Exploring Human Quadruped Locomotion for Exergames
This addresses a niche problem for exergame designers and users seeking novel, physically intense interactions, but it is incremental as it extends existing embodied interaction concepts to quadrupedal motion.
The authors tackled the underexplored areas of embodying non-human characters and exercising abdominal muscles in exergames by designing a human quadruped locomotion exergame where players control a tiger character using limb movements, and a user study (N=15) showed that gameplay immersion masked physical exertion, allowing participants to perceive core training as play.
Embodying non-human characters and exercising abdominal muscles are both underexplored in exergames. We address this by describing the design and evaluation of a novel human quadruped locomotion exergame. In the game, the player lies supine on the ground and moves their arms and legs to control a quadrupedal character (a tiger), similar to common bodyweight abdominal muscle exercises such as the Bicycle Crunch. The motion tracking is computer vision-based, utilizing a Kinect sensor placed above the player, which makes our approach suitable for commercial premises such as indoor activity parks where a system needs to run unattended and without any wearable components. Our system extends embodied interaction beyond traditional bipedal or controller-based systems, demonstrating how natural limb movements can generate responsive and immersive quadrupedal motion within virtual environments. We conducted a user study (N=15) to evaluate the system's intuitiveness, control, and overall player experience. The findings demonstrate the usability and potential of our system, highlighting its intense physical nature. Participants reported that gameplay immersion masked physical exertion, allowing them to perceive rigorous core training primarily as play.