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>View discussions about this entry Country: United States
Organization: LLT Academy
Year work began: - 2007
Focus of activity - Technology
YouTube Upload - YouTube upload of game, game elements, someone playing the game...what is this?
Project URL: http://www.itechfitness.com/
Positioning in the Mosaic of solutions
What is your signature innovation in one sentence? - Our project is where virtual reality meets video gaming to make a creative workout for physical fitness.
Describe your innovation. What makes your idea unique and different than others doing work in the field? - Our project is to provide an atmosphere of physical fitness using video gaming to increase fun in the activity. This is where virtual reality meets video gaming to make a creative workout for physical fitness. The interactive machines give users the ability to be very active physically while gaining the benefits of exercise. It is our goal to work with all participants also monitors the gains of physical activity through the workout. Ultimately, each game forces players to move around or focus on balance and core strength. It's called excergaming or interactive fitness. It is our desire to implement this program not only for our students but also the community and beyond. We have a choice or an obligation to either align ourselves with the culture or continue to see the same problems that are plaguing us with obesity, We want to complement traditional exercise and see not only weight loss but weight management. Our goal is to try to let people see exercise as being fun again.
What barriers exist that are creating the problem your innovation is hoping to address/change? - To see the benefit of excercise through a gamers eyes. Obesity and cardiac problems are existing in children in part because of the gaming industry. So, the negative will be overcoming that thought process.
Delivery Model: How do you implement your innovation and apply it to the challenge/problem you are addressing. - Video gaming has quickly become extremely popular over the years and a huge percentage of young adults and children consider themselves to be experts. We not only want to implement the program for our students but are also looking at the community and beyond. Statistics are proving that it is time to be proactive in regards to health. Now instead of trying to compete for the attention we will have the ability to enhance their gaming experience while excercising.
How do you plan to scale your innovation? - We can put together a complete package or set it up by the piece. Ideally, we want to have many of the facilities in place across the country. Having a school,business or healthcare facility put this in place will be done on a roll out basis depending on the excitement of the program.
Provide one sentence describing your impact. - Fun, while having a lifechanging experience. Impacting lives......shaping futures is our motto.
What impact has your innovation had to date? Exactly who are the beneficiaries of your innovation? - The technology has only been in place a couple of years at this level. Everyone can benefit from this experience. It gets back to competing not only with others but also against yourselves. I do not want to sound trite but anyone interested in excercising or video games can benefit.
Please list any other measures reflective of the impact of your innovation - The equipment in and of itself will impact lives but also one of the local colleges wants to do a monitoring program so individuals can chart their progress and also see what machines benefit what exercise and how overall gains in fitness are impacted.
What are the main barriers to creating your impact? - We feel the only barriers excist around financial resources. As most people know schools always are in need of money and most are on tight budgets anyway. Businesses will also look at bottom line to see what impact this will have on their company. We beleive that the benefit will far outweigh the cost.
How is your initiative financed? - Currently, looking into grants, corporate sponsorships,individual investors to help support the project.
Provide information on your finances and organization: annual budget, annual revenue, number of staff: - Annual budget, annual revenue generated, size of part-time, full-time and volunteer staff. Annual budget is around 300k in federal money based on student population, being a charter school we are funded approx. 2k less per student than regular public schools so we already start out behind the rest. We currently have 15 staff members of which 3 are part-time. We require that parents spend 20 hours a month volunteering in some capacity.
What is the potential demand for your innovation? - There is a lot of interest in anything that has an ability to help alleviate some of the problems we are facing in obesity,cardiac issues and such. More and more focus is being placed on these because they have become epidemic proportions. Statistics are saying that 75% of the US population will be overweight by the year 2015 and the rest of the world is following on a steady pace. Those should be alarming odds to do something and We beleive we have at least an idea of where to start.
What are the main barriers to financial sustainability? - The easy math question would be as long as we are in growth mode we will continue to press on. We are very aggressively pursuing numerous options to continue moving forward. Our enrollment continues to climb and the community involvement is on the rise. Plus the services will continue to be a need.
