University of Arkansas – CSCE Department



University of Arkansas – CSCE Department

Advanced Virtual Worlds – Spring 2013

Utilizing a Modular Approach to Gamification to Improve Nutrition and Fitness in Children

Chad Richards

1 Abstract

Obesity has been shown to contribute significantly to four of the six leading causes of death: heart disease, stroke, cancer, and diabetes [1, 6]. Energy imbalance between calories consumed and expended is the primary cause of obesity; therefore, obesity is largely preventable by making healthier eating choices and exercising regularly [9]. This problem is not isolated in adults. In 2011 more than 40 million children under the age of five were considered obese [9].

Providing health education is essential to prevent this devastating trend. Educating elementary school children could help prevent currently healthy students from making disastrous decisions in the future and work to reverse problems already present in overweight and obese children.

The primary aim of this project is to create a game framework and a suite of games within the framework used to educate--in a practical, cost-efficient, sustainable, and unobtrusive manner--diverse elementary school children about the benefits of proper nutrition and exercise to help guide these children to make better nutrition and exercise decisions in the real world.

To achieve the objective, the games must appeal to all children in the age group regardless of sex, race, ethnicity, or grade point average. Because there are many types of students and many kinds of activities (exercise, nutrition, activities, and knowledge units) that this game must appeal to, creating several mini-games is preferable to one large game. With one large game, there is little room for improvement once the initial version is complete. However, mini-games are modular: those that were not well-received could be revised or removed. More mini-games could be easily added in the future, as well including games created by third parties. The mini-games will be contained in a larger, changeable meta-game, and in this way, the architectural framework for the project is really a game of games.

To make the game more compelling, points will be awarded during the game, and these points will be converted to a dual currency in an in-game economy. In order to keep students exercising, two currency types will be awarded for different activities, ExerCoins for exercise games and NutriCoins for nutrition-based games. The currency will be able to be spent on in-game collectibles, such as new clothing and accessories for their avatar. In-game collectibles give students a reason to play the game and entice them to continue playing it once the initial novelty has run its course. Some of these items will require ExerCoins, some will require NutriCoins, and some will require both, meaning that to purchase some of the items, students will have to learn and also exercise.

In the future, the framework should scale by allowing students past the target grades. The games will not just be used at school in the future, but also when the student is home. The games will be cross-platform compatible and capable of being deployed to iPhone, Android, PC, and Mac. Third parties will also eventually be able to add modules to the framework.

2 1.0 Problem

The Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research defines obesity as having an excessive amount of body fat, which can lead to many diseases such as coronary heart disease, diabetes, and high blood pressure [1]. Furthermore, obesity and physical inactivity increases the risk of stroke and cancers of the breast (postmenopausal), endometrium (the lining of the uterus), colon, kidney, and esophagus [2]. In fact, the leading cause of cancer these days is obesity, according to The Associated Press, with about one in twelve new cases of the disease due to excess weight [3]. Also, as of 2009, diabetes affects more than 230 million people, almost 6% of the world's adult population [4]. In children, one-third are currently affected by obesity or excess weight [12].

Obesity and a lack of physical activity are the leading causes of type-2 diabetes, responsible for 95% of the total diabetes cases in the United States [4, 5, 6]. Moreover, eating an unhealthy diet and physical inactivity are shown to contribute significantly to four of the six leading causes of death: heart disease, stroke, cancer, and diabetes [6]. Over 100,000 Americans die each year from obesity-related deaths [6], and the medical care costs of obesity in the United States, alone, are staggering. In 2008, these costs totaled about $147 billion dollars [7]. More than 72 million adults in America are obese, and 2.4 million more people were obese in 2009 compared to 2007 [7].

During the past 20 years, there has been a dramatic increase in obesity in the United States, and rates remain high. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, “In 2010 no state had a prevalence of obesity less than 20%.” [8] In fact, “thirty-six states had a prevalence of 25% or more; 12 of these states (Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia) had a prevalence of 30% or more.” [8]

More than doubling since 1980, obesity has become a worldwide epidemic [4, 9]. The World Health Organization reported in 2008 that 200 million men and nearly 300 million women were obese worldwide [9]. Also, at least 2.8 million adults die each year as a result of being overweight or obese [9]. Without drastic changes in worldwide diet and exercise habits, the International Diabetes Federation predicts that at least one in ten adults could have diabetes by 2030 [10]. It is predicted that by 2030, half of Americans will be obese [11].

