Have just read this interesting article and wondered if anyone here had heard of the EyeToy: Kinetic before, or had even got one? Sounds like fun to me ~ think I might add it to my Christmas list
From The Times, London UK
September, 2005
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspa...1771515,00.html
Play but not stationary
Get the geeks off the couch: Rosie Millard tries a Jane Fonda workout for the computer generation
It’s 11 o’clock in the morning and, all alone, I’m leaping around in my living room, lunging wildly to my left and then right, stooping, stretching up and kicking out at the thin air in front of a TV screen. Dressed in a tatty T-shirt and sweat-pants, with the curtains open for any passer-by to see me, I’m red in the face, dripping with sweat and having a really good time. I’m playing a new computer game.
The stereotype of the game geek is hardly one of a lithe, bronzed, gym-god — more that of pasty-faced, spotty blimp — but a new PlayStation game from Sony could change that. The EyeToy: Kinetic aims to encourage clever couch potatoes, particuarly of the female variety, to get a little cardio work in. And for brain-lite gym-bunnies to join the computer generation.
The game works like this: you plug in your PlayStation to the TV and fix a little camera — the EyeToy — to the top of the screen. The camera films you as you stand in front of the box and projects your image and the rest of the room on to the screen. Superimposed on to this picture are a host of flying objects: the game is based on your interaction on screen with these things. You move energetically around the room, batting virtual balls and dodging imaginary discs, and raising a healthy sweat.
The first thing to grasp is that you mustn’t worry about looking like a prat; though this is tough. When you start the game inspirational music rolls out. A digitally drawn man and woman, Matt and Anna, appear on the screen. One of them will be your “in-game personal trainer”. I choose Matt. “Welcome to your 12-week routine,” says Matt, in perfect mid-Atlantic.
Forget the console; everything is done via the EyeToy, which senses when, where and how hard you are waving your arms or legs. Of course, this means that you have to be in a big, room with space to move about in and with the curtains open for maximum light. But there are no gadgets to remember; no balls, ropes, or weights. It’s just you and the screen.
The EyeToy technology has been around for a couple of years but Kinetic (and similar “active” games such as SingStar, competitive karaoke) is a new concept. Sony was concerned because the notion that too much PlayStation makes Jack not only a dull boy but also a candidate for heart disease had been gathering speed. It threatened to tarnish the brand.
Then Sony had its Big Idea. Why not marry aerobics to computer games? Fitness addicts could be introduced to games and games addicts would become fit. Hooray! No longer would PlayStation be held responsible for our slide into obesity. Instead, Sony could be seen as a philanthropic company, moved by sheer kindness to boost the health of its devotees.
Mark Parry, who designed Kinetic with the help of fitness experts from Nike, lost 3st (19kg), in the process. He is now a lean piece of muscular elastic, thanks, he says, to sensible eating and total immersion in the product.
“I was 14 stone when I started to work on Kinetic,” he says. “Now I’m 10˝. What we did was to go to the gym and work out which moves were beneficial. Then I devised games around them. It’s strangely addictive,” he continues. “When you play, you don’t even think about it, you just do what is required.”
He’s right. On both counts. After a warm-up with Matt, you are on your own, a solitary gamer in a virtual-reality health club. First, there is a ten-minute “aerobic zone”, where you chase green balls across a screen, or bat away blue discs while evading red ones, or swat yellow orbs while avoiding nasty red pointy things. You are leaping about, swatting and batting like crazy, while the objects of your energy drop down or zoom around the screen.
It’s wild. After this, Matt leads you on to a three-minute “cardio zone”. Bat that punch bag! Kick that disc! Punch those long sheets of — well, who knows what: virtual plastic? Anyway, destroying them was so riveting that when three minutes was up, I simply had to play it again. All right, I also managed to smash my knuckles against the wall (I’d positioned the EyeToy badly) but what the hell. Matt came on afterwards. “Just give it 5 per cent more effort,” he said, “and you will reach the uppermost level.” I felt inspired and I couldn’t wait.
Of course, ever since Jane Fonda pulled on her leg warmers, we’ve all done some form of home exercise. Its convenience is always heavily promoted. But what is not mentioned is that, after the initial novelty wanes, it is very hard to motivate yourself at home to get on a bike, or even turn on a tape. PlayStation attempts to vault this mental hurdle by installing a constantly changing roster of games, and a person who tells you off if you don’t try and praises you if you do.
It even knows whether it’s day or night time thanks to the open curtains, and what day it is. And don’t bother playing on the wrong day. “This is a rest day,” said Matt sternly on Tuesday. “Come back on Wednesday”. I believe he even wagged his virtual finger at me. I can’t shelve it for a week, or even a day because I know when I next turn it on, Matt (or, if you prefer, the skimpily clad Anna) will berate me, or even worse, insist that I go back to the beginning.
Sony admits that Kinetic’s target is women aged between 25 and 40, women who don’t perhaps have a history of playing computer games but who would like a personal trainer, and who either cannot afford or feel too nervous to have one. It’s also perfect for competitive types because when you play, all you care about is winning. Burning calories is a side issue. There is a running tally of points on the screen. Swat three blue discs in a row, you win 85 points; collide with a red globe, you lose 40. If you do really badly, a “ghost” comes on and shows you what you should be doing. If you do particularly well, your body glows as if you have rolled in phosphorescence.
After ball-swatting and bag-punching, you do a bit of holistic moving around in the “spirit zone”. Then Matt reappears, either on the rooftop garden of a Manhattan tower, or in a studio, or in what appears to be (but probably isn’t) a wine cellar. You and he do some hideous abdominal exercises. Finally, he gives you your overall score. After 40 minutes of punching orbs, this really matters. It does. My personal score started off badly with a couple of Ds. I’m improving, though, and this week I was charging around the room yelling: “I gotta B!” Has it improved my form? Well, throwing myself around the living room four times a week has toned me up somewhat. My abs, gawd bless their sagginess, are noticeably tighter. More importantly, though, I’m pleasing that artificial creation, Matt, my virtual personal trainer.
www.eyetoykinetic.com
Has anyone tried out the 'EyeToy: Kinetic' ?
Linear Mode
