Symmetrical Hardware-Software Design for Improving Physical Activity with a Gamified Music Step Sensor Box

Bilal Ahmed, Handityo Aulia Putra, Seongwook Kim, Choongjae Im*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

Physical inactivity, the fourth leading cause of death worldwide, can harm the economy, national growth, community welfare, health, and quality of life. On the other hand, physical activities (PA) have numerous advantages, including fewer cardiovascular diseases, cancer, and diabetes, fewer psychological disorders, and improved cognitive abilities. Despite the benefits of PA, people are less likely to participate. The main factor is a lack of entertainment in exercise, which demotivates society from engaging in healthy activities. In this work, we proposed a hardware-software symmetry that can entertain people while performing PA. We developed a step-box with sensors and a gamified music application synchronized with the footsteps. The purpose of this study is to show that incorporating appropriate gamification allows participants to engage actively in tedious and economic exercises. Participants (N = 90) participated in 20-min daily exercise sessions for three days. A 5-point Likert scale was used to assess efficiency, effectiveness, and satisfaction following exercise sessions. The results show that the gamified sensor step-box increased efficiency, effectiveness, and participant satisfaction. The findings suggest that gamification fundamentals in simple exercises increase excitement and may help people to maintain PA.

Original languageEnglish
Article number368
JournalElectronics (Switzerland)
Volume12
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 2023
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 by the authors.

Keywords

  • economic exercises
  • exergame
  • footstep-box
  • gamification
  • hardware-software symmetry
  • improve cognitive abilities
  • music application
  • physical activity

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Control and Systems Engineering
  • Signal Processing
  • Hardware and Architecture
  • Computer Networks and Communications
  • Electrical and Electronic Engineering

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