads that could be easily pulled out to challenge the above statement, e.g.:

"With over half of today's work force having grown up playing immersive computer-based games, businesses, governments, trade schools and universities are seeking affordable solutions that enable immersive learning experiences.”

or

“Microsoft ESP makes it easy and cost-effective for organizations to apply the advantages of games-based technology to serious learning and training endeavors”,

or still

“The initial version of the platform focuses on Microsoft's established strength and expertise in aviation capabilities and is targeted to military and commercial aviation audiences. Future versions of Microsoft ESP will expand beyond aviation into ground and maritime operations, indoor and avatar-centric simulations for commercial, government and academic learning opportunities.”

As SG early developers know, potentially, every training or education program, every curriculum, could be reshaped by the use of "Serious Games."

The market so far has been essentially B2B oriented, where the majority of projects are "work-for-hire" or single-use efforts like those seen in traditional business software industries

As developers seek to find ways to make the market work for them, which implies new ways of doing business, raising capital, distributing, and selling product, it seems Microsoft is already shaping Serious Games from a movement into an emerging multi-billion dollar market.


Sources:
CNN Money
Microsoft ESP Debuts as a Platform for Visual Simulation

FUTURE-MAKING SERIOUS GAMES
New Business Models For Serious Games
Game Developers Chase Serious Games Business Models
Serious Games: A Sizeable Market - Update
Serious Games Sizeable Market, Virtual Worlds Sizeable Investment
Adobe Serious Games Whitepaper By Anne Derryberry


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SMARTlab: Serious Games For Social Inclusion

Eye Tunes - Compose and perform music simply by moving your eyes

Via: SMARTlab Project 'InterFACES' and MyTobii Technology

Early this year, I dedicated a post to TRUST: Serious Games Creating A Healing Environment, which focused on the most touching TRUST Project, created by Dr Lizbeth Goodman, Director of the SMARTlab Digital Media Institute, University of East London.

The TRUST project is an immersive game and healing environment for young people, with and without disabilities, in and out of hospital. As part of the project, SMARTlab researchers invented a unique haptic chair that moves the bodies of children who cannot control their own movement.

Now, I feel compelled to post on another SMARTlab's breakthrough.

The InterFACES research team, led by Professor Lizbeth Goodman and Dr Mick Donegan at UEL’s SMARTlab Digital Media Institute, have used a unique Mytobii eye scanning technology application which enables people with severe motor disabilities to compose and perform music simply by moving their eyes.

The InterFACES project has used this pioneering technology to create a ‘soundboard’ or ‘eye harp’ with communication grids and musical interface developed in collaboration with SpecialEffect, UEL PhD students with disabilities and professional musicians.

The SMARTlab team demonstrated the new musical application of the Mytobii technology, in a Live/Online Jam with Colm O'Snodaigh of KILA and special guests including Fay Patton (jazz musician), Clilly Castiglia (SMARTlab), Michela Ledgidge (Modfilms/SMARTlab) and very special guest Sapna Ramnani, who joined the jam using her eyes as her instrument and interface.

The next show is scheduled for Prague, where the team has been invited to present two major research papers at the Leonardo journal special anniversary event for MIT Press this November.

This phase of the InterFACES project was made possible by the Promising Researcher Fund of UEL, drawing on linked research at SMARTlab funded by BBC R&D ad NESTA, and in collaboration with the Oxford ACE Centre and Dr Donegan’s work on the European Commission’s COGAIN Project and his work on games for people with disabilities, through SpecialEffect.

About SMARTlab

The SMARTlab Digital Media Institute at the University of East London (UEL) has been short-listed for the prestigious Times Higher Awards 2007!

SMARTLAB is an innovative research institute that develops new technologies, performance and learning tools, games and multimedia interfaces to increase social inclusion by empowering young people, women, students in developing countries and people with disabilities, including many PhD researchers. The Times Higher Award nomination is in the category of support for students with disabilities, and recognises a range of successful innovations.

These include the MAGIC Gamelab and the TRUST game project, the Activechair, the InterFACES Project and world premiere of their eye-triggered writing and musical performances for PhD students with Cerebral Palsy, and their interactive games & virtual learning environments, and their work with NESTA and the Stephen Hawking School, recently featured at the Science Museum.

In the past year, SMARtlab has developed a storytelling game for children with physical and learning disabilities at the Stephen Hawking School in East London, combining human movement with the haptic chair.

Other work underway includes the InterFACES project, a new technology application which enables people with severe motor disabilities to compose and perform music simply by moving their eyes, recently showcased at the IEEE.

InterFACES is co-directed by Professor Goodman with Dr Mick Donegan, joining the team from the Oxford ACE Centre, where he has pushed the boundaries of eye-tracking technologies for assistive tech and user empowerment

How Exactly Does SpecialEffect Help?

SpecialEffect helps young people with disabilities to use leisure technology in the following ways:

By adapting, developing and modifying cutting edge technology – for example Eye-Controlled technology, a special strength of SpecialEffect.

By helping young people to find the kinds of games they can play on the SpecialEffect GameBase whichever way they control the computer – from a switch to an Eye-Controlled computer.

By supporting hospitals, hospices, special schools, etc. in finding the right leisure technology for those young people who need it most, when they need it most.

By loaning specialised leisure technology to young people who have a sudden serious injury or illness.

SpecialEffect is dedicated to providing the expertise necessary to enable everyone to enjoy the fun, friendship and challenges that can be found in the world of computer games and leisure.

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Serious Games To Rethink What Is Important For Children To Learn

Serious Games let kids make their own stories and movies online

Kerpoof allows you to easily create pictures, stories, and animated movies. Pictures can be created by first selecting a scene from a variety of different back-drops, and then dragging and dropping objects (thousands of which are available) onto the 3D scene. Stories can be created by linking multiple scenes together and adding text.

Via: KerPoof

Kerpoof's goal is to become a leading destination site for children through a suite of activities that are enriching as well as entertaining. While mindless fun has its place, creating a place for mindful fun is the mission of Kerpoof. On Kerpoof, users can create art, stories, and animated movies using a simple 3D interface. When users are done, they can save it to their gallery, share it with others, and vote on their favorites.

This educational art and animation studio, which caters to children aged 6 to 12, debuted in January 2006 with a free online application that allows kids to draw pictures online. Since then, the Kerpoof team has added other applications that let children create their own stories and movies.

