Paralyzed Man Walks in Second Life

And happily, no one was on hand to grief it. A 41-year-old Japanese man who suffers from a progressive muscle disease that has left him almost totally paralyzed, moved his Second Life character about a virtual environment using his brain waves, reports Agence France-Presse.

The experiment is significant because the signals his brain sent to move the character came from the man imagining that he was walking. He also used a microphone to meet and converse with another Second Lifer. Then a swarm of flying penises surrounded him and the appalled researchers. OK, just kidding about that.

Grants Awarded For Inspiring Health Games Research

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has revealed 12 universities that will receive grants to research the use of video games as healthcare tools. Games have shown clear potential to serve healthcare, from helping stroke victims rehabilitate, encouraging seniors to exercise and teaching behavior for therapy. Exhaustive research and hard data will further drive the growth of games as healthcare tools for people of all ages, and the grant recipients aim to support this goal.

It's about taking advantage of the burgeoning video game trend instead of attacking it, said Deborah Lieberman Ph.D., communications researcher at the University of California at Santa Barbara, during the organization's announcement conference today.

"Research has shown you can learn whatever a video game offers. The question is, what are you going to teach?" said Lieberman.

12 universities were awarded $200,000 grants for innovative research concepts that will either develop new games or use existing commercial games to address specific health issues across all areas of the population. An MMO designed to help alcoholics learn relapse prevention and a social mobile game that would teach healthy eating habits to adolescents are just a couple of the winning ideas - one of them even involves Crazy Taxi.

Ubisoft Brings Easyway To Stop Smoking To DS Months Late

Back on Friday I decided that after over 22 years it was finally time for me to quit smoking. Since then I've made enemies of my cats, yelled at anyone with the gall to call me on the telephone I purchased to stay in touch with those same people, made vicious enemies of my cats, and started repeating myself. Now Ubisoft proudly announces Allen Carr's Easyway To Stop Smoking, due out in November for the Nintendo DS. Really? November?

Allen Carr's Easyway to Stop Smoking book is one of the most highly regarded books on the subject of kicking cancer sticks, published in 50 different countries. Famous folk like Ashton Kutcher, Ellen DeGeneres, and Richard Branson all swear by his program, while I sit in my apartment, sweating and shaking.

"Ubisoft's creative team has worked hard to deliver a game that successfully communicates Allen Carr's Easyway method via play,” said Christian Salomon, vice president of worldwide licensing at Ubisoft. "The player experiences a truly interactive engagement with the game through which he or she learns that it can actually be enjoyable to quit smoking.”

Dozen Research Teams Get Games For Health Grants

More than $2 million in grants is being handed out to teams researching how video games can improve players' health.

While the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation doesn't plan to announce the dozen research teams who will be awarded the grant money until Thursday, they did say that the funded studies will explore topics ranging from how motion-based games may help stroke patients progress faster in physical therapy to how people in substance abuse treatment can practice skills and behaviors in the virtual world to prevent real-world relapses.

I'd like to think that at least one is looking at the WiiFit and how it does at raising awareness of BMI, but maybe it's too soon for it to have soaked into academia.

It's heartening to see that the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the nation's largest philanthropy devoted to improving the health of Americans, has decided it's worth investing so much money to "explore how games can increase physical activity and enhance prevention, self-management of health conditions".

Hit the jump for the full release.

Olympic Committee Prez Doesn't See "Real" Success In Video Games

Kids aren't as interested in sports and it's hard to get them involved, says International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Jacques Rogge. Young people like other things! Video games, for instance. Says Rogge:

Kids are attracted to visual, interactive forms of communication. It's not going to be easy for sport to counter that... You won't hear me saying sport is not fun — it is. But it requires austerity and discipline. The answer is achievement. You will never achieve in a video game. It is not really success.

So glad the IOC is headed by an open minded fellow.

London 2012 And The Game Gen [The Times via MCVUK]

Don't Smoke At All With Pokemon

decided that every time that I wanted a cigarette, I would turn on my DS and play some Pokémon. But the thing about going from two packs a day to cold turkey is that at first, you always want a cigarette. So the first three days, I did nothing but play Poémon non-stop. My routine was to sleep extra late (because if I'm not awake, I'm not craving a smoke), play Pokémon for about 8 hours with breaks to stretch and eat, read Pokémon walkthroughs, F.A.Q.s, strategies, and websites, and then sleep... After the initial push, it just required the willpower to keep playing Pokémon instead of smoking.

Sonic Candy... Cigarettes? (Smoke If You Got 'Em!)

