Here’s a typical scene: A trio of twenty-something young men are hunched around the new Super Mario Galaxy (and later, Grand Auto Theft IV): The players stare wide-eyed at the screen, rarely blinking. Once a Mario Kart Wii race is finished, the players’ bodies seem to relax in unison...

Okay, so it started getting a little steamy towards the end, but still, that sort of situation can cause eye strain, headaches, and other symptoms of CVS (low prescription prices?). What I don't get is that they feel the need to issue a press release offering up this advice: A

At the minimum, adjust work or play station, avoid glare, blink, and take a break

Hey kids! If you require a press release to remind you to blink your eyes, your problems go way beyond CVS. Hit the jump for the full helpful release.

Video Games Can Cause More Than Virtual Eyestrain, According to the Minnesota Optometric Association

MINNEAPOLIS—(BUSINESS WIRE)—When video game enthusiasts become engrossed in the game, their eyes are glued to the screen. The Minnesota Optometric Association (MOA) says that gamers of all ages often suffer from Computer Vision Syndrome (CVS). Without giving up the hugely popular pastime, players can avoid eyestrain and other symptoms of CVS.

Here’s a typical scene: A trio of twenty-something young men are hunched around the new Super Mario Galaxy (and later, Grand Auto Theft IV): The players stare wide-eyed at the screen, rarely blinking. Once a Mario Kart Wii race is finished, the players’ bodies seem to relax in unison, including their eyes, but only momentarily until another race begins. Then their entire attention is focused on the screen. They don’t hear someone trying to interrupt. During the next several hours, the three players slouch and sink into the couch, rarely moving except to get a drink or snack. Several times they rub their eyes during these brief breaks.

When their session ended, two young men admitted their eyes were very dry. All three had sore backs. Eyestrain and other problems like these can also result from using hand-held game systems such as PlayStation Portable and Nintendo DS, because the screen is located on the controller. Players often become so engrossed in the video game that they don’t take breaks.

Dr. G. John Lach, president of the MOA and an optometrist with Carlson-Tillisch, Mankato, Minnesota, says that CVS can result from personal computer use for work as well as for video gaming. Constant eye movement and eye refocusing often strains the eye muscles. According to Dr. Lach, CVS may involve eye irritation, dry eyes, headaches, pain in the eyes or surrounding facial muscles, squinting, excessive blinking, increased sensitivity to light and difficulty focusing.

“Be sure there isn’t glare on the screen,” said Dr. Lach said. “Gamers need to sit directly in front of the screen instead of at an angle. The screen should be below eye level, not above it, yet most people have their screens at the wrong level. Taking a frequent break is really important. The best thing to do is get up, and focus on as far-away object as possible. Try to follow the ten-ten rule: for every ten minutes of gaming, take a break of ten seconds.”

According the American Optometric Association (AOA) American Eye-Q™ Survey, 82 percent of Americans frequently work at a computer, and an Omnibus study found that 42 percent spend three or more hours in front of a computer or hand-held device. The AOA found that 41 percent of its respondents have suffered from eyestrain. Computer glasses are available, as are anti-glare screens, although they are not often used. Usually, taking a few steps will avoid CVS. At the minimum, adjust work or play station, avoid glare, blink, and take a break.

The Minnesota Optometric Association has over 500 member doctors of optometry around the state. The MOA is committed to furthering awareness of optometrists as primary eye care or family eye doctors and to bringing about change that positively impacts the MOA member doctors and their patients. For more information on the MOA, visit www.minnesotasoptometrists.com

"Some people are just able to look at the game and in less than two minutes, get to the top score," said (UW associate professor of computer science and engineering) Zoran Popovic. "They can't even explain what they're doing, but somehow they're able to do it."

Created by University of Washington doctoral student Seth Cooper and postdoctoral researcher Adrien Treuille, working with Zoran Popovic, professor of biochemistry and Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator David Baker, and David Salesin, a UW professor of computer science and engineering, the game could revolutionize the way medical research is done.