On the site kids are able to chose from more than 40 different backgrounds and more than 2,000 different icons, while adding text and movement to create their own stories or movies. The animation studio provides themes derived from fairy tales, wildlife and other fantasy lands.

Kerpoof partnered with nonprofit organizations such as the BizWorld Foundation and the National Center for Women and Information Technology to create a product for children and educators alike. BizWorld handles the educational aspects of Kerpoof, marketing the program to teachers and schools nationwide.

About KenProof

CEO Krista Marks and three other engineers left programmable microchip maker Xilinx Inc. to start Kerpoof in 2006. She and co-founders Jonathan Ballagh, Tom Fischaber and Brent Milne wanted to use their collective engineering and programming backgrounds to do something that combines technology, education and creativity.

Krista Marks is CEO of Kerpoof

Kerpoof was the only Colorado company selected to launch its new product Sept. 18 at the TechCrunch 40 gathering in San Francisco. It was the first company demo day organized by the influential technology blog TechCrunch.com and featured presentations of 40 startups chosen from 700 applicants around the world.

Kids have signed on to Kerpoof and put together cartoons in German and Italian, growth that Kerpoof attributes to the TechCrunch 40 buzz.

If the 12-employee company succeeds, Kerpoof will grow beyond pictures and short cartoons, maybe branching out into music composition and other media that would interest children and stoke their creativity, Marks said.

"We see Kerpoof as a platform for kids' creativity," she said.

They were encouraged by market research reports that suggested retail sales of educational software for kids was giving way to online services. Studies done on young Internet users show they go straight to the sites they know and enjoy as opposed to surfing, Marks said.

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HBS Event From The Reality Of Virtual Worlds To Casual & Serious Games

Slide presentations available via FUTURE-MAKING SERIOUS GAMES

"The Business of Games: From the Reality of Virtual Worlds to Casual & Serious Games", Creators Panel, Entrepreneurship Track Event, was held on November 13, 2007 at Harvard Business School Association of Boston.

Slides of the presentations are available at http://www.slideshare.net/elianealhadeff.

Presenters and panelists include Alexander "Sasha" Gimpelson (host), Ben Sawyer, Steve Meretzky, Bill Kung and Daniel O’Connell Offner,

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Adobe Serious Games Whitepaper By Anne Derryberry

Serious Games Whitepaper is available online and freely distributable

Via: I'm Serious Net

Anne Derryberry, over I’m Serious.Net Blog, has made available for download and distribution her whitepaper for Adobe Systems on serious games:
“Serious Games: Online Games for Learning” (Adobe PDF format).

Anne is a Learning Architect for serious games, online learning games, simulations and virtual worlds. She works with learning organizations, game developers, tools developers, and analysts as learning architect, advisor, consultant, and industry observer.

Anne says her "fascination as a designer is with group experience and how groups learn in virtual environments, especially through games. Group in this context does not mean a collection of people whose individual statistics are aggregated together. Groups, or cohorts, are a collection of people who are identified in advance and for whom the experience is intended."

She defends the idea that for serious games to gain wide-spread adoption, commercial developers will need to figure out how to make money in this space. To do that, design and business minds must wrestle with the ever more pressing problem of how to make learning and meaningful play into profitable and sustainable business.



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SeriousPolicy: Serious Games For Citizen Engagement

Serious Games getting your voice heard

Via: Virtual Worlds Forum Blog

Political Serious Game rises to Lord Puttman’s challenge of delivering educational value

Most citizens are interested in national politics. But many have become disillusioned with the process and believe that they have little influence over decisions. Fewer people than ever before turn out to vote. Trust in government’s ability to put the needs of the country above those of political parties has declined. And younger people are increasingly disengaged.

At the 2007 Virtual Worlds Forum, held last month in London, Lord Puttman called for computer games “to contribute to national culture” and "encourage [young people] to exercise those same values and skills we wish to see them exercise in the real world."

The Serious Policy Game rises to the challenge - delivering educational value to young audiences that have a fundamental expectation of interactivity. The downloadable computer game has been developed by PlayGen Ltd - specialists in “Serious Games” – cutting edge gaming technology used for training and learning purposes (please find my prior posts on PlayGen NanoWars: Serious Games To Understand Nanotech and More Serious Games by PlayGen: Making Learning Fun

The player is on a mission to win Treasury funding for a new policy. Players can get advice from Tony Blair, get on Alister Darlings’ nerves, or get congratulated by the PM. Along the way you wander through a virtual Members’ Lobby, pop into a simulated Treasury and are summoned to a stunningly realistic digital Number 10.

A Paris Hilton look-alike provides some light relief and the MC has more than a passing resemblance to Keira Knightly.

“We’re showing how you can engage audiences with new ideas through a medium they’re comfortable with – computer games,” says PlayGen’s MD and head developer Kam Memarzia.

“Young people are disengaged from politics,” says Memarzia. “We can develop games that involve them in policy development or feed into actual public consultation.”

Feedback is built into the game itself, and the decisions players make can be used to measure real world attitudes” The website for the game - www.seriouspolicy.com - runs the tag line “Democracy is getting your voice heard”.

‘Serious Games’ is a concept whose time has come. The growing maturity of the sector was highlighted earlier this year with the launch of a new trade body aimed at promoting the growth of the Serious Games market.

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Serious Games For Mobile and Contextual Learning?

IAmLearn - a new potential market for Serious Games apps

Via: Flux - Mobile Learning-Launch of International Association

The International Association for Mobile Learning (IAmLearn) was officially launched at mLearn 2007 in Melbourne, Australia.

IAmLearn is a membership association to promote excellence in research, development and application of mobile and contextual learning.

It assists the exchange of ideas and information amongst people in universities, educational institutions, the private sector, policy and funding organizations.

Activities include holding the annual mLearn conference, managing a website, and publishing materials to explore the use of mobile and pervasive technlogies for learning and new opportunities for learning in a mobile world.

IAmLearn was born out of mLearn, the annual international conference on mobile learning that moves from continent to continent each year. Each of the founding committee members has a long history with mobile learning and is committed to its growth and development at all levels of education.

IAmLearn will provide a focal point to collate and disseminate new research, new practices, changing knowledge and exploration of technology, pedagogy and infrastructure that underpins mobile learning in all its forms.

Members will have access to a 'members only' website and resources, and be given discounted rates for participation in mLearn events and activities. Events may be local or international, and by means of technology or face to face.



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Serious Games Let Children Be The Creators

Serious Games turning kids into media producers

Via: Richard Carey Associates - Nurturing Creativity

Richard Carey reports from the Dust or Magic Institute held on November 4-6, 2007 on Mitchel Resnick's presentation.

