University of Arkansas – CSCE Department
Advanced Virtual Worlds – Spring 2013
Utilizing a Modular Approach to Gamification
to Improve Nutrition and Fitness in Children
Chad Richards
Abstract
Obesity has been shown to contribute significantly to four of the six leading causes of death:
heart disease, stroke, cancer, and diabetes [1, 6]. Energy imbalance between calories consumed
and expended is the primary cause of obesity; therefore, obesity is largely preventable by making
healthier eating choices and exercising regularly [9]. This problem is not isolated in adults. In
2011 more than 40 million children under the age of five were considered obese [9].
Providing health education is essential to prevent this devastating trend. Educating elementary
school children could help prevent currently healthy students from making disastrous decisions
in the future and work to reverse problems already present in overweight and obese children.
The primary aim of this project is to create a game framework and a suite of games within the
framework used to educate--in a practical, cost-efficient, sustainable, and unobtrusive manner-diverse elementary school children about the benefits of proper nutrition and exercise to help
guide these children to make better nutrition and exercise decisions in the real world.
To achieve the objective, the games must appeal to all children in the age group regardless of
sex, race, ethnicity, or grade point average. Because there are many types of students and many
kinds of activities (exercise, nutrition, activities, and knowledge units) that this game must
appeal to, creating several mini-games is preferable to one large game. With one large game,
there is little room for improvement once the initial version is complete. However, mini-games
are modular: those that were not well-received could be revised or removed. More mini-games
could be easily added in the future, as well including games created by third parties. The minigames will be contained in a larger, changeable meta-game, and in this way, the architectural
framework for the project is really a game of games.
To make the game more compelling, points will be awarded during the game, and these points
will be converted to a dual currency in an in-game economy. In order to keep students
exercising, two currency types will be awarded for different activities, ExerCoins for exercise
games and NutriCoins for nutrition-based games. The currency will be able to be spent on ingame collectibles, such as new clothing and accessories for their avatar. In-game collectibles
give students a reason to play the game and entice them to continue playing it once the initial
novelty has run its course. Some of these items will require ExerCoins, some will require
NutriCoins, and some will require both, meaning that to purchase some of the items, students
will have to learn and also exercise.
In the future, the framework should scale by allowing students past the target grades. The games
will not just be used at school in the future, but also when the student is home. The games will
be cross-platform compatible and capable of being deployed to iPhone, Android, PC, and Mac.
Third parties will also eventually be able to add modules to the framework.
1.0 Problem
The Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research defines obesity as having an
excessive amount of body fat, which can lead to many diseases such as coronary heart disease,
diabetes, and high blood pressure [1]. Furthermore, obesity and physical inactivity increases the
risk of stroke and cancers of the breast (postmenopausal), endometrium (the lining of the uterus),
colon, kidney, and esophagus [2]. In fact, the leading cause of cancer these days is obesity,
according to The Associated Press, with about one in twelve new cases of the disease due to
excess weight [3]. Also, as of 2009, diabetes affects more than 230 million people, almost 6% of
the world's adult population [4]. In children, one-third are currently affected by obesity or excess
weight [12].
Obesity and a lack of physical activity are the leading causes of type-2 diabetes, responsible for
95% of the total diabetes cases in the United States [4, 5, 6]. Moreover, eating an unhealthy diet
and physical inactivity are shown to contribute significantly to four of the six leading causes of
death: heart disease, stroke, cancer, and diabetes [6]. Over 100,000 Americans die each year from
obesity-related deaths [6], and the medical care costs of obesity in the United States, alone, are
staggering. In 2008, these costs totaled about $147 billion dollars [7]. More than 72 million
adults in America are obese, and 2.4 million more people were obese in 2009 compared to 2007
[7].
During the past 20 years, there has been a dramatic increase in obesity in the United States, and
rates remain high. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, “In 2010 no state
had a prevalence of obesity less than 20%.” [8] In fact, “thirty-six states had a prevalence of 25%
or more; 12 of these states (Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi,
Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia) had a prevalence of
30% or more.” [8]
More than doubling since 1980, obesity has become a worldwide epidemic [4, 9]. The World
Health Organization reported in 2008 that 200 million men and nearly 300 million women were
obese worldwide [9]. Also, at least 2.8 million adults die each year as a result of being
overweight or obese [9]. Without drastic changes in worldwide diet and exercise habits, the
International Diabetes Federation predicts that at least one in ten adults could have diabetes by
2030 [10]. It is predicted that by 2030, half of Americans will be obese [11].