3 2.0 Objective

The primary aims of the project are to create a game framework and a suite of games within the framework used to educate--in a practical, cost-efficient, sustainable, and unobtrusive manner--diverse elementary school children in 1st through 3rd grades about the benefits of proper nutrition and exercise and to guide these children to make better nutrition and exercise decisions in the real world.

4 3.0 Background

1 3.1 Key Concepts

Unity3D

Unity is a popular game engine used by developers. A game engine is a collection of tools that allow for easy creation of video games. Because the majority of features are available freely, and there is a large availability of books and support documents, this engine makes a great choice for games such as the ones that shall be created in this project. Unity also has an additional benefit of being able to easily port to multiple platforms, such as PC, World Wide Web, or Android devices.

Web Design (MySQL, PHP, HTML5)

The mini-games will be distributed on a website, . The framework and administrator control panel will also be available on the website. There are many connections that must be made in order for this to work. For instance, game names and passwords are stored in a MySQL database. To access student information, such as the user's preferred language, a game designed in Unity will post information to a PHP script. This script will check the game's user name and password according to what was submitted against the stored set of values in the database. If these match, the PHP script will return information back to Unity. Each approved game will have a unique name and password stored in the database and will be considered a part of the framework.

For the administrator control panel, a combination of HTML5, PHP, and MySQL are utilized. Each user has a role, whether that is Administrator, Developer, Healthcare Administrator, School Administrator, Teacher, Player, or Student. Different roles are capable of different tasks, such as adding, editing, or removing users and adding content to games.

2 3.2 Related Work

Apps For Healthy Kids

“The Apps for Healthy Kids competition is a part of First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! campaign to end childhood obesity within a generation. Apps for Healthy Kids challenges software developers, game designers, students, and other innovators to develop fun and engaging software tools and games that drive children, especially 'tweens' (ages 9-12) – directly or through their parents – to eat better and be more physically active.

Tools and games should be built using the USDA nutrition dataset recently made available to the public through the Open Government Initiative. The dataset provides information on total calories, calories from “extras” (solid fats and added sugars), and MyPyramid food groups for over 1,000 commonly eaten foods. We are seeking innovative and creative tools and games that use the USDA dataset to deliver nutrition and health concepts in a fun and engaging way. [12]”

Khan Academy

“Khan Academy is an organization on a mission. We're a not-for-profit with the goal of changing education for the better by providing a free world-class education for anyone anywhere.

All of the site's resources are available to anyone. It doesn't matter if you are a student, teacher, home-schooler, principal, adult returning to the classroom after 20 years, or a friendly alien just trying to get a leg up in earthly biology. Khan Academy's materials and resources are available to you completely free of charge. [13]”

SCORM

“SCORM is a set of technical standards for e-learning software products. SCORM tells programmers how to write their code so that it can “play well” with other e-learning software. It is the de facto industry standard for e-learning interoperability. Specifically, SCORM governs how online learning content and Learning Management Systems (LMSs) communicate with each other. SCORM does not speak to instructional design or any other pedagogical concern, it is purely a technical standard. [14]”

5 4.0 Design

1 4.1 Use Cases

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2 4.2 Edufitment Architectural Framework

The framework for this project is hierarchical and can accommodate heterogeneity within the mini-games as long as they all fit into the top-level game architecture by following its protocols. For instance, each initial mini-game involves different architectures, or at the very least, different ways of utilizing the architectures involved. Connecting the mini-games, the overarching framework model also uses a separate set of technologies. First, the overall framework connecting each game will be described in detail in this section. Then, each mini-game will be described in the next section. Finally, future work and potential impact of the games will be exemplified.

