Working in Movement

In Everything Bad Is Good for You, Steven Johnson makes a case for video games expanding intelligence, not dumbing down players. Maybe so, but most games are all in the head; they don't include much in the way of physical participation -- a shortcoming that Johnson acknowledges.

But that may be about to change. Remember the old school yard game Red Light, Green Light? One kid plays traffic cop, barking out orders to stop and go, while other kids play the role of pedestrian. The object is for the cop kid to catch one of the pedestrian kids doing the opposite of the stop and go orders.

A couple of University of Southern California professors are using motion detectors and wifi to develop a fancy virtual version of the game. In this virtual version, the "cop" player whirls and spins while holding and looking the virtual pedestrians rendered on a tablet PC. And, unlike the school yard version, the cop gets to spectacularly blow up the offending pedestrian. In New Console Blows Up 2-D Games, one of the profs talks about the main idea:

"We want to address mostly that games lack physicality to them, that they don't engage ... the real world in compelling ways," said Julian Bleecker, a USC professor who is designing the game platform along with colleague Peter Brinson.

There's also a video of someone playing the prototype game embedded in the web page.