2.0 Objective
The primary aims of the project are to create a game framework and a suite of games within the
framework used to educate--in a practical, cost-efficient, sustainable, and unobtrusive manner-diverse elementary school children in 1st through 3rd grades about the benefits of proper
nutrition and exercise and to guide these children to make better nutrition and exercise decisions
in the real world.
3.0 Background
3.1 Key Concepts
Unity3D
Unity is a popular game engine used by developers. A game engine is a collection of
tools that allow for easy creation of video games. Because the majority of features are
available freely, and there is a large availability of books and support documents, this
engine makes a great choice for games such as the ones that shall be created in this
project. Unity also has an additional benefit of being able to easily port to multiple
platforms, such as PC, World Wide Web, or Android devices.
Web Design (MySQL, PHP, HTML5)
The mini-games will be distributed on a website, http://www.edufitment.com. The
framework and administrator control panel will also be available on the website. There
are many connections that must be made in order for this to work. For instance, game
names and passwords are stored in a MySQL database. To access student information,
such as the user's preferred language, a game designed in Unity will post information to a
PHP script. This script will check the game's user name and password according to what
was submitted against the stored set of values in the database. If these match, the PHP
script will return information back to Unity. Each approved game will have a unique
name and password stored in the database and will be considered a part of the framework.
For the administrator control panel, a combination of HTML5, PHP, and MySQL are
utilized. Each user has a role, whether that is Administrator, Developer, Healthcare
Administrator, School Administrator, Teacher, Player, or Student. Different roles are
capable of different tasks, such as adding, editing, or removing users and adding content
to games.
3.2 Related Work
Apps For Healthy Kids
“The Apps for Healthy Kids competition is a part of First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s
Move! campaign to end childhood obesity within a generation. Apps for Healthy Kids
challenges software developers, game designers, students, and other innovators to
develop fun and engaging software tools and games that drive children, especially
'tweens' (ages 9-12) – directly or through their parents – to eat better and be more
physically active.
Tools and games should be built using the USDA nutrition dataset recently made
available to the public through the Open Government Initiative. The dataset provides
information on total calories, calories from “extras” (solid fats and added sugars), and
MyPyramid food groups for over 1,000 commonly eaten foods. We are seeking
innovative and creative tools and games that use the USDA dataset to deliver nutrition
and health concepts in a fun and engaging way. [12]”
Khan Academy
“Khan Academy is an organization on a mission. We're a not-for-profit with the goal of
changing education for the better by providing a free world-class education for anyone
anywhere.
All of the site's resources are available to anyone. It doesn't matter if you are a student,
teacher, home-schooler, principal, adult returning to the classroom after 20 years, or a
friendly alien just trying to get a leg up in earthly biology. Khan Academy's materials and
resources are available to you completely free of charge. [13]”
SCORM
“SCORM is a set of technical standards for e-learning software products. SCORM tells
programmers how to write their code so that it can “play well” with other e-learning
software. It is the de facto industry standard for e-learning interoperability. Specifically,
SCORM governs how online learning content and Learning Management Systems
(LMSs) communicate with each other. SCORM does not speak to instructional design or
any other pedagogical concern, it is purely a technical standard. [14]”
4.0 Design
4.1 Use Cases
4.2 Edufitment Architectural Framework
The framework for this project is hierarchical and can accommodate heterogeneity within the
mini-games as long as they all fit into the top-level game architecture by following its protocols.
For instance, each initial mini-game involves different architectures, or at the very least, different
ways of utilizing the architectures involved.
Connecting the mini-games, the overarching
framework model also uses a separate set of technologies. First, the overall framework
connecting each game will be described in detail in this section. Then, each mini-game will be
described in the next section. Finally, future work and potential impact of the games will be
Illustration 1: Example of Edufitment Framework Displaying the Quiz Show Game
exemplified.
One of the protocols common across games is the notion of a system of rewards. The
overarching framework connects each game by the use of a dual currency, ExerCoins and
NutriCoins. ExerCoins are won by playing exercise-related games, such as Out-Dance the
Elephant, and NutriCoins are won by playing games focused on nutrition, such as Quiz Show. In
the future, these coins will be spent on in-game collectibles in a multi-player hub game that will
also allow students from the same school to chat with each other, have an avatar, and own an
upgradeable home.