Dust or Magic is a critique of children's interactive media products released this past year, along with presentations on current research and the most current thinking on the children's interactive media space.

Mitchel Resnick is an interactive media visionary.

He directs the Lifelong Kindergarten research group at the Media Laboratory at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and develops technologies to engage people, particularly children, in creative learning experiences.

In his presentation at Dust or Magic he shared his latest research and gave an update on Scratch, the programming language he and his team developed.

Scratch is a new programming environment that kids can use to create their own animated stories, video games, and interactive art -- and share their creations with one another across the Internet.

With this new software kids can program interactive creations by simply snapping together graphical building blocks, much like LEGO® bricks, without any of the obscure punctuation and syntax of traditional programming languages. Children can then share their interactive stories and games on the Web, the same way they share videos on YouTube, engaging with other kids in an online community that provides inspiration and feedback.

Kids learn important computational ideas as they transform images, mix in sound clips and drum beats, and integrate inputs from real-world sensors.

Resnick's Lifelong Kindergarten research group previously developed the "programmable bricks" that inspired the award-winning LEGO® MINDSTORMS® robotics kits.

Just as MINDSTORMS allows kids to control LEGO creations in the physical world, Scratch allows them to control media-rich creations on the Web.

Creating From Scratch

"As kids work on Scratch projects, they learn to think creatively and solve problems systematically -- skills that are critical to success in the 21st century," said Resnick.

Designed for ages 8 and up, Scratch is available by free download from the Scratch website (http://scratch.mit.edu/).

The software runs on both PCs and Macs. The MIT Media Lab is collaborating with other organizations -- including Intel, Microsoft, Samsung, BT, the LEGO Group, Motorola, and One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) - to create other versions and applications of Scratch, including versions for mobile phones.

The name Scratch comes from the technique used by hip-hop disc jockeys, who spin vinyl records to mix music clips together in creative ways. Similarly, Scratch lets kids mix together a wide variety of media: graphics, photos, music, and sounds.

A glance at the Scratch website (http://scratch.mit.edu/) reveals a kaleidoscope of projects created by kids: a story about a polar bear school, space attack games, and a break-dancing performance. Some creations are goofy and fun; some reveal serious social themes. Children are constantly modifying and extending one another's projects on the website - and learning from one another in the process. "It's exciting to wake up each morning and see what's new on the site," said Resnick.

Scratch was developed by the Lifelong Kindergarten research group in collaboration with UCLA educational researchers, with financial support from the National Science Foundation and the Intel Foundation. Throughout the development process, the design team received feedback from children and teens at Intel Computer Clubhouses and school classrooms.

About Dust or Magic

Dust or Magic is an annual show-and-tell review of the past year in children's technology.

The demonstration-intensive three day institute is designed for individuals who need to understand the latest children's interactive media products, in the context of known theories of child development and play patterns.

Because participants stay at the same Inn and come from a variety of perspectives, the event has a retreat feel to it. Time is put into the agenda so that there are opportunities to try out the latest products in both formal and informal settings.

As with previous Dust or Magic Institutes, the agenda is planned around the products, and videos of child testers using key products help ground the discussion. Throughout the session, there are presentations by developers, reviewers and researchers on current topics.



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FreeRice Serious Game Has Generated 1Bn Grains Of Rice

Serious Games challenging us to play a better world

Via: BBC NEWS - Web Game Provides Rice For Hungry

FreeRice game has now generated enough rice to feed 50,000 people for one day.

The game tests the vocabulary of participants. For each click on a correct answer, the website donates money to buy 10 grains of rice.

Companies advertising on the website provide the money to the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) to buy and distribute the rice.

FreeRice went online in early October and has now raised 1bn grains of rice, that is enough rice to feed 50,000 people for one day, the WFP said on Friday.

'Viral marketing'

The site has generated buzz in the blogosphere and considerable press attention.

The head of the WFP, Josette Sheeran, said: "FreeRice really hits home how the web can be harnessed to raise awareness and funds for he world's number one emergency."

She said word of the game has spread with the help of Internet bloggers and websites like Facebook and YouTube. "The site is a viral marketing success story."

FreeRice is the invention of US online fundraising pioneer John Breen who runs Poverty.com and used to run TheHungerSite.

How It Works

In a nutshell (or rice husk) the game works like this: you’re given a word to choose among four definitions, with every correct answer resulting in the donation of 10 grains of rice to the UN World Food Programme.

Every three consecutive correct answers raises your vocabulary level, and the words become harder thus testing and improving your vocab as you play.

FreeRice has a custom database containing thousands of words at varying degrees of difficulty. There are words appropriate for people just learning English and words that will challenge the most scholarly professors.

FreeRice automatically adjusts to your level of vocabulary. It starts by giving you words at different levels of difficulty and then, based on how you do, assigns you an approximate starting level. You then determine a more exact level for yourself as you play. When you get a word wrong, you go to an easier level. When you get three words in a row right, you go to a harder level. This one-to-three ratio is best for keeping you at the “outer fringe” of your vocabulary, where learning can take place.

There are 50 levels in all, but it is rare for people to get above level 48.

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Advancing The Effectiveness Of Serious Games For Health

$8.25-Million research to investigate the health benefits of Serious Games

Classes Turn to Exergames That Work Legs

Via: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) today launched Health Games Research, a new national program to support research to enhance the quality and effectiveness of serious games that are used to improve health.

The $8.25-million grant builds on RWJF's ongoing work to understand the potential for games to improve health and health care, and to forge connections between the games and health fields.

Health Games Research focuses on interactive games that are delivered or supported by digital technology. Game platforms and formats of interest to the program range from traditional video games on game consoles, handheld game players, arcade machines, computers, Web sites and multiplayer online worlds, to new kinds of games delivered, for example, by mobile networked computing, exertion interfaces (dance pads, cameras pointed at players, motion-detecting remote controllers), robots, interactive television, virtual environments, electronic toys, context-sensitive programs (using sensors, physiological and health monitors, global positioning systems), or other emerging technologies that are becoming more affordable and accessible.

Health Games Research will be located at the University of California, Santa Barbara and directed by Debra Lieberman, Ph.D., communication researcher in the university's Institute for Social, Behavioral, and Economic Research.

Research Context

Research has shown that games can help increase players' physical activity levels, reinforce anti-smoking attitudes or improve young cancer patients' adherence to their treatment plans.