What is the origin of this innovation? Tell us your story. - My heart is about kids! In the world I have been an athlete, teacher,coach,businessman,technology coordinator and served in many different capacities. Coming out of the business world a few years ago I connected with a friend about an idea I had to help kids. The masterplan is to have fields and interactive facilities for all ages of kids even the grown up kind. I want to put every activity,sport and interactive facility in one convenient location so to benefit as many people as possible. I was then a consultant for a technology and telecom company. I thought using my background and a passion to impact the lives of kids through a fun and exciting environment could be my legacy to the world. I want to not only have a hand in changing lives but also creating a family friendly place as well. Much to my surprise my friend was starting a charter school (LLT Academy) that was going to be in the business of impacting students lives, through not only education but using character,leadership development,career planning, technology and much more to better prepare for life. This concept was totally new in the public education system because of the focus on standardized testing. The charter tag gives the ability to be at arms length from complete policy and guidelines of the school district. After several conversations I came on board as the Technology and P.E teacher. This is the third year in existence for the school but I feel we can make greater impact with our concept.
Please provide a personal bio. Note this may be used in Changemakers marketing material - Greg Hughes, Has more than 15 years of network and telecommunications network experience, and is currently a teacher with LLT Academy. Prior he was telecommunications/network consultant. Served as President & General Manager of USA Digital Company. His extensive knowledge in engineering, network deployment, project management, and business development as well as his strategic and operational planning has helped in his relationship with many fortune 1000 clients to design and implement complete telecommunications and data center infrastructures. He has partnered with Cisco, Verizon, and others in rollout projects across multiple technologies throughout the nation. He helped pioneer a company methodology for engineering a structured network. He is an active participant in many professional and civic organizations and has served on the Board of Directors for several.
Contact Information:
Greg Hughes
Teacher LLT Academy (Business) Discussions about this entry |
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The speed at which video games have spread in popularity is amazing. I believe that if you are able to harness this trend within a fitness context, it could have transformative effects. What I am concerned about is that the popularity of video games has given kids a very high standard for content and graphics. If these games have to compete with games that have a higher budget and much more brand appeal, it might take away from the product. In fact, it might be useful to team up with game companies that are making video games for the market right now. This might give you some much needed funding as well as enhance the appeal of the games. There is clearly an incentive for these growing video game companies to reach as much new youth as possible . They would also benefit from the goodwill associated with the press from such as collaboration. I could see it now. When you are playing “Sonic the Hedgehog”, You actually need to run on a treadmill to make him move. The faster the you run the faster you beat that stage. Look out! Jump! There is so much potential there.
Nintendo Wii is a great potential collaborator. They seem to actually be on the same page as you guys. They are trying to make physically active video game entertainment. Although they are trying to market this, they really need people from your field that are trying to make something that is truly valuable to health. I think both your project and companies like Nintendo could use something such a collaboration.
William:
Thanks for the input. The manufacturer is always coming out with new products and just to let you know, the equipment is designed to impact gaming and fitness. Ex. the excercise bikes have a screen that will let you do racing bikes, cross country etc. the faster you peddle the faster the bike on screen will go. Almost all of the designs are dual action so not only excercise but competition against others as well as trying to beat your previous scores. The fun of gaming and competition can give you a great work out.
Greg Hughes
LLT Academy
William:
If you look at our entry which is called something like 'Empowering Cardiovascular Exercise' it does exactly what you speak of. We developed an application which is essentially a 3D virtual reality game, and retrofitted it to exercise equipent.
Pure game programmers will of course, spoof on the graphics, as you suggested, But in this application, I find that you get immersed in the exercise itself, and this function is critical, whereas the simple graphics are just fine. Go figure.
Mark Martens, President
Pantometrics, Ltd
I think this could be a wonderful idea, there are a couple of possible additions, such as the Nintendo Wii system, these multi player game systems keep the kids excited about playing each other while keeping them active, boxing is a perfect example, the game requires movement hand eye coordination and competition.
Chris,
There is a kickboxing game that you do have an opponent and you do get a workout because you control the action. Many others have dual capabilities and will give them the competitiveness that all desire. Thanks for your comments it is appreciated. New equipment and designs are always at the forefront.