Another protocol across games is the notion of a social network which provides an
administrative capability and a record keeping capability to allow multiple players to play games
and cooperate or complete.
The framework model is able to be accessed at
www.edufitment.com. It utilizes several technologies, including HTML5, CSS, PHP, and
MySQL, and defines seven roles: Administrator, Developer, Healthcare Administrator, School
Administrator, Teacher, Student, and Player. Each role has different permissions, which are
pictured in the use cases diagram in section 4.1 of this document and will be described in this
section. The Edufitment framework also provides an API for first and third-party games to
utilize in order to gain access to certain aspects of user data and submit game scores, which are
then converted to coins. Multilingual capabilities are built into the framework, as well, so that
users whose first language is not English may also join in on the fun. The framework also
employs security features in order to prevent malicious attempts to gain access to user data.
As mentioned, the framework consists of several technologies. The website, edufitment.com,
was developed using HTML5 for displaying content and CSS for styling content. PHP was used
to give each role different permissions, allow for dynamic content, and connecting with the
MySQL database. The MySQL database consists of a user table, a games table, a currency table
(which provides a game score to coin converter, useful for when supply and demand change for
in-game collectibles), and several tables for storing first-party game data, such as the questions in
the Quiz Show game. Finally, Javascript was used to display each game on the website.
For added security, not everyone may use the Edufitment framework. Instead, Edufitment
defines several roles, and each role has a separate set of permissions. Administrators are the
highest level role, and as such, have the most permissions. Administrators can add, remove, and
modify any type of user: other Administrators, Developers, Healthcare Administrators, School
Administrators, Teachers, Students, and Players. Administrators are also capable of adding,
removing, or modifying game content, such as adding extra questions or categories to the Quiz
Show game. Administrators are the only role capable of approving third-party games, and
adding them to the framework. Administrators are also the only role that has the ability to
modify the ExerCoin and NutriCoin amount for users. This feature was added in case of
emergencies, such as server failures or malicious parties that have managed to gain access to a
user account.
Developers have the ability to add, remove, or modify other Developers. They may also add,
remove, or modify game content. Healthcare Administrators have the ability to add, remove, or
modify other Healthcare Administrators, School Administrators, Teachers, Students, and Players.
They may also add, remove, or modify game content. School Administrators may add, remove,
or modify other School Administrators, Teachers, and Students, so long as they are within the
same group (school). They may also add, remove, or modify Players (players do not belong to a
group). Teachers may add, remove, or modify other Teachers and Students so long as they
belong to the same group. They may also add, remove, or modify Players. Students, as well as
Players and every other role, may play games, earn ExerCoins and NutriCoins, and spend their
earned coins. Every role is capable of changing his or her settings, such as their own password,
nickname, system of units, language preference, and/or gender.
Aside from the various roles and permission sets, the framework model provides a common
external Application Programming Interface (API) for first and third-parties to use. Currently,
this API provides two primary functions: checking a user's credentials and inserting a user's
score. First-party games have additional functions available to them, based on the game. For
instance, Quiz Show may retrieve categories and questions from the database. Out-Dance the
Elephant may retrieve a user's heart rate. Checking a user's credentials and inserting a user's
score are powerful features that require security measures to prevent malicious use. For instance,
if there were no security measures provided, a game could insert a score over and over again,
making the ExerCoin and NutriCoin currencies worthless. More important, however, is the fact
that a user's credentials could be obtained without some security measures in place.
As such, security and privacy protocols are an important aspect of the Edufitment framework,
and several measures were taken to prevent malicious parties from accessing user data. The first
measure is that there are specific designed roles, as mentioned, and each of these has a separate
and unequal set of permissions. This has been described in detail in the preceding paragraphs.
The next security measure that was taken was to require games that connect to the API to submit
a game name and password before any user data may be accessed. Each game has a unique
name and password entry (stored as a one-way md5 hash) in the MySQL database. Thus, only
approved games may access the API. Part of the approval process for third party games is for
this unique game name and password to be assigned and added to the games table in the
database. The game password may be changed by Administrators and Developers only. Another
measure that was taken was to display a list of approved third-party games on the website. This
can prevent a user from being fooled by a malicious application into entering their credentials.