They also provide simulation environments that health care professionals use to hone their skills, and help policy-makers and public health leaders plan for natural disasters and infectious disease outbreaks. Growth in this field has underscored the need for more research to understand how games and game technologies can be designed to benefit people's health and health care.

"Research on learning and behavior change with interactive media—including games—has found that they can be very motivating and effective. So it is no surprise to find in the research that playing a well-designed health game can help improve players' health behaviors and outcomes," said Lieberman. "We need more research to develop evidence-based design principles that can be used in future health games and technologies. Studies funded by Health Games Research will make an important contribution toward this goal."

Call For Proposals

The first Health Games Research call for proposals, announced today, will award up to $2 million to support studies that investigate principles of effective health game design. In this initial round of funding, grant recipients will focus on games that engage players in physical activity and/or games that promote and improve players' self-care. The latter category includes games that influence people's health behaviors and outcomes related to lifestyle, prevention, adherence to medical treatment plans and/or chronic disease self-management. Health Games Research will support a second round of funding in 2009, awarding up to an additional $2 million in grants.

Beyond supporting and disseminating new research, the $8.25-million RWJF grant also will sustain and expand the efforts of the Games for Health Project to bring together game developers and health experts to collaborate and share best practices, virtually and in person.

Led by Director Ben Sawyer, the Games for Health Project will spearhead convening and field-building activities including: its popular annual national conference; regional events; competitions to spur the development of new, high-quality games and special partnerships; and other online and offline forums to strengthen ties between the worlds of game development and health care.

"This major new commitment by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Pioneer Portfolio will take the field of games for health to new levels. Research showing how games actually contribute to better health can help the medium reach far beyond the entertainment realm to help shape key health and policy decisions," said Sawyer. "Debra Lieberman is a world-class scholar in this area, and we look forward to working with the Health Games Research program to apply the strongest evidence to our collective efforts to strengthen this field."

View the Health Games Research Call for Proposals.

About the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation focuses on the pressing health and health care issues facing our country. As the nation's largest philanthropy devoted exclusively to improving the health and health care of all Americans, the Foundation works with a diverse group of organizations and individuals to identify solutions and achieve comprehensive, meaningful and timely change.

The Foundation's Pioneer Portfolio supports innovative ideas and projects that may trigger important breakthroughs in health and health care. Projects in the Pioneer Portfolio are future-oriented and look beyond conventional thinking to explore solutions at the cutting edge of health and health care.

For more than 35 years, the Foundation has brought experience, commitment, and a rigorous, balanced approach to the problems that affect the health and health care of those it serves. When it comes to helping Americans lead healthier lives and get the care they need, the Foundation expects to make a difference in your lifetime.



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Serious Gaming In A Voyage Inside Virtual Worlds

Serious Games changing our society, our work and even our dreams

Following my recent post Serious Games As 3D Workspaces, addressing how I-Maginer helps to lower logistical constraints by providing an alternative to conference calls and live meeting with 3D workspaces, I-MAGINER and Enjeux-Les-Echos, the French business magazine that monthly analyses the major economic, financial, social and cultural trends, are inviting us for a journey inside virtual worlds.

Together they have created a special Web 3D version dedicated to the silent revolution of the digital world.

In this Enjeux-Les-Echos special issue, going virtual in the form of a spacious 3D loft, you will be able to meet the different experts interviewed in the paper version (represented by their avatars), including Edward Castranova (Indiana University), Christian Renaud (Cisco), Susan Grant (CNN), Scott Randall (Brandgames), Philip Rosedale (Linden lab) and Ralph Koster (Sony Entertainment), discuss with them by chat or VoIP about virtual worlds, share your experiences, comments and suggestions.

The issue will be available in printed version on November 21st and on Web 3D at this address: http://www.lesechos.fr/enjeuxlesechosvirtuel/index.htm.

Check it out!

About I-Maginer

I-Maginer is a company that develops Web 3D solutions for e-commerce, collaborative work and social networks.

These solutions all use the same 3D real-time, multi-user Web technology: the SCOL language. This technology is based on the concept of real-time communication: people are inter-connected, can see each other, communicate and move around, thus forming a virtual community.

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Serious Gaming In The Top 10 Virtual Worlds

Serious Games challenging us to play a better world

Via: VIDEOGAMESBLOGGER - Top 10 Online Virtual Worlds

The world of online virtual worlds keeps growing and growing. Some of them are extremely popular and well-known (such as World of Warcraft and Second Life) but there is a plethora of others, both new and old (some very old, like 90’s old) for users to discover.

In this list they take a look at the Top 10 Online Virtual Worlds

1. Second Life - Internet virtual world started in 1999 and run by Linden Labs. There is no better place to create buy and sell products. The recent introduction of voice chat has helped stave off complaints on performance issues.

2. World of Warcraft - Multiplayer online roleplaying game created by Blizzard Entertainment in 2001. One of the most popular online games and the highest paid subscriber base. Leveling up is the ultimate goal. There has been a crackdown on trying to make money with this game by selling gold, characters, items, etc.

3. Kaneva - 2D and 3D social networking and virtual world created by Kaneva, Inc 2004. Quickly gaining popularity for game developers. Easily combine video, social networks, and 2D.

Kaneva Stops All Biz Dev to Build Platform

Tony Walsh reports via Clickable Culture that in a newsletter, Kaneva CEO Christopher Klaus announced that the company would spend the first part of 2008 building out the platform and toolkit to improve business relationships down the line.

Much like Linden Lab has moved to distinguish between Second Life (the experience) and Second Life Grid (the technology platform), Kaneva seems to be moving towards separating Kaneva (the virtual world experience) from Kaneva the technology platform.

Currently Kaneva is working with IBM, Target, and Turner Broadcasting toward that end.

Turner Broadcasting System has signed a one-year deal with tech firm Kaneva to develop virtual world offshoots of its properties. The agreement will enable Turner's new products group to build and test virtual worlds inside the Kaneva community

4. There - MTV Networks run Laguna Beach Style virtual world created by There Inc. in 2001.

To create Virtual Laguna Beach, MTV selected the There.com platform, operated by Makena Technologies. ESC worked closely with MTV, Makena and other partners to make this virtual world a reality. Electric Sheep, in charge of events, interactivity, sponsor integration, was part of the creative team contributing 3D and 2D art. See www.vlb.mtv.com

5. Active Worlds - Virtual Reality 3D World created by Active Worlds in 1997.

6. Meet Me - Opening in December this Japanese version will have excellent graphics. Created by Transcosmos, Inc. It will be based on Tokyo Japan and will be G rated with many rules such as no flying.