One of the protocols common across games is the notion of a system of rewards. The overarching framework connects each game by the use of a dual currency, ExerCoins and NutriCoins. ExerCoins are won by playing exercise-related games, such as Out-Dance the Elephant, and NutriCoins are won by playing games focused on nutrition, such as Quiz Show. In the future, these coins will be spent on in-game collectibles in a multi-player hub game that will also allow students from the same school to chat with each other, have an avatar, and own an upgradeable home.

Another protocol across games is the notion of a social network which provides an administrative capability and a record keeping capability to allow multiple players to play games and cooperate or complete. The framework model is able to be accessed at . It utilizes several technologies, including HTML5, CSS, PHP, and MySQL, and defines seven roles: Administrator, Developer, Healthcare Administrator, School Administrator, Teacher, Student, and Player. Each role has different permissions, which are pictured in the use cases diagram in section 4.1 of this document and will be described in this section. The Edufitment framework also provides an API for first and third-party games to utilize in order to gain access to certain aspects of user data and submit game scores, which are then converted to coins. Multilingual capabilities are built into the framework, as well, so that users whose first language is not English may also join in on the fun. The framework also employs security features in order to prevent malicious attempts to gain access to user data.

As mentioned, the framework consists of several technologies. The website, , was developed using HTML5 for displaying content and CSS for styling content. PHP was used to give each role different permissions, allow for dynamic content, and connecting with the MySQL database. The MySQL database consists of a user table, a games table, a currency table (which provides a game score to coin converter, useful for when supply and demand change for in-game collectibles), and several tables for storing first-party game data, such as the questions in the Quiz Show game. Finally, Javascript was used to display each game on the website.

For added security, not everyone may use the Edufitment framework. Instead, Edufitment defines several roles, and each role has a separate set of permissions. Administrators are the highest level role, and as such, have the most permissions. Administrators can add, remove, and modify any type of user: other Administrators, Developers, Healthcare Administrators, School Administrators, Teachers, Students, and Players. Administrators are also capable of adding, removing, or modifying game content, such as adding extra questions or categories to the Quiz Show game. Administrators are the only role capable of approving third-party games, and adding them to the framework. Administrators are also the only role that has the ability to modify the ExerCoin and NutriCoin amount for users. This feature was added in case of emergencies, such as server failures or malicious parties that have managed to gain access to a user account.

Developers have the ability to add, remove, or modify other Developers. They may also add, remove, or modify game content. Healthcare Administrators have the ability to add, remove, or modify other Healthcare Administrators, School Administrators, Teachers, Students, and Players. They may also add, remove, or modify game content. School Administrators may add, remove, or modify other School Administrators, Teachers, and Students, so long as they are within the same group (school). They may also add, remove, or modify Players (players do not belong to a group). Teachers may add, remove, or modify other Teachers and Students so long as they belong to the same group. They may also add, remove, or modify Players. Students, as well as Players and every other role, may play games, earn ExerCoins and NutriCoins, and spend their earned coins. Every role is capable of changing his or her settings, such as their own password, nickname, system of units, language preference, and/or gender.

Aside from the various roles and permission sets, the framework model provides a common external Application Programming Interface (API) for first and third-parties to use. Currently, this API provides two primary functions: checking a user's credentials and inserting a user's score. First-party games have additional functions available to them, based on the game. For instance, Quiz Show may retrieve categories and questions from the database. Out-Dance the Elephant may retrieve a user's heart rate. Checking a user's credentials and inserting a user's score are powerful features that require security measures to prevent malicious use. For instance, if there were no security measures provided, a game could insert a score over and over again, making the ExerCoin and NutriCoin currencies worthless. More important, however, is the fact that a user's credentials could be obtained without some security measures in place.

As such, security and privacy protocols are an important aspect of the Edufitment framework, and several measures were taken to prevent malicious parties from accessing user data. The first measure is that there are specific designed roles, as mentioned, and each of these has a separate and unequal set of permissions. This has been described in detail in the preceding paragraphs. The next security measure that was taken was to require games that connect to the API to submit a game name and password before any user data may be accessed. Each game has a unique name and password entry (stored as a one-way md5 hash) in the MySQL database. Thus, only approved games may access the API. Part of the approval process for third party games is for this unique game name and password to be assigned and added to the games table in the database. The game password may be changed by Administrators and Developers only. Another measure that was taken was to display a list of approved third-party games on the website. This can prevent a user from being fooled by a malicious application into entering their credentials. Though these are excellent measures, there are more measures that may be taken—which shall be described in the Future Work section of this document—to prevent other types of attacks, such as brute force attacks or attacks by malicious users who attempt to access a high-level role that may have forgotten to log out.