Though these are excellent measures, there are more measures that may be taken—which shall
be described in the Future Work section of this document—to prevent other types of attacks,
such as brute force attacks or attacks by malicious users who attempt to access a high-level role
that may have forgotten to log out.
Another protocol of the framework is that the capability of translating to multiple languages are
built directly into the framework itself. This makes the games easily expandable to a very large
user base. To facilitate this feature, a file containing a list of string variables (text holders) was
created. To add another language, this file would merely need to be translated and saved as the
ISO 639-1 two-letter language code with a .php extension. For example, the English language
file is stored as en.php. Each role may change his or her language preference, and games retrieve
information from the API in the language of the user's choice. For instance, if a student has set
Spanish as his or her language, the Quiz Show games would retrieve questions in Spanish.
4.3 Edufitment Mini-Games
4.3.2 2D Platformer (tentatively titled The Adventures of Super Healthy Kid and Princess
Nutricare)
Illustration 2: 2D Platformer Game
The 2D Platformer game was initially utilized as simply a way of familiarizing with the Unity3D
development environment. However, there is much potential for this game to expand. Though
the health education would be minimal, the would provide a subtle way for students to learn to
recognize which foods are healthy and which are not.
The premise of the game is simple; avoid the unhealthy food in order to grab a key that unlocks
the door out of the level. Currently, the game provides several enemy types—Doughnut, Pie,
Cupcake, and Twinkie—with various abilities. For instance, if the Pie sees the player, the Pie
speeds up, heading toward the player, but the Pie cannot see far above itself, so the player can
continually jump to best avoid the Pie once seen. The Doughnut simply rolls back and forth
currently, but could be expanded to leave a trail of jelly that would slow the user. Cupcakes are
hopper enemies with the largest range of sight and will hop toward the player to attempt to
squash him or her. The Twinkie is perhaps the easiest enemy currently in the game. It can see
the player further than the Pie, but is slower than the player and will fall to its doom attempting
to catch a player. The player currently has three lives, and if the player touches an enemy, the
player will lose a life, flash red for a few seconds, and grow (as if the player ate the unhealthy
food and is bigger now).
This game is easily expandable with more enemy types, more and diverse levels, and player
abilities. The abilities could be obtained by eating healthy foods. For instance, eating a
strawberry could render the player invulnerable for a several seconds. Levels could be diverse,
including an ice level, making it hard to traverse the slippery terrain. Once complete, the game
can be added to the framework so that coins can be earned for playing the game.
4.3.3 Fruit and Vegetable Hunt
Illustration 3: Fruit and Vegetable Hunt Game
The goal of the Fruit and Vegetable Hunt game is to teach students to recognize whether a food is
a fruit or a vegetable and the top nutrients each fruit and vegetable are highest in. The game was
developed in the Unity game engine and consists of two bullet types, one for shooting fruit, the
other for shooting vegetables. If the player shoots a fruit with a vegetable bullet or a vegetable
with a fruit bullet, the player is penalized. While playing the game, information about the
nutrient content of each fruit or vegetable will be displayed. As the player progresses, more
fruits and vegetables will appear. No fruit or vegetable stays for long, so the player must be able
to quickly recognize which is a fruit and which is a vegetable. This game allows for easy
expansion by adding additional fruits and vegetables. Currently, the game still needs to be added
to the framework, and gameplay needs to be evaluated for improvements.
4.3.4 Out-Dance the Elephant / Win the Fight
Illustration 4: Out-Dance the Elephant
Illustration 5: Out-Dance the Elephant -- Losing Health
The Out-Dance the Elephant / Win the Fight game opens up an entire class of simulation games
that can be produced using heart rate data. Developed in Unity, the game currently exists
primarily as a proof-of-concept version. The game is fully working, even as a part of the
framework, but contains no graphics and few songs. A Zephyr Bioharness 3 BlueTooth heart
rate monitor is worn by the game player [15]. The player logs into an application developed for
the Android platform. This program pairs with the Bioharness, and continually listens for heart
rate data. Once received, the data is submitted to a PHP script which updates a database entry
containing the current user id, timestamp, and heart rate. A second application, the Out-Dance
the Elephant game, continually connects to another PHP script which retrieves the heart rate
data. The heart rate is then used to play the game. To be usable, all of this sending and
retrieving must occur within only a few seconds. In testing, the time between sending and
receiving never reached two seconds.