7. My World - Secret Google Second Life Killer being tested by students at Arizona State University. Will integrate with all of Google’s other services making this the most useful of all the online virtual 3d Worlds. Alas it isn’t available yet.

8. HiPiHi - Developed in China and heavily censored by the government.

9. A World of My Own - Created by Sir Richard Branson with Virgin Games owning a 20 percent stake. Dedicated entirely to games and gamers.

The group of gamers already training games for use with the AWOMO system have been the first to receive the latest version of the Game Training Kit (GTK), late October 2007. The GTK is the server based application that allows Beta Testers to download full games kindly donated by many major publishers.

Once the games are downloaded to the testers computer they can be played as normal and the information gathered by the GTK is sent back to the server and compiled to assess the most efficient way to stream the game through AWOMO in the future.

The current training is going towards creating a collection of games for use in a full Beta Test for AWOMO. Once created, it will be used to demonstrate the speed at which AWOMO can stream any game to a user’s PC.

10. Moove - German based virtual world created in 1994. Emphasis on 3d Chat and dating. Based on rooms instead of worlds.

Personal Footnote

One may argue if "these" are indeed the Top 10 Virtual Words, but there is a common understanding that many more VWs are in the pipeline.



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IBM Introduces Serious Game To Develop Business Skills

Innov8 - IBM makes a Serious Game out of SOA

Student playing IBM's new "serious" video game, Innov8. Starting Tuesday, thousands of universities around the world have free access to IBM's video game in an effort to help students develop business skills.

Via: IBM Press Room

Following my prior post Serious Games For Improving Business Process Management, IBM today introduced a new video game designed to help university students and young professionals develop a combination of business and information technology (IT) skills. Thousands of universities around the world now have access to Innov8, IBM’s new “serious game,” available at no charge.

Serious games are computer and video games used as educational and training tools. Just as airline pilots initially learn using flight simulators, many corporations and universities see serious games as an effective way of teaching new skills to a generation that has been brought up in the video game era. In fact, according to The Apply Group, by 2012, between 100 and 135 of the Global Fortune 500 will have adopted gaming for learning, with the U.S., United Kingdom and Germany leading the way.

More than thirty colleges and universities have already incorporated the game into their program plans. Starting today, over 2,000 universities around the world can download the game from IBM's website and begin using it in their classrooms.

"The best kept secret in the world of computer and video games is the rise of a movement -- now in the thousands -- of gamers, universities and corporations dedicated to applying games to serious challenges such as education, training, medical treatment, or better government," said David Rejeski, director of the Serious Games Initiative which is housed at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C. "IBM has established itself as a pioneer in serious gaming by enabling universities to educate students using the gaming medium they understand, enjoy and embrace."

Games in the classroom

IBM has created Innov8 as a new way to teach business students and young IT professionals -- many whom have grown up playing video games -- about competing successfully in business.

Innov8 is an interactive, 3-D educational game designed to bridge the gap in understanding between IT teams and business leaders in an organization. This type of serious gaming -- simulations which have the look and feel of a game but correspond to non-game events or processes such as business operations -- has emerged as a successful method to train employees or develop new skills.

Most MBA programs are already heavily based on projects that reflect how individuals and teams need to interact in the real world. Innov8 takes that a step further by actually allowing students to step into a real, dynamic business environment. The game is based on advanced commercial gaming technologies and allows players to visualize how technology and related business strategies affect an organization's performance. Together, users can visualize business processes, identify bottlenecks, and explore 'what if' scenarios before the technology is deployed.

Innov8 was designed to be delivered in a one hour learning lab to supplement courses like Business Process Management, Corporate Strategy, and Operations and IT Management. The idea for the game resulted from an annual IBM-sponsored competition among graduate business students at Duke University and the University of North Carolina.

Addressing a Skills Shortage

75 percent of CEOs surveyed by IBM cited education and the lack of qualified candidates as the issues that will have the greatest impact on their business over the next three years. With a growing number of jobs and professions requiring a combination of technology and business skills, Innov8 can be an effective way of developing this new, hybrid skill set.

A recent study also found that 56 percent of IBM customers cited lack of skills, mainly individuals with a blending of IT technical understanding and business process acumen, as the leading inhibitor to service oriented architecture (SOA), a $65 billion market opportunity. Innov8 will help students and young professionals develop these crucial skills.

"IBM views serious gaming as a new and exciting way to develop the skills that are required as business and IT become more closely aligned," said Sandy Carter, vice president, IBM SOA and WebSphere strategy, channels and marketing. "Innov8 was designed to address this specific skills shortage while also helping universities realize the benefits of using serious games as a powerful tool for teaching today's students."

Innov8 is now available through IBM's Academic Initiative, a program offering a wide range of technology education benefits to meet the goals of colleges and universities. As a member of this initiative, participating schools receive free access to IBM software, discounted hardware, course materials, training and curriculum development. Nearly 2,000 universities and 11,000 faculty members worldwide have joined IBM's Academic Initiative.

For more information about Innov8, go to www.ibm.com/soa/innov8


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China's Serious Games: Sizeable As Its Economic Growth

Serious Games to bridge China's manufacturers and consumers around the world

Via: The Associated Press - China Plans Virtual World for Commerce

China's government is building a vast virtual world dubbed "Beijing Cyber Recreation District," which founders say will help the manufacturing superpower evolve into virtual commerce.

Some supply chain experts say the project is impossibly grandiose in its goal to provide direct links between tens of thousands of Chinese manufacturers and millions of individual customers around the world.

The Beijing municipality in partnership with private capital (and with help from MindArk of Sweden) is planning a virtual world for around 150m avatars, of which 7m could be online at the same time.

But every "Made in China" label eventually could include a Web site where customers could order more — and Chinese factories would produce custom-made goods and send them directly to consumers' homes, mused Chi Tau Robert Lai, chief scientist of the virtual world.

The 3D world is supposed to be the online counterpart to the China Recreation District (CRD), a theme park, mall and playground being built in a former steel plant in Beijing for the 2008 Olympics.

Some Chinese-language Web sites of the CRD are already up, but most of it — including the first direct links to manufacturers — won't come until the second half of next year at the earliest, Lai said.

In addition to connecting factories with people outside China, the project will allow businesses outside China to tap the nation's burgeoning middle class, he said.