Greg Hughes
LLT Academy
I noticed you said "We beleive that the benefit will far outweigh the cost."
I have a suggestion in case you haven't already considered this:
It's good to believe but have you actually done a cost analysis? I think businesses would be more receptive if you showed them reasons to be. Telling someone you believe in something will work isn't as good as showing them why they should believe in it.
Also, I noticed in the video that most of the kids were playing single player games. In a situation where you could charge admission (which would be a benefit to business), I think kids would more likely pay if there were more games they could play with their friends and other kids.
Jayme:
Many analysis have been and are being done, thanks for the suggestion you make a valid point. Also the majority of the games have dual capabilities as to make it a competition amongst peers. Not only can they compete against others but they have the ability to better their personal goals. Thank you for your feedback.
Greg Hughes
LLT Academy
Greg:
You said..."one of the local colleges wants to do a monitoring program so individuals can chart their progress and also see what machines benefit what exercise and how overall gains in fitness are impacted."
Our Fitclub system actually does that, automatically. Take a look at our entry and our website at www.Pantometrics.com, and let me know if our technology has relevance to the requirements for your local college.
My own personal vision for a wellness center/health club concept completely embraces monitoring health, exercise, and progress. And although the new wellness center vision I have in my head is more 'adult oriented', and has more emphasis on social networking and education than pure gaming, it nevertheless has some things in common with your vision. Also our Fitclub system technology might be able to contribute to your vision, which if I understand it correctly is a chain of youth-oriented game exercise facilities, right?
Mark Martens, President
Pantometrics, Ltd
I think Interactive Fitness would be really compelling if it was directed at youth --it could be a really powerful way to get kids who love video games to want to go to the gym and be active.
That being said, my question is: does this idea have a target audience?
Brittany:
The gaming and fitness industry is a huge market as I am sure you will agree. As I said, my heart is about kids and I appreciate your comments I would have to agree. I am a big kid at heart does that count? I do not want to grow up to fast.
Greg Hughes
LLT Academy
Based on e-mail communications with Greg Hughes, I believe this virtual reality coupled with real exercise (against resistance) approach PLUS the ability to measure maximum oxygen consumption has at least theoretical direct applicability to the small inner city high school (sometimes a converted grammer school with "exercise equipment" consisting of a kiddie's playground in a sea of concrete, aside city streets and no exercise fields for many blocks).
This is real safe exercise, as compared to the tennis playing exercise of the Wii
This is real exercise that can motivate to improve performance especially when (a hypothesis) it is coupled with a reliable measure of maximum oxygen consumption.
This is very applicable as long as it is affordable. But completely infeasible in a city like Dayton where the schools are downsizing all sorts of non-NCLB programs because of a lack of $.
This is a future health promotion endeavor. But what do we care about the future health of our children? We only care about standardized test scores so the backsides of administrators are protected. Fitness be damned. Creativity be double damned.
This is fitness-generating and creative but likely very expensive.
Mr. Hughes,
Can you provide any links or YouTube videos about your work? It would be great to have a visual image of your work.
Dessa Dal Porto
Ashoka: Innovators for the Public
Changemakers
chagunyuka msiska
P.O. Box 215,
Mzuzu
Malawi
Africa
the videos will encourage us alot. will take our fears away about remoteness since we are in poor countries and always where by poverty is tamed. We have resources but untransformed. So knowing you will be vital and equally important
Chagunyuka,
Thanks so much for your input on the video. We're very excited to have the feature on the site. We would like very much to hear more of your thoughts on the entries. Keep in touch.
How is this different from the Revive Nation!? entry. I have purchased their pdf, looked over their motivational strategy and am going to present this (Revive Nation!) to 100 first year medical students at the Boonshoft School of Medicine in their first lecture in a Population Medicine, Prevention, Outcome Analysis course on August 6th. I will be challenging students to consider doing a Service Learning Project focused on the Revive Nation! process.
What can I tell these students about your effort? Do you have a manual or a website?
Charles Beauchamp MD, PhD
Associate Professor of Community Health
Boonshoft School of Medicine
Wright State University
charles.beauchampATwright.edu