Another protocol of the framework is that the capability of translating to multiple languages are built directly into the framework itself. This makes the games easily expandable to a very large user base. To facilitate this feature, a file containing a list of string variables (text holders) was created. To add another language, this file would merely need to be translated and saved as the ISO 639-1 two-letter language code with a .php extension. For example, the English language file is stored as en.php. Each role may change his or her language preference, and games retrieve information from the API in the language of the user's choice. For instance, if a student has set Spanish as his or her language, the Quiz Show games would retrieve questions in Spanish.

3 4.3 Edufitment Mini-Games

4.3.2 2D Platformer (tentatively titled The Adventures of Super Healthy Kid and Princess Nutricare)

The 2D Platformer game was initially utilized as simply a way of familiarizing with the Unity3D development environment. However, there is much potential for this game to expand. Though the health education would be minimal, the would provide a subtle way for students to learn to recognize which foods are healthy and which are not.

The premise of the game is simple; avoid the unhealthy food in order to grab a key that unlocks the door out of the level. Currently, the game provides several enemy types—Doughnut, Pie, Cupcake, and Twinkie—with various abilities. For instance, if the Pie sees the player, the Pie speeds up, heading toward the player, but the Pie cannot see far above itself, so the player can continually jump to best avoid the Pie once seen. The Doughnut simply rolls back and forth currently, but could be expanded to leave a trail of jelly that would slow the user. Cupcakes are hopper enemies with the largest range of sight and will hop toward the player to attempt to squash him or her. The Twinkie is perhaps the easiest enemy currently in the game. It can see the player further than the Pie, but is slower than the player and will fall to its doom attempting to catch a player. The player currently has three lives, and if the player touches an enemy, the player will lose a life, flash red for a few seconds, and grow (as if the player ate the unhealthy food and is bigger now).

This game is easily expandable with more enemy types, more and diverse levels, and player abilities. The abilities could be obtained by eating healthy foods. For instance, eating a strawberry could render the player invulnerable for a several seconds. Levels could be diverse, including an ice level, making it hard to traverse the slippery terrain. Once complete, the game can be added to the framework so that coins can be earned for playing the game.

4.3.3 Fruit and Vegetable Hunt

[pic]

The goal of the Fruit and Vegetable Hunt game is to teach students to recognize whether a food is a fruit or a vegetable and the top nutrients each fruit and vegetable are highest in. The game was developed in the Unity game engine and consists of two bullet types, one for shooting fruit, the other for shooting vegetables. If the player shoots a fruit with a vegetable bullet or a vegetable with a fruit bullet, the player is penalized. While playing the game, information about the nutrient content of each fruit or vegetable will be displayed. As the player progresses, more fruits and vegetables will appear. No fruit or vegetable stays for long, so the player must be able to quickly recognize which is a fruit and which is a vegetable. This game allows for easy expansion by adding additional fruits and vegetables. Currently, the game still needs to be added to the framework, and gameplay needs to be evaluated for improvements.

4.3.4 Out-Dance the Elephant / Win the Fight

The Out-Dance the Elephant / Win the Fight game opens up an entire class of simulation games that can be produced using heart rate data. Developed in Unity, the game currently exists primarily as a proof-of-concept version. The game is fully working, even as a part of the framework, but contains no graphics and few songs. A Zephyr Bioharness 3 BlueTooth heart rate monitor is worn by the game player [15]. The player logs into an application developed for the Android platform. This program pairs with the Bioharness, and continually listens for heart rate data. Once received, the data is submitted to a PHP script which updates a database entry containing the current user id, timestamp, and heart rate. A second application, the Out-Dance the Elephant game, continually connects to another PHP script which retrieves the heart rate data. The heart rate is then used to play the game. To be usable, all of this sending and retrieving must occur within only a few seconds. In testing, the time between sending and receiving never reached two seconds.