The CRD's dream of eliminating middle men — brokers, shippers, purchasers, even retailers — is not new. Toyota Motor Corp. began experimenting with "just-in-time" manufacturing in the 1950s, though it took decades to refine the process.

But just-in-time manufacturing for less expensive items such as clothing, electronics and toys is still years away. The low cost of labor in China makes it cheaper to ship bulk items to retailers around the world and then sell overstock online or in discount stores.

China's plants are unlikely to deliver consumer goods to doorsteps abroad anytime soon, said Robert L. Bartlett, a retail industry consultant in San Rafael, Calif.

"In the long run, the age of technology will allow us to do just-in-time responsive manufacturing based on consumer needs — but the superior customer experience in truth is still in a retail store," said Bartlett, consultant to Gap Inc., Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and other major retailers.

Lai acknowledged that Chinese manufacturers can't efficiently crank out just one custom-ordered shirt. But they can wait until numerous people and clothing shops around the world submit similar orders, then assemble 5,000 of the same blue, pinstriped button-down shirt and ship it within a day or two, he said.

Lai said the CRD could eventually become a bigger version of eBay Inc., which connects buyers and sellers worldwide online in both auction and fixed-price formats. EBay is now also creating social networks where registered users can discuss everything from shoes to Barbies.

Just-in-time manufacturing is expected to generate the largest amount of revenue for the CRD, but the network also will host cultural exchanges, corporate meetings, educational classes and other events common in virtual worlds. Registration will be free, Lai said. Users will buy virtual items with credit cards or micropayments in dozens of currencies.

The CRD will be based on technology from Sweden's MindArk, maker of the "Entropia Universe" virtual world. Entropia built virtual "islands" from company templates. CRD's v-commerce transactions will go through Paynova, Sweden's equivalent of PayPal, and Germany's CryTek will provide some of the graphics.

Everything in the CRD will live on servers in Beijing maintained by government programmers. The government has dictated that there will be no pornography or online gambling on the CRD, which it is touting as a public-private partnership.

The Chinese government currently restricts access to certain types of information published online. However, the authorities have embraced commercial development and the country's economy is booming.

It is the world's biggest manufacturing country pitching to lead the next stage of development as the internet moves into three dimensions.

It doesn't stop there. Beijing Cyber Recreation District, now under construction, will have all the infrastructure (server farms, communication links, electricity, banking links, logistics etc) needed to make this the world's one-stop shop for consumers and producers.

China, which is hosting a conference on the subject this month, wants companies around the globe to set up there - the likes of Cisco, IBM or western virtual worlds - to take advantage of state-of-the art communications, infrastructure and (for the moment) cheap wages. It could be a difficult proposition for many corporations to resist.



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Serious Games Bring The Mall To Web Browsers

Serious Games for a 3D online shopping experience 24/7

Via: GeekZone

A web based virtual shopping mall launched in New Zealand, allows users to navigate a three dimensional space to browse and buy products, bringing what the company says is the same shopping experience as in the real world.

http://www.themallplus.com/ is not a portal that redirects consumers to third party websites, instead creating an online virtual shopping mall.

The service was developed under the management of Nigel Kirkpatrick, CEO who has previous experience in start up companies both locally and globally with Industrial Research Limited and Unilever.

Based in Dunedin, New Zealand, the project is one of many to come out of the Upstart Incubator, a programme that guides new entrepreneurial projects in creative arts, business and technology.

“This represents the next generation of retail, through a virtual environment; it’s original, it’s exciting and it has amazing potential.

The 3D visualisation technology means consumers can enjoy the experience of shopping at any time of day or night’ says Mr Kirkpatrick.

Upstart Business Incubator Hooks Top CEO

Dunedin's Upstart Business Incubator has attracted a world class CEO, Nigel Kirkpatrick, to drive development on one of its companies.

Mr Kirkpatrick previously worked as Chief Executive of Industrial Research Limited, New Zealand's leading industrial scientific research company based in Lower Hutt. Mr Kirkpatrick is working on developing The Street, a concept described as the next generation of Internet, which has the potential to be a multi-million dollar global business.

"It's so new, and exciting, that's what I love the most about the tech industry. That's why I've taken on this role. The Street has massive potential globally, and I want to be the one who introduces it to the world. It's also a terrific opportunity for us to create a global business which can successfully be based in New Zealand."

"Nigel has worked in Zurich, Switzerland, as global innovation leader for the multinational company DiverseyLever. And prior to that, he managed DiverseyLever operations in Asia and New Zealand. He brings with him a wide understanding of global trends in innovation and the changing needs of the international workplace. He has huge experience in working with industry to understand and meet their needs, and his knowledge of global technology trends gives me total confidence he can take The Street where it needs to go."

About Upstart

Upstart is about entrepreneurs helping entrepreneurs. If you have an innovative business with ambitions to be large and go global, Upstart can help you get there quickly.

Upstart gives a leg-up to companies who want help to grow fast and generate revenues in the millions. They may be one person start-up companies, or successful small businesses, but each Upstart client is on a mission to rapidly increase their company's value, without greatly increasing their risk.


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When Classics Become Serious Games - Free Mini-NutCracker Download

Serious Games building musical intelligence

Following my previous post When Classics Become Serious Games, Alexander “Sasha” Gimpelson, CEO and co-founder of Quaint Interactive and the developer of the award-winning Interactive Classics Series, has authorized me to make the mini-NutCracker music game available to as many people as I wish.

I hope you all enjoy it as much as I did - it is beautiful, touching, fun and educational!

Free Download: www.schoolmusicplace.com/downloads/Mini-Nut-Edu.zip

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Chatbots Resurgence: Serious Games For Smart CRM

Serious Games and the rise of Speech Analytics in Contact Centers

Via: CRM Daily

Enterprises are rapidly learning how to use the output from speech analytics to benefit many operating areas including: sales, marketing, R&D, compliance, risk management, collections, fraud, back-office operations and, of course, the contact center.

A new report has analyzed this market and why speech analytics has rapidly developed into the fastest growing application in the history of contact centers.

The 2007 Speech Analytics Market Report by DMG Consulting LLC, is positioned as the definitive guide to this emerging market segment.

The report provides detailed information about the market, vendors, competitive landscape, technology products, functionality accuracy, ROI, pricing, market share, projections and implementation best practices

First introduced into the contact center in 2004, speech analytics is still considered an emerging application.