The premise of the game is that there is a dancing elephant on the screen. Your job is to outdance the elephant by keeping your heart rate elevated in this challenging and fun exergame
featuring a plug-in heart rate monitor. Alternatively, you are a boxer. Keep your heart rate up to
win the fight against your opponent.
Eventually, there will be several challenge modes available to the user: Beginner, Standard,
H.I.I.T., and Tabata Challenge. In both beginner and standard mode, the user will be given a set
of times (10 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes, etc.) allotted until the elephant is beaten. In these
modes, if the user keeps their heart rate high enough for the allotted time, they have out-danced
the elephant. The difference between beginner and standard modes will be the percent of
maximum heart rate requirements. In each of the modes, down time will be given at regular
intervals to allow the user to rest without penalty. In the H.I.I.T. Mode, the dance lasts between
15 and 30 minutes and the workout/dance follows a 2:1 ratio. For example, if 15 minutes is
selected, the user will have to keep his or her heart rate at 75%+ for one minute, then have an
active recovery for 30 seconds, keeping the heart rate between 50-75% during that time. This
interval would be repeated 10 times, beating the elephant if the user lasts all ten intervals. Tabata
Challenge is similar to H.I.I.T., only the dance lasts 4 minutes: 20 seconds at 80%+ followed by
10 seconds of rest until the Tabata (the entire 4 minutes) is complete. The user will be able to
select how many Tabatas they wish to accomplish to successfully out-dance the elephant.
Dancing will not have to be done to win the game. Dance moves will not be monitored, only
heart rate, but it is likely the user will want to attempt to copy the elephant. In each mode, a
timer will be located at the bottom telling the user how long they have left. If the player drops
below the heart rate requirement during a non-scheduled time, a health bar will decrease. If
health bar is completely depleted, the player will lose the game. The player will be rewarded
ExerCoins for out-dancing the elephant. Unique music will have to be created, or royalty-free
music will need to be obtained in order to avoid licensing fees and royalties. An additional
security measure was added that resets the game if the connection to the Bioharness has been lost
for more than ten seconds, preventing a user from turning the Bioharness off several times during
the game in an attempt to win the game with very little effort. The alternative to this game is
Win the Fight! The player will be fighting and have to keep up his or her heart rate to win the
match. The same levels and modes could be applied to this version of the game.
Out-Dance the Elephant and Win the Fight! are only two examples of simulation games that can
created using the heart rate data. For instance, a racing game could be created which has the
player winning the race if the heart rate requirement is met. Simulating action games would
most likely work best to motivate the player to continue running, jogging, dancing, or boxing,
but there are many types of action games that could be created, opening up a world of potential
for this concept.
4.3.5 Quiz Show Game
Illustration 6: Quiz Show Game -- Question Answered Correctly
The Quiz Show game is very similar to Jeopardy in gameplay, but there are several differences.
The player always has control of the board. Players do not see what answer enemy opponents
give, only whether the opponent answered correctly or incorrectly. Questions are in the form of
questions instead of answers. There is only one level, no double or final level, and players get to
keep whatever points they earn so long as the dollar value they score is greater than zero
(ExerCoins and NutriCoins are meant to only ever subtracted by actually spending the coins).
Additionally, questions and categories can be added to the game using the Edufitment framework
without having to recompile the game.
Illustration 7: Quiz Show Game -- Online Question Manager
Created in Unity, this game is a quiz that retrieves random questions from an expandable online
database of quiz questions and puts them forth to the players. Players are pitted against three
NPC (non-playable characters). Categories are listed on a board and can be selected by the
player. The game ends when no more questions are available, and the user with the highest
points wins. Three difficulty levels are available in the game, Beginner, Normal, and Hard.
Each higher difficulty level grants a higher dollar value for questions at the expense of more
difficult enemy opponents. This game is perhaps the most complete of any of the mini-games.
Further improvements could include additional enemy opponents, which can be easily created
and added to the game. Sounds could also be added to improve the game, and graphics of the
game could be improved. More questions and can easily be added.
4.3.6 Record Keeper
Illustration 8: Record Keeper
Record Keeper is more of an application than a game. It was created in HTML5 and also utilizes
PHP, Javascript, and MySql. The purpose of Record Keeper is to store any record. A record is
defined as an entry name, an amount, an optional unit, and a timestamp. An example usage of
the record-keeping program is to track weight over time. Here, weight would be the entry name.