"We're hopefully going to change the way science is done, and who it's done by," said Popovic, who presented the project today at the Games for Health meeting in Baltimore. "Our ultimate goal is to have ordinary people play the game and eventually be candidates for winning the Nobel Prize."

The team consulted with game developers in creation of Foldit, which along with human intuition introduces a competitive element to protein folding, allowing for players to create teams that will eventually compete against top researchers around the world. The game has been in testing with puzzles involving known proteins, and now they are beginning to move on to puzzles with unknown solutions. Later this year they intend to introduce proteins they wish existed, allowing players to possibly create all new biological creations within a game.

It remains to be seen how effective the Foldit is, but the concept itself is pure genius. If they could integrate this sort of thing into the Folding@Home project or just introduce it to consoles as a downloadable game via PSN or Xbox Live Arcade, they've immediately have some of the best minds in gaming at their disposal. Hell, with the push and pull mechanism of the puzzles I've played so far, even WiiWare wouldn't be out of the question, though then the medical community would have to tackle an even bigger problem - friend codes.

Computer Game's High Score Could Earn The Nobel Prize In Medicine [ScienceDaily]

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.

Unlike traditional video games that use a joy stick or finger controls, the Wii requires users to replicated the action of the sport they are playing. "You can't play tennis with your hand in your lap," Forsberg tells her patient. "You have to move your whole arm."

Far too easy.

With the patient's parents already seeing a marked improvement in their child with only the one session under her belt, it's yet another success story for Nintendo's plucky little console. Anyone else getting the feeling that the Wii will still be used in hospitals around the world long after we've moved on to whatever Nintendo has up its sleeve next? And will the mainstream press ever get over ending their Wii articles like this?

It's hard work, made easier, with a Wii bit of fun.

Wii makes for fun therapy at children's hospital [KARE 11 TV]

"The Vet started massaging the dogs belly and it just came flying out of the dog," said Marie Becknell. I knew what it was right away by the color and shape of it. It was my son's video game remote. The dog had swallowed the boy's Nintendo Wii remote controller.

Veterinarian Finds Wii Remote In Family Dog [Fun Tech Talk - Thanks Dennise!]

"The recent inclusion of PS3 as part of the Folding@home program has afforded our research group with computing power that goes far beyond what we initially hoped," said Vijay Pande, Associate Professor of Chemistry at Stanford University and Folding@home project lead. "Thanks to PS3, we are now essentially able to fast-forward several aspects of our research by a decade, which will greatly help us make more discoveries and advancements in our studies of several different diseases."

PLAYSTATION®3 Helps Folding@home Become The First Distributed Computing Network To Reach The Petaflop Milestone Reached Gamers Help Scientists Speed Up Their Research and Find Cures for Diseases Including Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Cancer

TOKYO and FOSTER CITY, Calif., September 19, 2007 - Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCEI) today announced that PLAYSTATION®3 (PS3™) computer entertainment systems, part of Stanford University's Folding@home™ program, have enabled the distributed computing project to reach a petaflop, a milestone never before reached on a distributed computing network. Known amongst the scientific community, a petaflop is the ability of a computer to do one quadrillion floating point operations per second (FLOPS). In other words, if every person on the planet were to perform a simple mathematical calculation, such as calculating a percentage, each person would have to perform 75,000 calculations every second for the world's population to achieve a petaflop.

By achieving a petaflop, scientists with the Folding@home program are now able to conduct research that typically would not be possible for 10 years down the line. Thanks to the PS3's powerful Cell Broadband Engine™ (Cell/B.E.), scientists will now be able to make greater progress in their studies of protein folding and its link to diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and certain forms of cancer.

"The recent inclusion of PS3 as part of the Folding@home program has afforded our research group with computing power that goes far beyond what we initially hoped," said Vijay Pande, Associate Professor of Chemistry at Stanford University and Folding@home project lead. "Thanks to PS3, we are now essentially able to fast-forward several aspects of our research by a decade, which will greatly help us make more discoveries and advancements in our studies of several different diseases."