Contact centers implement speech analytics solutions to analyze customer conversations, while also providing benefit to the entire enterprise. The DMG report examines the technical and business opportunities and challenges involved in implementing these applications and also provides best practices and guidance for making these applications work for the enterprise.

The 2007 Speech Analytics Market Report is positioned as being essential for companies of all sizes looking to use innovative technology to gain a strategic advantage. The Report also explains how speech analytics leverages insights contained in unstructured customer conversations to improve profitability, reduce costs, enhance the customer experience and reduce corporate liability.

Smart CRM

Via: Dovetail Software Blogs - The Voice of Customer Service and Support in CRM
Have you talked to any good chatbots lately? Neither have we, but the CRM industry is trying as hard as it can to turn that around. CRM, stationed in the very interface between companies and customers, obviously begs for automation wherever possible, humans being so costly, and so darned...unique.

The rise of speech analytics in call centers is not yet mirrored by speech synthesis: the chat bots are text-bound, chat-session hounds that do a good job at qualifying customers through multiple choices:

"Federman says Radiator.com was able to scrape the information from the chat session and deliver it to its contact center agents the second the call was connected, so the context of the online session was readily available to the customer service representative. “This approach increased sales conversion by 35 to 40 percent, according to executives...”

"Rather than try to force the chatbot to do more than it could handle, the company leveraged the chat bot's strength (gathering information) to create a much more personalized experience for the consumer once they made contact by phone." - CRM Systems: Say What? Chat Bots Just Don't Cut It - Yet.

So how well does the latest software do at that old human trick, pretending to be smart?

Results are mixed. John Ragsdale, formerly with Forrester and now with the Service & Support Professionals Asociation (SSPA), is reported in the same CRM News article above as saying that the situation is getting better with the advent of Natural Language Search engines that discern the intent of a searcher's question rather than the literal take.

Speech analytics is expected to grow as an important part of the contact center environment. With this growth, the industry should also expect to see future innovations that will continue to improve on product offerings and further applications throughout the enterprise.

On Chatbots

Most chatbots rely on fairly simple tricks to appear lifelike.

Richard Wallace, creator of the top-ranked chatbot ALICE (Artificial Linguistic Internet Computer Entity), has handwritten a database of thousands of possible conversational gambits. Type a comment to ALICE, and it checks the phrase and its key words for a response coded to those words.

In contrast, Jabberwacky, another top-rated Internet bot produced by Rollo Carpenter, keeps track of everything people have said to it, and tries to reuse those statements by matching them to the writer’s input. Neither chatbot has long-term memory, so they respond only to the last sentence written.

Here's some more links to Chatbot-related sites:
http://www.jabberwacky.com/
http://www.alicebot.org/
http://www.personalityforge.com/
http://www.botspot.com/BOTSPOT/Windows/Artificial_Life_Bots/Chatterbots/index.html
http://www.runabot.com/
https://buddyscript.colloquis.com/


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Serious Games Measuring Proficiency Of Surgical Skills

Serious Games to acquire advanced skills in a self-paced environment

Via: METI Medical Education Technologies, Inc.

The METI SurgicalSIM VR brings together medical education and the new standard curricula to deliver a virtual-reality training tool.

SurgicalSIM VR provides an expandable surgical platform available with advanced life-like surgical anatomy and advanced intracorporeal suturing and knot-tying exercises.

Its ability to record the learner’s performance during each session offers immediate review and feedback for developing surgical skills.

After Action Review

Working With The SurgicalSIM VR

SurgicalSIM VR provides two specific learning modes that allow a Program Director to create learning modules to best support the learner, and a third mode reserved for the administrator.

This flexibility allows the director to objectively measure and assess an individual learner’s progress and helps to ensure each competency is met and mastered.

Administrator Mode: In this mode, the Program Director can create specific learning tracks for individual learners. By giving the director this kind of flexibility, he or she can set parameters that establish specific competency standards that will prevent the learner from progressing to the next exercise until the competency is met.

METI SurgicalSIM VR offers the surgical community a full-spectrum and expanding learning system that allows the novice, the advanced resident and even the practicing surgeon the ability to develop and test their technical, cognitive, and medical decision making skills in a safe environment

Learner Mode: In this mode, learners are permitted to utilize the simulator in a self-directed session that moves at their own pace. Each exercise includes an introduction, educational content, and both a real and simulated video clip of the specific procedure. Each exercise in the Learner Mode must be mastered before the system will allow progression to the next exercise.

Mentor Mode: Like the Learner Mode, the Mentor Mode provides access to an exercise introduction, educational content and both a real and simulated clip of the specific procedure. But what makes this mode different is that the learner can access exercises in any order to work on strategies for specific concepts and skills he or she is having difficulties with, on their own or with a mentor. This allows the mentor (or learner) to isolate problem areas and repeatedly challenge the learner until the competency is met.

The true educational value of the SurgicalSIM VR comes from the open nature of the system that allows for experiential and multilevel training. Using this one system, a novice learner can progress to expert levels with clearly defined data that measures the learner’s progress every step of the way.

In addition, the learner’s proficiency is measured during the exercises and can be dramatically improved with repeated practice, helping make the learner more effective and efficient as his or her competence increases. By compiling performance data over time, the Program Director can objectively assess the learner’s proficiency in several areas.

About METI

Based in Sarasota, Florida, Medical Education Technologies, Inc. (METI®) has
been in the business of interactive human patient simulation since 1996. infant patients as well as exam and surgical simulators.

Each METI simulator is designed to simulate bleeding, breathing, talking, linking and numerous other physiological characteristics to replicate various medical emergency scenarios including heart attack, drug overdose, vehicular accidents, effects from weapons of mass destruction, bio-terrorism and other traumatic injuries.

More than 2200 organizations worldwide utilize METI’s technologies including leading medical schools such as the Mayo Clinic, Harvard, UCLA, Cleveland Clinic, Mount Sinai, Stanford and others. METI is a consolidated subsidiary of L-3 Communications (NYSE:LLL).

Find more:

http://www.meti.com/downloads/SurgicalSIMVRbrochure.pdf

http://www.meti.com/downloads/SUrgicalSalesTurp.pdf

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SimBaby: Serious Games Bringing Simulation To Life

Serious Games & Infant Emergencies made real

SimBaby has an anatomical realistic airway that allows accurate simulation of all relevant infant airway management and patient care scenarios. The airway is compatible with most techniques and
devices, including LMA and endotracheal intubation. The anatomy can be dynamically changed to represent conditions like tongue edema, pharyngeal swelling, and laryngospasms

Via: Laerdal Medical - Advanced Simulator For Training in Infant Emergencies

SimBaby is the portable advanced infant patient simulator for team training.

