GAIM Exergaming Framework

Active games are video games that involve physical activity. Interaction in active games is captured via input devices such as accelerometers, cameras, pressure sensors and exercise equipment.

Although active games have become highly popular, the interaction styles they support are poorly understood, and largely driven by the capabilities of individual hardware devices. In order to allow for a standard development approach for active games, a better understanding of the interaction found in such games is required.

We have investigated existing commercial and academic games in order to classify input for active games. Our classification abstracts input from hardware, providing a better understanding of the interaction itself. Based on our classification, we propose that active games can be developed independently of underlying input hardware.

We illustrate this through our GAIM input framework for active games, and through an accompanying toolkit for input handling active games.

For more information

Tadeusz Stach, T.C. Nicholas Graham, Matthew Brehmer and Andreas Hollatz, Classifying Input for Active Games, in Proceedings of Advances in Computer Entertainment, ACM, pp. 379-382, 2009.

Matthew Brehmer, T.C. Nicholas Graham and Tadeusz Stach, Activate Your GAIM: A Toolkit for Input in Active Games, in Proceedings of FuturePlay, pp. 151-158, 2010.

Team

Tad Stach, Nick Graham, Matt Brehmer, Andreas Hollatz