Wired NextFest featured a great exhibit on the future of gaming.
Kids today are practically born with a remote control in their hands. It’s looking more and more like video games could make a meaningful contribution to the fight against childhood obesity.
The running theme with the onsite demonstrations: interactivity.
Animaatiokone Industries presented Kick Ass Kung-Fu, a multi-player martial arts game that puts the user in the videogame. Playing on a padded zone, gamers can utilize martial arts weapons that will also appear on screen. While movements control your image on screen, those movements are enhanced and exaggerated Matrix-style by the video technology. Gamers can play until more than their thumbs are tired out.
I also loved the Digiwall demo. Digiwall is a series of panels that can be stacked vertically or horizontally across a wall. All panels have touch sensitive groups that light up or play music when activated. Working in tandem with a computer, Digiwall provides several games to keep the product fresh and kids, yes, and adults, engaged.
The climbing wall version of tag requires participants to tag as many of the lit up handholds as possible in 60 seconds with the illuminated handholds changing just a tad faster than reflexes would have you move.
Simply climbing the wall when the system is unprogrammed results in bars of music playing with each new handhold grabbed.
It’s an intellectual stimulant as well, as the wall can be programmed to play a memory game. Players match the sounds behind different holdholds to clear the board.
I’d have loved gym class in grade school if my options were this engaging to the mind and the body. Instead, I was given the choice between square dancing and archery 
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