The premise of the game is that there is a dancing elephant on the screen. Your job is to out-dance the elephant by keeping your heart rate elevated in this challenging and fun exergame featuring a plug-in heart rate monitor. Alternatively, you are a boxer. Keep your heart rate up to win the fight against your opponent.

Eventually, there will be several challenge modes available to the user: Beginner, Standard, H.I.I.T., and Tabata Challenge. In both beginner and standard mode, the user will be given a set of times (10 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes, etc.) allotted until the elephant is beaten. In these modes, if the user keeps their heart rate high enough for the allotted time, they have out-danced the elephant. The difference between beginner and standard modes will be the percent of maximum heart rate requirements. In each of the modes, down time will be given at regular intervals to allow the user to rest without penalty. In the H.I.I.T. Mode, the dance lasts between 15 and 30 minutes and the workout/dance follows a 2:1 ratio. For example, if 15 minutes is selected, the user will have to keep his or her heart rate at 75%+ for one minute, then have an active recovery for 30 seconds, keeping the heart rate between 50-75% during that time. This interval would be repeated 10 times, beating the elephant if the user lasts all ten intervals. Tabata Challenge is similar to H.I.I.T., only the dance lasts 4 minutes: 20 seconds at 80%+ followed by 10 seconds of rest until the Tabata (the entire 4 minutes) is complete. The user will be able to select how many Tabatas they wish to accomplish to successfully out-dance the elephant.

Dancing will not have to be done to win the game. Dance moves will not be monitored, only heart rate, but it is likely the user will want to attempt to copy the elephant. In each mode, a timer will be located at the bottom telling the user how long they have left. If the player drops below the heart rate requirement during a non-scheduled time, a health bar will decrease. If health bar is completely depleted, the player will lose the game. The player will be rewarded ExerCoins for out-dancing the elephant. Unique music will have to be created, or royalty-free music will need to be obtained in order to avoid licensing fees and royalties. An additional security measure was added that resets the game if the connection to the Bioharness has been lost for more than ten seconds, preventing a user from turning the Bioharness off several times during the game in an attempt to win the game with very little effort. The alternative to this game is Win the Fight! The player will be fighting and have to keep up his or her heart rate to win the match. The same levels and modes could be applied to this version of the game.

Out-Dance the Elephant and Win the Fight! are only two examples of simulation games that can created using the heart rate data. For instance, a racing game could be created which has the player winning the race if the heart rate requirement is met. Simulating action games would most likely work best to motivate the player to continue running, jogging, dancing, or boxing, but there are many types of action games that could be created, opening up a world of potential for this concept.

4.3.5 Quiz Show Game

The Quiz Show game is very similar to Jeopardy in gameplay, but there are several differences. The player always has control of the board. Players do not see what answer enemy opponents give, only whether the opponent answered correctly or incorrectly. Questions are in the form of questions instead of answers. There is only one level, no double or final level, and players get to keep whatever points they earn so long as the dollar value they score is greater than zero (ExerCoins and NutriCoins are meant to only ever subtracted by actually spending the coins). Additionally, questions and categories can be added to the game using the Edufitment framework without having to recompile the game.

Created in Unity, this game is a quiz that retrieves random questions from an expandable online database of quiz questions and puts them forth to the players. Players are pitted against three NPC (non-playable characters). Categories are listed on a board and can be selected by the player. The game ends when no more questions are available, and the user with the highest points wins. Three difficulty levels are available in the game, Beginner, Normal, and Hard. Each higher difficulty level grants a higher dollar value for questions at the expense of more difficult enemy opponents. This game is perhaps the most complete of any of the mini-games. Further improvements could include additional enemy opponents, which can be easily created and added to the game. Sounds could also be added to improve the game, and graphics of the game could be improved. More questions and can easily be added.

4.3.6 Record Keeper

Record Keeper is more of an application than a game. It was created in HTML5 and also utilizes PHP, Javascript, and MySql. The purpose of Record Keeper is to store any record. A record is defined as an entry name, an amount, an optional unit, and a timestamp. An example usage of the record-keeping program is to track weight over time. Here, weight would be the entry name. The amount would be the weight value itself, and unit could be kilograms or pounds, for instance.