The amount would be the weight value itself, and unit could be kilograms or pounds, for
instance.
Currently, records can be added to the database, but there are several features that still need to be
implemented. A graphical display of the change in entry amounts over time is in the works, and
the ability to edit and remove entries needs to be implemented. The display will be in the form
of graphs drawn on an HTML5 canvas element. There will be options for displaying different
amounts of time; for instance, one day, five days, one week, one month, three months, six
months, year to date, one year, three years, and five years are all good candidates to be added to
the user-selectable options for the graph.
Manually creating exercise log entries is one option (which Record Keeper implements).
Another option is to connect to the API for any of many exercise monitor devices (e.g., FitBit).
4.4 Potential Impact
This project is being positioned for an NIH grant in collaboration with health professionals from
areas such as nursing, nutrition, and exercise science. The project has five specific aims: to
determine whether obesity prevalence and changes in obesity levels differ between children
receiving the intervention and those who do not, over time; to investigate immediate (short-term)
and long-term effects of the interventions; to investigate social and economic disparities in
overweight and obese over time; to decrease risk factors associated with being overweight and/or
obese; to assess the cost-effectiveness of the intervention. The project is based on collaboration
between key stakeholders to implement an integrated long-term school program that will assess
innovative strategies and the translation of evidence-based interventions with the goal to halt the
growing rates of obesity in children. By finding ways of embedding effective, sustainable, and
cost-effective interventions, decision-makers and public health professionals will be better
equipped to implement more effective, targeted, and comprehensive public policies against this
epidemic, and to minimize barriers to physical activity and better nutrition, especially for at-risk
populations. These policies, in turn, will have long-term impacts on restraining obesity, on
improving the health of children, and ultimately, on alleviating obesity societal and financial
burden.
4.5 Future Work
There are many improvements that can be made in this project. Though security measures were
taken to prevent malicious access to user data, there are several attacks in which the framework
is still vulnerable. For instance, provided a malicious party knows the location of the API scripts
and the variable names used for storing the game name and password, the party could attempt a
brute force attack by continually attempting login with a new game name and password until
successful. This attack is unlikely to occur given the attacker would need to know the correct
variable names, and would have to attack for both different game names and passwords, but it is
still possible. To aid in preventing this type of attack, if the user does enter a valid game name, a
game could be locked out after a few incorrect login attempts. Another attack, which is more
feasible, is that a user of the framework could log in on a public computer and forget to log out.
There is no solution provided for this attack currently, but an improvement could be to require
the user to re-enter a password each time a form is submitted (such as removing a user). A third
attack affects the players. The Edufitment website provides a list of approved third-party games,
but if the user was unaware, or if a malicious party were to make a game with the same name and
look, the user could be tricked into entering his or her credentials to a malicious party. There are
not many solutions to this, other than what has been provided, a list of approved third-party
games. Not only is a list provided, but a link to each approved game will be provided upon
clicking the respective third-party game link. If the user does become susceptible to this attack,
he or she could request his or her password to be reset. Aside from increased security measures,
a third-party evaluation form needs to be created so that third-party games can be evaluated for
potential acceptance into the framework. Translations also need to be made for the language file
so that the website will be available in multiple languages.
Besides the framework, each game has the potential to be improved. The 2D platformer has
much that can be improved, such as more enemies, animation scripts for player avatars, and more
levels. Fruit and Vegetable Hunt could be changed to have each level represent a new type of
vitamin and mineral. Instead of learning the difference between a fruit and a vegetable, then,
there would be one bullet type, and on the Potassium level, for instance, fruits or vegetables high
in Potassium would be the correct ones to shoot. Out-Dance the Elephant obviously needs an
animated dancing elephant, along with graphics for the health bar and more songs to be
provided. The Quiz Show game can be expanded with additional categories and questions, better
graphics, and sound effects. Record Keeper currently lacks the ability to edit and remove entries;
also, a graph of the change of entry amounts over time needs to be created. A place to spend the
coins a player earns needs to be created, as well. Additionally, more games can be added to the
framework to provide a large set of games for kids to play.
4.6 Risks
Risk
Risk Reduction
Student account information
could be exposed.
