Home:: Sports over a Distance: Benefits

Exertion Interfaces

Summary

Motivation

Definition

Sports over a Distance

Breakout for Two

Animation

Setup

Rules

Alternative Sports

Alternative Games

Transmitting Exertion

Benefits

Technical Details

Ball Detection

Study

Procedure

Non-exertion

Prisoner's Dilemma

Questionnaire

Graphs

Results

Future

Image Gallery

Video

Publications

Acknowledgements

When a team outgrows individual performance and learns team confidence, excellence becomes a reality.

Joe Paterno
American Heritage, 1998

Benefits of Exertion Interfaces and Sports over a Distance

Two players on the other end

Sports over a Distance

• is playable although the players might be on the opposite side of the world
• facilitates exertion
• allows the players to communicate with each other
• involves mastering the skill of handling a ball
• is fun to play

An interface that fosters bonding and team spirit in a social setting has to be fun to use and also encourage interaction with another person, or with a whole team. Many such interfaces have existed in the physical world for a long time, such as the use of balls in sports. We envision Exertion Interfaces being used in the same way traditional sports games function in social relationships. For example, when new members arrive in an organization or business, team-building activities are important in forming new relationships and getting a feel for how one’s colleagues think and work. These activities might be formally arranged, but more often they take the form of one person asking another out for a friendly game of tennis, table tennis, golf, etc. Such a first-time encounter might spark a regular sports relationship with the other person, and with time, a new friendship.

The aim is to enable this kind of social relationship to develop when the participants are physically distant, perhaps even on opposite sides of the world. Instead of a traditional gym or sports club, players might go to a “virtual sports club” in their geographic area and engage in new kinds of “sports over a distance” that incorporate Exertion Interfaces.

Sports over a Distance might offer new opportunities to bond with new and old friends, maybe making the world a smaller place and supporting cross-cultural understanding and cosmopolitan thinking.