Currently, records can be added to the database, but there are several features that still need to be implemented. A graphical display of the change in entry amounts over time is in the works, and the ability to edit and remove entries needs to be implemented. The display will be in the form of graphs drawn on an HTML5 canvas element. There will be options for displaying different amounts of time; for instance, one day, five days, one week, one month, three months, six months, year to date, one year, three years, and five years are all good candidates to be added to the user-selectable options for the graph.

Manually creating exercise log entries is one option (which Record Keeper implements). Another option is to connect to the API for any of many exercise monitor devices (e.g., FitBit).

4 4.4 Potential Impact

This project is being positioned for an NIH grant in collaboration with health professionals from areas such as nursing, nutrition, and exercise science. The project has five specific aims: to determine whether obesity prevalence and changes in obesity levels differ between children receiving the intervention and those who do not, over time; to investigate immediate (short-term) and long-term effects of the interventions; to investigate social and economic disparities in overweight and obese over time; to decrease risk factors associated with being overweight and/or obese; to assess the cost-effectiveness of the intervention. The project is based on collaboration between key stakeholders to implement an integrated long-term school program that will assess innovative strategies and the translation of evidence-based interventions with the goal to halt the growing rates of obesity in children. By finding ways of embedding effective, sustainable, and cost-effective interventions, decision-makers and public health professionals will be better equipped to implement more effective, targeted, and comprehensive public policies against this epidemic, and to minimize barriers to physical activity and better nutrition, especially for at-risk populations. These policies, in turn, will have long-term impacts on restraining obesity, on improving the health of children, and ultimately, on alleviating obesity societal and financial burden.

5 4.5 Future Work

There are many improvements that can be made in this project. Though security measures were taken to prevent malicious access to user data, there are several attacks in which the framework is still vulnerable. For instance, provided a malicious party knows the location of the API scripts and the variable names used for storing the game name and password, the party could attempt a brute force attack by continually attempting login with a new game name and password until successful. This attack is unlikely to occur given the attacker would need to know the correct variable names, and would have to attack for both different game names and passwords, but it is still possible. To aid in preventing this type of attack, if the user does enter a valid game name, a game could be locked out after a few incorrect login attempts. Another attack, which is more feasible, is that a user of the framework could log in on a public computer and forget to log out. There is no solution provided for this attack currently, but an improvement could be to require the user to re-enter a password each time a form is submitted (such as removing a user). A third attack affects the players. The Edufitment website provides a list of approved third-party games, but if the user was unaware, or if a malicious party were to make a game with the same name and look, the user could be tricked into entering his or her credentials to a malicious party. There are not many solutions to this, other than what has been provided, a list of approved third-party games. Not only is a list provided, but a link to each approved game will be provided upon clicking the respective third-party game link. If the user does become susceptible to this attack, he or she could request his or her password to be reset. Aside from increased security measures, a third-party evaluation form needs to be created so that third-party games can be evaluated for potential acceptance into the framework. Translations also need to be made for the language file so that the website will be available in multiple languages.

Besides the framework, each game has the potential to be improved. The 2D platformer has much that can be improved, such as more enemies, animation scripts for player avatars, and more levels. Fruit and Vegetable Hunt could be changed to have each level represent a new type of vitamin and mineral. Instead of learning the difference between a fruit and a vegetable, then, there would be one bullet type, and on the Potassium level, for instance, fruits or vegetables high in Potassium would be the correct ones to shoot. Out-Dance the Elephant obviously needs an animated dancing elephant, along with graphics for the health bar and more songs to be provided. The Quiz Show game can be expanded with additional categories and questions, better graphics, and sound effects. Record Keeper currently lacks the ability to edit and remove entries; also, a graph of the change of entry amounts over time needs to be created. A place to spend the coins a player earns needs to be created, as well. Additionally, more games can be added to the framework to provide a large set of games for kids to play.