SimBaby has realistic anatomy and clinical functionality that enables simulation training.

SimBaby includes software with video debriefing and an interactive technologically advanced manikin allowing learners to practice the emergency treatment of infant patients.

Meet SimBaby

SimBaby™ represents a six-month-old infant, and is designed to prepare trainees for the challenges of pediatric airway management and other emergency medical and critical care scenarios specific to infants.

Simulation In Teams

In a real emergency, a good outcome for the patient depends on the realism of the rescuer’s training and effective simulation in teams.

A critical part of the learning process for emergency care personnel is training in the same way it occurs in a real emergency.

A patient’s condition changes over time, depending on the quality and speed
of treatment, so should the simulation when training.

Simulation training is of greatest value to help people work together as a team. It helps improve essential communication and coordination skills, and so improves effective team treatment. Simulation in teams is therefore
an invaluable step in helping save lives.

Helping Build Competence

Patient safety and outcome are critically dependent on the competence of healthcare personnel.

Building real competence is a step-by-step process. It includes acquiring new knowledge and skills, getting used to making quick and safe decisions, training
realistically in teams, and gaining clinical experience.

Realistic infant breathing patterns and complications bring realism to the simulation experience.

SimBaby can simulate a wide range of spontaneous breathing patterns including variable rate and depth, and complications like subcostal retractions and see-saw breathing.

The instructor can modify both the lung compliance and the airway resistance.
Critical conditions like tension pneumothorax can also be simulated and managed through needle thoracentesis and chest tube insertion.

A range of relevant lung sounds are available to make the scenario complete. During hypoxic conditions, the SimBaby will present cyanosis in the mouth region.

SimBaby software is easy to operate and allows you to build advanced Scenarios including Trends and Handlers,to meet your learning objectives.

The software communicates with the manikin and registers events during the simulation.The user interface is designed to make it easy to control, adjust and manage the scenarios.The software automatically generates a debriefing view combining event log with synchronized recordings of patient monitor and in-room video.

Easy to use navigation tool and adjustable level of detail shown during debriefing, helps the instructor to optimize the simulation as an educational tool.

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Serious Games To Learn The Rules Of The Immune System

Serious Games compelling players to learn immunology

Via: Immune Attack Game Site

The Federation of American Scientists (FAS), in cooperation with Brown University and the University of Southern California, have finalized their development of the medical Serious Game Immune Attack, object of my prior post Excellent Educational Serious Game , dated November 2006.

This National Science Foundation-sponsored game is designed to motivate students through a series of progressively more difficult challenges in a compelling game environment in which success depends on an increasingly sophisticated grasp of concepts in immunology.

An article wrote by the research team some months back has been published in the July issue of the Communications of the ACM. If you are curious and want to read it, a PDF version is available for download.

Here are some extracts:

BATTLEFIELD METAPHOR

The immune system of living organisms is inherently fascinating but can be extremely difficult to understand. Its operation involves complex interactions among a large number of cell types, antigens, and inter-cellular processes.

Members of the game design team were immediately intrigued by the fact that the immune system is based on rules that lend themselves to translating key concepts into software.

The idea of immune cells combating bacteria naturally lends itself to battlefield metaphors. Invading bacteria and viruses breach natural defenses and unless stopped by friendly forces will continue to conquer new territory.

However, the immunologists in the group vetoed the idea of using anything resembling a first-person-shooter game where the immune cells would locate and blast invaders into oblivion with weaponry, which is simply not how the immune system works.

Following contentious scientifically deep discussions and frequent reviews of the background immunology, the gamers began to realize that the strategies used by the immune system, the defensive maneuvers used by invaders, and the field of battle where the engagement plays out are more fascinating and bizarre than anything experienced in any commercial first-person-shooter game.

The approach we ultimately chose is a variant on discovery games
(such as Descent and Freelancer) where the player explores strange territory, earns the right to use advanced equipment by demonstrating competence, and moves on to new challenges.

Players who fail to heed the warning posted at the beginning of each action game risk not having enough information to win and continue

Choosing to work with a Research Team rather than a Commercial Developer

In this case, subject matter experts had to rethink traditional curricula.

Artists and programmers had to confront a technical domain that lacks straight lines and where the key players are wobbling blobs. Game designers had to accept the odd rules of engagement in a battle where the player can’t see the enemy, and friendly forces may appear to be far more evil than the invaders.

“Since we were operating with a limited budget and the primary goal was to incorporate science research in a number of areas, we chose to work with a research team rather than a commercial developer.”

The team had expertise in such areas as biology, immunology, pedagogy, game design, and learning science. We drew on their knowledge of: the complexities of the underlying biology; information technologies needed to build complex simulations and visualizations; instructional objectives and strategies best suited for the target audience; application of the software tools to build games the targeted audience would find engaging and motivating; programming and scripting languages necessary for Q&A tool integration; and evaluating the effect of game/exploration-based instruction.”

Medical Illustration Credits

JENNIFER SIECK is internationally recognized as one of the foremost developers of medical models in the 3ds Max environment, and a leader in the Association of Medical Illustrators. She is considered one of the top 3ds Max modelers in the U.S. specializing in medical simulation and visualization.

Combined with award winning computer graphics experience in film, computer games, medical virtual reality, multimedia and traditional art applications, her professional career spans nearly two decades.

For the last 4 years, she has been the Creative Director for Laerdal Medical Corporation (www.laerdal.com) defining their Virtual Reality medical task trainer products; focusing on combining photo-realistic 3D models with force feedback capabilities in their fully interactive self-directed learning system for training intravenous catheterizing.

Jennifer Sieck’s medical illustration credits include “Immune Attack” (Federation of American Scientists) and the Virtual Patient Roadmap (Laerdal Medical Corporation, Learning Federation, and Microsoft).

Jennifer Sieck’s Upcoming Presentation

DC_SIGGRAPH welcomes Jennifer Sieck as their guest speaker on Wednesday, November 14 from 7pm to 9pm at BAE Systems.

DC_SIGGRAPH is the Washington D.C. Professional Chapter of ACM SIGGRAPH. ACM SIGGRAPH is dedicated to the generation and dissemination of information on computer graphics and interactive techniques.

Jennifer is going to give her perspective on how a traditional Medical Illustrator ends up in weird worlds of gaming and Virtual Reality.

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