Conference links games with health

Games are often blamed for increasingly sedentary lifestyles, but a conference this month will highlight new games in which players must track their blood sugar, relax their minds, or pedal their way to a cardio workout.

The first-ever Videogame/Entertainment Industry Technology and Medicine Conference, which will be held December 10-11 in Marina Del Rey, California, will feature a talk by game journalist and author Steven Kent on games' role in medicine. George Johnsen, chief animation and technology officer for Threshold Digital Research Labs, the lead animation team for Spider-Man 2, will also speak, along with other cinema and medical experts.

One of those experts, Dr. James "Butch" Rosser, comes from the Advanced Medical Technology Institute of Beth Israel in New York. His 2003 study found that surgeons who played games made 37 percent fewer errors in the operating room.

Rosser said that there are correlations between gaming and hand-eye coordination, reaction time, spatial visualization, visual attentiveness, and mental dexterity. "Those are all skills that are required to be a successful surgeon," he added.

In addition, conference visitors will get to play Glucoboy, a game created to teach children with diabetes how to monitor blood-sugar levels, and Journey to the Wild Divine, a game that uses body sensors to track the relaxation levels required to advance in the game. They can also try a number of puzzles that force the player to use physical exercise to get ahead.