6 4.6 Risks

|Risk |Risk Reduction |

|Student account information could be exposed. |The student accounts are password-protected. Each student's password is encrypted using a |

| |one-way hash. All games, whether they are first party games or third party games, must |

| |provide a user name and password associated with the game before they can access any student|

| |information. An approved list of third party games appears on the website |

| |(). |

7 4.7 Tasks

1. Understand/gain background on the Unity3d Game Engine.

2. Design game framework, games, and website.

3. Implement games into game framework.

4. Test control panel features of website, test games to ensure they work properly, and test the framework for privacy and ease of use.

5. Demonstrate prototypes of several games and website.

6. Document problem, approach, potential solution, user manuals of games, details of framework, and use of website.

8 4.8 Deliverables

• Design Document

• Code

• Final Report

6 5.0 Key Personnel

• Chad Richards – Richards is a graduate student majoring in Computer Engineering in the Computer Science and Computer Engineering Department at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. He has completed relevant courses in algorithms and virtual worlds. He has been a professional web designer for the past ten years, with experience in various scripting and database languages. In his design job, he has also created several web applications, requiring the use of programming languages such as C, C++, and Java and scripting languages such as Flash Actionscript, HTML5, PHP, and SQL. In this project, he acted as lead architect of the game framework, lead web designer, lead game architect for several of the mini-games, and as a supervisor and assistant programmer for several of the mini-games.

• Dr. Craig Thompson, Mentor – Thompson is a professor in the Computer Science and Computer Engineering Department. He leads the Everything is Alive research project that is currently focusing on how to simulate pervasive computing using 3D virtual worlds. See .

7 6.0 References

[1] Mayo clinic staff (6 May 2011). Obesity: Definition. Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research. Retrieved from .

[2] National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health (16 Mar 2004). Obesity and Cancer: Questions and Answers. National Cancer Institute Factsheet. Retrieved from

.

[3] Black, Rosemary (24 Sep 2009). Obesity is now the leading cause of cancer. New York Daily

News. Retrieved from 24/entertainment/17932457_1_colorectal-cancer-common-cancers-cancer-deaths.

[4] IDF Atlus Third Edition, WDF backgrounders, and WDD website (n.d.). Key Facts. World

Diabetes Foundation. Retrieved from .

[5] WebMD Medical Reference (2008). Causes of Type 2 Diabetes. WebMd, LLC. Retrieved from .

[6] Center for Science in the Public Interest (n.d.). Obesity Factsheet. Liquid Candy: How Soft Drinks are Harming America's Health. Retrieved from .

[7] Center for Disease Control and Prevention (3 Aug 2010). Adult Obesity. CDC Vital Signs.

Retrieved from .

[8] Center for Disease Control and Prevention (21 Jul 2011). U.S. Obesity Trends. Overweight and Obesity Data and Statistics. Retrieved from .

[9] World Health Organization (Mar 2011). Obesity and overweight. World Health Organization

Media Center Factsheets. Retrieved from .

[10] Associated Press (14 Nov 2011). 1 in 10 Adults Could Have Diabetes by 2030. ABC News.

Retrieved from peoplediabetes-2030-14944807#.TsafFITjuSo.

[11] Moisse, Katie (25 Aug 2011). Obesity Rates Projected to Soar. ABC News. Retrieved from

?

id=14381466#.TsagEITjuSo.

[12] (7 Mar 2013). Apps For Healthy Kids. Retrieved from .

[13] Khan Academy® (7 Mar 2013). Khan Academy. Retrieved from .

[14] Rustici Software (7 Mar 2013). Scorm Explained. Retrieved from explained/.

[15] Zephyr Technology Corp (2012). BioHarnessTM Remote Physiological Monitor. Retrieved from .

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Illustration 1: Example of Edufitment Framework Displaying the Quiz Show Game

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Illustration 2: 2D Platformer Game

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Illustration 3: Fruit and Vegetable Hunt Game

[pic]Illustration 4: Out-Dance the Elephant

[pic]Illustration 5: Out-Dance the Elephant -- Losing Health

[pic]Illustration 6: Quiz Show Game -- Question Answered Correctly

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Illustration 7: Quiz Show Game -- Online Question Manager

[pic]Illustration 8: Record Keeper

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