Gamer Risks Death To Save Nephew

On September 4th of last year, firefighter Jeff Diederich came home from work to discover his year-old son Aiden lying strangely still in his crib, grey and yellowed from Jaundice. He and his wife Heather rushed to the hospital only to discover that Aiden needed a liver transplant, and was no way the always crowded National Donor List route would save him in time. Their only option was a living transplant, where a portion of a living donor's liver is transplanted into the recipient. The father offered to undergo the procedure, but his family changed his mind. The 40% risk of donor death meant that Heather would be left alone with two children, so they had to look elsewhere. Enter Aiden's Uncle, Jeff Shoemaker.

Jeff, the uncle, recalls, "after seeing him laying there with all the tubes and hoses, cables and wires I think all my fears went away. My life was worth giving to save his, and if that's what it took, I was fine with that."

We know the Wii can make you healthier, but what about the DS? Ubisoft is putting Nnitendo's handheld to the test this summer with My Weight Loss Coach, a nutrition and fitness application aimed at making you more portable with your portable. The applications, developed under the guidance of a fitness coach and nutritionist, allows you to create a personal profile, evaluate your improvement potential, and set up objectives towards a healthier you. To aid in tracking your daily exercise, My Weight Loss Coach will come packaged with a pedometer peripheral that interfaces with the DS, which you can then shake all day long to make yourself feel better about sitting on the couch eating donuts for twelve hours. Mmmm, donuts.

Wii Is An Exercise "Gimmick"?

It looks like another gimmick. It's pandering to the views of the physically idle... Pupils would be far better doing serious competitive sports and games than this sort of thing.

Wii-mote Makes Better Surgeons

The whole point about surgery is to execute small, finely controlled movements with your hands, and that is exactly what you get playing... But you don't gain a lot from swinging an imaginary tennis racket.

UK McDonald's Boss Blames Games For Obesity

"I don't know who is to blame," Mr Easterbrook says. "The issue of obesity is complex and is absolutely one our society is facing, there's no denial about that, but if you break it down I think there's an education piece: how can we better communicate to individuals the importance of a balanced diet and taking care of themselves? Then there's a lifestyle element: there's fewer green spaces and kids are sat home playing computer games on the TV when in the past they'd have been burning off energy outside.

Pepsi-Sponsored Game Fights Mexican Obesity

Mexico is one of the world's leading producers of fat children, thanks to the nation's propensity for friend foods and the overwhelming popularity of soft drinks - the country is second only to the United States in soda consumption. Now one brave soft drink company has risen above the rest to combat Mexico's growing childhood obesity epidemic. Are they pulling their product? Making it healthier? No! They're making a video game. A tamagotchi-style game to be exact, where children must guide a character called a Nutrin through everyday choices involving healthy and well-balanced eating. Will it work?

"It's great," Cesar shouted above the din of digital yeehahs, boings, burps and jingles as his class wallowed in their weekly session. "It teaches you what you should eat." The 10-year old's ample frame spilling over his chair belied his claim that he already eats mostly fruit and vegetables and drinks only water, but he was certainly having fun. The conversation was cut short when his nutrin began demanding attention: "I'm hungry," it said.

I really love it when you guys do all the research for us. DC area Kotakuite Billkwando saw a version of the above advertisement on the side of a bus while making his way around town, only in Spanish with the heading, "El Sofa Asesino", which of course translates into "Awesome name for a luchador." While I understand that The Health Care System Foundation, who created this advertisement, would have to go to the trouble of photoshopping the Xbox 360 into a more nondescript form and have the child holding a wired controller that isn't technically plugged into anything, there are a few things I don't understand. For instance, why pick such an overweight child for a model, and Killer Sofa?Come on. I mean, it certainly is a nice sofa, and it looks comfortable, but I wouldn't call it a Killer Sofa. Nice sofa maybe. Not killer.

Download The Killer Sofa In PDF Form [The HCS Foundation - Thanks Billkwando!]

Kaiser Permanente's Health Game Flatlines

At the start of my tour of duty as guest editor here on Kotaku, I mentioned the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's announcement of an $8.25m grant call to support games for health. I also said I hoped the RWJF incentive might produce better health games, rather than just more health games.

To drive this point home, I want to share a recent, high profile health game that represents just how these things can go very wrong.

$8.25m for Health Games Research

Games for Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation have announced $8.25 in new grants for Health Games Research. The grants are intended to "support research to enhance the quality and effectiveness of interactive games that are used to improve health."

According to the press release, the foundation will award up to $2 million of the total for studies on effective health game design. Proposals are due January 29, 2008. Another $2 million round is expected in 2009. The program will be directed by Dr. Debra Lieberman at UC Santa Barbara. Among her prior work include SNES games on asthma and diabetes.

Here's hoping this will improve the quality of health related games, not just the number of swings at the ball.

Health Games Research [Robert Wood Johnson Foundation]