"When we introduced PS3, we knew its incredible processing power would allow for a great deal of innovation and creativity," said Jack Tretton, president and CEO of SCEA. "It's extremely rewarding to see that the scientific community has found a way to harness PS3 technology for humanitarian purposes and we continue to be amazed at what gamers and the Folding@home community have been able to accomplish in such a short amount of time."

Because the process of folding proteins is so complex, computers are used to perform simulations to study the process. Since these simulations can take up to 30 years for a single computer to complete, Folding@home enables this task to be shared among thousands of computers connected via the network, utilizing distributed computing technology. The Folding@home program up until recently leveraged only the distributed computing power of personal computers (PC) from around the world. The PCs that made up the Folding@home network numbered roughly 200,000 giving the program the equivalent of about one-quarter of a petaflop. On March 15, 2007, PS3 joined the program and since then close to 600,000 unique PS3 users have registered to the Folding@home network, bringing the overall computing power of the program to more than a petaflop.

PS3 users can join the program by simply clicking on the Folding@home icon within the Network menu of the XMB™ (XrossMediaBar) or can optionally set the application to run automatically whenever the PS3 is idle (*1).

Yeah well at least it wasn't Bubsy.

"The Society and Vivendi Games anticipate that Crash's involvement will help attract more students to the Society's various youth programs due to his popularity with kids of all ages. More than 35 million Crash Bandicoot games have been sold worldwide since 1996, making Crash one of the most recognizable gaming and entertainment characters in the world."

Sure he is recognizable to an extent, in much the same way a failed prizefighter is recognized as he ducks into the local bar to drown his dreams of fame and fortune in booze like some 3rd-rate Rocky knockoff. We just shake our heads sadly and move along, remembering the good times.

Still, I applaud Vivendi for lending their character's image to such a worthy cause. Crash will be appearing on posters, pamphlets, clothing, and even the Society's website. Show your support for our plucky fallen icon by downloading some of the wallpapers and icons found at http://www.schoolandyouth.org.

Video Game Hero Crash Bandicoot Urges Kids to Join the Fight Against Leukemia

Crash is the New National Champion of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's School & Youth Programs

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y., Aug. 6 /PRNewswire/ — The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and Vivendi Games today announced that Crash Bandicoot, the valiant, action hero of the highly popular video game series, is the new national champion for the Society's School & Youth programs.

The partnership comes as Sierra Entertainment, a division of Vivendi Games prepares for the launch of the latest incarnation of the top-selling Crash Bandicoot game franchise, "Crash of the Titans", available this October on the Xbox(TM) 360, PlayStation(R)2, Wii(TM), NintendoDS(TM), PSP(R), Game Boy(R) Advance and mobile phone platforms.

Throughout his video game adventures, Crash must battle the evil Dr. Neo Cortex and his no good ways. In joining forces with the Society, Crash now helps in the fight against leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma. Crash, the fun-loving, adventure seeking marsupial is always ready for a good fight and is a natural fit for the School & Youth programs, which are geared towards teaching kids about community service and helping kids with leukemia and other blood cancers. In the 2006-2007 school year, more than 21,000 schools participated in the program, raising more than $18 million for blood cancer research and patient services.

The Society and Vivendi Games anticipate that Crash's involvement will help attract more students to the Society's various youth programs due to his popularity with kids of all ages. More than 35 million Crash Bandicoot games have been sold worldwide since 1996, making Crash one of the most recognizable gaming and entertainment characters in the world.

"We are extremely honored to be partnering with the Society and in joining the battle against Leukemia, Lymphoma and Myeloma," said Mark Halacy, executive vice president of Human Resources for Vivendi Games. "Crash is a bandicoot with a big heart; he's brave, he's loyal and he's always ready for a good fight and a great cause. We feel this is a winning combination for a tremendous cause."

Crash Bandicoot will appear on the School & Youth recruitment posters and other printed materials as well as on the School & Youth Web site, newsletters, apparel and other items. Free downloads of Crash wallpaper and icons are available at http://www.schoolandyouth.org.