The student accounts are password-protected. Each student's
password is encrypted using a one-way hash. All games,
whether they are first party games or third party games, must
provide a user name and password associated with the game
before they can access any student information. An approved
list of third party games appears on the website
(http://www.edufitment.com).
4.7 Tasks
1. Understand/gain background on the Unity3d Game Engine.
2. Design game framework, games, and website.
3. Implement games into game framework.
4. Test control panel features of website, test games to ensure they work properly, and test the
framework for privacy and ease of use.
5. Demonstrate prototypes of several games and website.
6. Document problem, approach, potential solution, user manuals of games, details of
framework, and use of website.
4.8 Deliverables

Design Document

Code

Final Report
5.0 Key Personnel

Chad Richards – Richards is a graduate student majoring in Computer Engineering in the
Computer Science and Computer Engineering Department at the University of Arkansas,
Fayetteville. He has completed relevant courses in algorithms and virtual worlds. He has
been a professional web designer for the past ten years, with experience in various
scripting and database languages. In his design job, he has also created several web
applications, requiring the use of programming languages such as C, C++, and Java and
scripting languages such as Flash Actionscript, HTML5, PHP, and SQL. In this project, he
acted as lead architect of the game framework, lead web designer, lead game architect for
several of the mini-games, and as a supervisor and assistant programmer for several of the
mini-games.

Dr. Craig Thompson, Mentor – Thompson is a professor in the Computer Science and
Computer Engineering Department. He leads the Everything is Alive research project that
is currently focusing on how to simulate pervasive computing using 3D virtual worlds.
See http://vw.ddns.uark.edu.
6.0 References
[1] Mayo clinic staff (6 May 2011). Obesity: Definition. Mayo Foundation for Medical
Education and Research. Retrieved from
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/obesity/DS00314.
[2] National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health (16 Mar 2004). Obesity and
Cancer: Questions and Answers. National Cancer Institute Factsheet. Retrieved from
http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Risk/obesity.
[3] Black, Rosemary (24 Sep 2009). Obesity is now the leading cause of cancer. New York Daily
News. Retrieved from http://articles.nydailynews.com/2009-0924/entertainment/17932457_1_colorectal-cancer-common-cancers-cancer-deaths.
[4] IDF Atlus Third Edition, WDF backgrounders, and WDD website (n.d.). Key Facts. World
Diabetes Foundation. Retrieved from
http://www.worlddiabetesfoundation.org/composite-976.htm.
[5] WebMD Medical Reference (2008). Causes of Type 2 Diabetes. WebMd, LLC. Retrieved
from http://diabetes.webmd.com/guide/diabetes-causes.
[6] Center for Science in the Public Interest (n.d.). Obesity Factsheet. Liquid Candy: How Soft
Drinks are Harming America's Health. Retrieved from
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[7] Center for Disease Control and Prevention (3 Aug 2010). Adult Obesity. CDC Vital Signs.
Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns/AdultObesity/.
[8] Center for Disease Control and Prevention (21 Jul 2011). U.S. Obesity Trends. Overweight
and Obesity Data and Statistics. Retrieved from
http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/trends.html.
[9] World Health Organization (Mar 2011). Obesity and overweight. World Health Organization
Media Center Factsheets. Retrieved from
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs311/en/index.html.
[10] Associated Press (14 Nov 2011). 1 in 10 Adults Could Have Diabetes by 2030. ABC News.
Retrieved from http://abcnews.go.com/Health/DiabetesNews/wireStory/522-millionpeoplediabetes-2030-14944807#.TsafFITjuSo.
[11] Moisse, Katie (25 Aug 2011). Obesity Rates Projected to Soar. ABC News. Retrieved from
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Wellness/obesity-rates-projected-soar-report/story?
id=14381466#.TsagEITjuSo.
[12] Challenge.gov (7 Mar 2013). Apps For Healthy Kids. Retrieved from
http://appsforhealthykids.com.
[13] Khan Academy® (7 Mar 2013). Khan Academy. Retrieved from
https://www.khanacademy.org/about.
[14] Rustici Software (7 Mar 2013). Scorm Explained. Retrieved from http://scorm.com/scormexplained/.
[15] Zephyr Technology Corp (2012). BioHarnessTM Remote Physiological Monitor. Retrieved
from http://www.zephyr-technology.com/products/bioharness-3/.