Astrojumper: Motivating exercise with an immersive virtual reality exergame

Samantha Finkelstein; Andrea Nickel; Zachary Lipps; Tiffany Barnes; Zachary Wartell; Evan A. Suma

doi:10.1162/pres_a_00036

Astrojumper: Motivating exercise with an immersive virtual reality exergame

Samantha Finkelstein, Andrea Nickel, Zachary Lipps, Tiffany Barnes, Zachary Wartell, Evan A. Suma

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

110 Scopus citations

Abstract

We present the design and evaluation of Astrojumper, an immersive virtual reality exergame developed to motivate players to engage in rigorous, full-body exercise. We performed a user study with 30 people between the ages of 6 and 50 who played the game for 15 min. Regardless of differences in age, gender, activity level, and video game experience, participants rated Astrojumper extremely positively and experienced a significant increase in heart rate after gameplay. Additionally, we found that participants' ratings of perceived workout intensity positively correlated with their level of motivation. Overall, our results demonstrate that Astrojumper effectively motivates both children and adults to exercise through immersive virtual reality technology and a simple, yet engaging, game design.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	78-92
Number of pages	15
Journal	Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments
Volume	20
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1162/pres_a_00036
State	Published - Feb 2011
Externally published	Yes

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10.1162/pres_a_00036

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Astrojumper: Motivating exercise with an immersive virtual reality exergame

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