"The Society is extremely excited about introducing Crash Bandicoot as the new national champion of School & Youth programs," said Nancy Klein, the Society's Senior Vice President of Marketing and Communications. "Crash is a fun, energetic character with tremendous appeal among kids and will help attract even wider interest in this life-saving campaign which has raised more than $100 million since its inception."

"This isn't the kind of technology, or model, that this industry — or Orkin — is used to considering," notes David Lamb, Orkin's vice president of learning and media services. He's working with senior officers in the company to build a business case for such training, and, given the potential savings the company could eventually realize across its 400 branch offices, "there's a very high probability we'll move into this arena."

Stone's other clients include a medical devices firm, a global energy company looking to train power plant employees in a safe environment, and a major logistics company that he's created a driving simulation for using the Wiimote in a plastic steering wheel assembly.

But why the Wiimote, when other motion sensing devices have been around for years?

The advantage of the Wiimote is that it's a "human-centric device," says Eric Klopfer, a professor at MIT. A gyroscopic mouse, by contrast, "maps well onto the computer's interface, but not to the person's. The Wiimote fits the user. ... People know intuitively what to do with it when they pick it up because we use it like devices we are familiar with — bats, rackets, wands, etc."

Hit up the link below for a deeper look at what Brown can do for you. Comments about the sexual applications of the Wiimote in Second Life are sure to follow.

Wii + Second Life = New Training Simulator [Wired]

Do you spend all of your free time playing or reading about computer and video games? Ask your doctor about...

My personal gaming bias aside, I can think of about 20 million other things I would rather have the CDC doing rather than watching children with diodes on their heads play Frogger - not that that wouldn't be immensely entertaining. Saving us from another black plague, for instance.

If gaming addiction were to become a recognized mental disorder, what doors would that open? Gaming addiction as a legal defense? Rehab clinics? Anti-gamer bias for insurance coverage? I should stop speculating before I freak myself out. Michael Fahey

American Doctors Want Videogame 'Addiction' Recognised [Spong.com]

Today Sony has announced their continuing support with an update set to go live tomorrow that will increase folding speeds, improve the user location display on the map, and allow for longer names for teams and individual donors.

The folks at Stanford are ecstatic:

"The PS3 turnout has been amazing, greatly exceeding our expectations and allowing us to push our work dramatically forward," said Vijay Pande, Associate Professor of Chemistry at Stanford University and Folding@home program lead. "Thanks to PS3, we have performed simulations in the first few weeks that would normally take us more than a year to calculate. We are now gearing up for new simulations that will continue our current studies of Alzheimer's and other diseases."

PlayStation 3 Users Significantly Contribute To The Folding@homeTM Program

Tokyo, April 25, 2007 - Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCE) today announced that great progress has been made in the one month since PLAYSTATION 3 (PS3 ) computer entertainment systems became part of Stanford University's Folding@home program, a distributed computing project aimed at understanding protein folding, misfolding and related diseases. Since the program launched in March, participation by the PS3 user community has been phenomenal, providing Folding@home with immense computing power that is helping to fast forward its research. Furthermore, thanks to PS3's powerful Cell Broadband Engine (Cell/B.E.), the Folding@home program has become one of the most powerful distributed computing networks in the world and is quickly approaching a level of computing power that is of historical proportions.

Exhibiting its continued commitment to the program, SCE also announced that starting tomorrow, it is providing a Folding@home application update that will further enhance the user experience. The updated software features an improvement in folding calculation speeds, increased visibility of user location (*1) on the globe and the ability for users to create longer donor or team names.

"The PS3 turnout has been amazing, greatly exceeding our expectations and allowing us to push our work dramatically forward," said Vijay Pande, Associate Professor of Chemistry at Stanford University and Folding@home program lead. "Thanks to PS3, we have performed simulations in the first few weeks that would normally take us more than a year to calculate. We are now gearing up for new simulations that will continue our current studies of Alzheimer's and other diseases."

Some of the key accomplishments made since the Folding@home program launched on PS3 include:

More than 250,000 unique PS3 users have registered to the program in just one month.

PS3 users are delivering nearly 400 teraflops, achieving a total computing power of over 700 teraflops at a single moment. This is more than double the computing capacity of the network before PS3 joined the program (*2)

The "halo-effect" of PS3 has been evident as the number of active PCs has increased by 20 percent in the last month.

"We continue to be thrilled with the ongoing contributions of the PS3 user community in helping the Folding@home program study the causes of many different diseases that afflict our society," said Masayuki Chatani, Corporate Executive and CTO Computer, Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. "As we move forward, we are issuing a call to action for all PS3 owners around the world to download the Folding@home application and help this cause. These PS3 fans can also be part of history as the Folding@home distributed computing program inches closer to achieving a petaflop - a measure of computing power that has never before been reached."

PS3 users can download the new update version 1.1 by restarting the Folding@home application. New Folding@home users can join the program by simply clicking on the Folding@home icon within the Network menu of the XMB (XrossMediaBar) or can optionally set the application to run automatically whenever the PS3 is idle (*3).

Starting with Folding@home, SCE will continue to support distributed computing projects in a wide variety of academic fields such as medical and social sciences and environmental studies through the use of PS3 and hopes to contribute to the advancement of science.

Riding the recent wave of video-games-are-good-for-you comes a new study that says there is a strong relationship between gaming skills and a surgeon's ability to perform laparoscopic surgery. As CNN explains, laparoscopy involves manipulating instruments through a small incision. The surgeon's movements are then followed on a television screen. The study stated that doctors who game at least three hours per week made 37 percent fewer errors, performed 27 percent faster and scored 42 percent better in a surgical test than doctors who never game. Says the study's author Dr. James Rosser:

Video games may be a practical teaching tool to help train surgeons.

This connection doesn't seem much of a surprise, really. Neither is the study's co-author Douglas Gentile saying this:

Parents should not see this study as beneficial if their child is playing video games for over an hour a day. Spending that much time playing video games is not going to help their child's chances of getting into medical school.

Thanks for being the requisite wet blanket, Doug. The local PTA appreciates it. Brian Ashcraft

Games Help Surgeons, Not Future Med Students [CNN, Thanks VoldtaEngler!]

During Latin American travels, reader Eerk happened upon this "doctor", felt very sleepy and immediately ordered 1,000 DS Lites off Amazon. Sony, Microsoft, hands off Latin America. Dr. Mario has already set up shop. Brian Ashcraft

More Here [Flickr]

The link between Super Monkey Ball and botch-free surgery is nothing new, but a recent study came up with some interesting facts and figures about the connection.

Reuters reports that surgeons who play Super Monkey Ball for 20 minutes prior to surgery were faster and made fewer errors than their gameless counter-parts.

The story looked at 303 surgeons and focused on laparoscopic procedures. The study found that the game helped surgeons complete their procedures 11 seconds faster.

The only side-effect was that one in seven surgeons would pump their lapariscopic surgical tools back into the incision after completing a procedure in record time to "make sure they got all of the bananas." Yeah, that's no good. —Brian Crecente

Video games can help cut surgical errors: study [Reuters]

Apparently, the program will quiz users about diet and exercise, send reminders to teens to check their blood sugar and medical professionals will send feedback to the patients through the same system. You will also be able to check your blood sugar by the simple expedient of opening a vein and smearing blood on your specially-optimized Gamecube controller. Dr. Mario says: "Eetza time to takah your in-su-leen!"

Actually, we think this is very cool way to help kids deal with diabetes. We just don't want to see what these guys do with the Revolution. "Take your temperature by inserting the Revolution controller firmly up your..."

Turn on your Game Cube to visit your doctor {Seattle Times]

The $4.75 million grant from the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research starts next year at the Children's Specialized Hospital in Mountainside.

The idea is to make rehab more productive and cost-effective. The games developed for the study are controlled with gloves that can sense movement and even have force-feedback.

Scientists think video games may provide therapeutic breakthroughs [North Jersey Media Group]