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Toys to get you up and at 'em
By Dar Haddix
UPI Business Correspondent
New York, NY, Feb. 22 (UPI) -- Video games
apparently aren't just meant to exercise thumbs anymore, as interactive
toys being shown at this year's American International Toy Fair in New York
this week promise to get sedentary kids (and adults!) off the couch and on
their feet. The new video games -- as well as many other of this year's
creative toys -- prompt people to dance, play golf or even learn the
alphabet by moving their bodies.
With U.S. obesity rates at
all-time highs -- in 2003, more than 15 percent of 6- to 17-year-olds were
estimated to be overweight, up from 4 percent in the 1960s -- integrating
more activity into play is definitely a step in the right direction.
"The fundamental reason that our
children are overweight is this: Too many children are eating too much and moving
too little," U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Richard Carmona testified to
Congress in July 2003. "That excess weight significantly increases our
kids' risk factors for a range of health problems, including diabetes,
heart disease, asthma, and emotional and mental health problems."
But children aren't the only ones in need
of a good walk around the block: Carmona estimated that more than
two-thirds of adults are also obese.
Players move their whole bodies, not game
controllers, to control the action in the ION Educational Gaming System by
Playskool, owned by Hasbro, Inc (www.hasbro.com).
ION uses a compact camera and console
equipped with motion-capture technology so kids appear on the TV in the
game with favorite cartoon characters such as Dora the Explorer and Blue
the dog from Blue's Clues.
"All of us -- not just children --
learn best when we can engage multiple senses and our entire bodies,"
said Dr. Erik Strommen, a developmental psychologist who developed the
educational content for the ION.
Pawtucket, R.I.-based Hasbro's Wild
Adventure Mini Golf Putter video game allows a player to line up a shot and
hit a virtual ball off the tee and onto a course littered with virtual
obstacles, while Hasbro's Power Tag game will have kids scrambling around
the house yard or other area looking for the targets they must
electronically "tag."
The Super Arena series of games by Danbar
Games, of London (www.danbargames.com), uses infrared sensors that detects
body movements so people can learn martial arts, brush up on tennis
techniques, and play ping-pong, among other activities.
While it's not a video game, the KidFlex
exercise video, created by personal trainer Bernadette Montana and which
features a cute pigtailed 8-year-old exercise instructor named Kennedy, is
definitely the most direct approach to getting kids to exercise. Kennedy
also has a Web site where she encourages kids to eat healthy, keep a
journal, and other wholesome activities.
Several other non-tech but super-fun toys
also aim to get people up and about. With Beach Flingo, by German toymaker
Litschka Toys (www.litschka.de), players use what is essentially a small
spandex apron or halter top to bounce a ball back and forth -- essentially,
halter-top ping-pong. Another fun toy for the beach was the Air-Yo, an
"omnidirectional flying object" or basically a doughnut-shaped
kite tethered to a string that can be made to do all kinds of amazing moves
and isn't as likely to hit a big mean guy in the head at the beach as some
other flying toys.
Soft sports gear line Nerf (by Hasbro) now
includes Nerf Dart Tag, a version of paintball without the mess, and a new
glow basketball hoop and basketball, so exercise doesn't have to stop when
it gets dark.
Some fun items being reintroduced this
year include the Dance Master by Advance Bright (www.advancebright.com), a
game which gets kids dancing like "their favorite pop star," as
one Web site put it, and the Air Kicks anti-gravity boots by Geospace, of
Seattle (www.geospace.com), which when strapped on over shoes allows
children to "bound across the yard like a herd of bolting
gazelles."
This
reporter's favorite? The "all skate, no push" skateboard by
Pumgo, of Atlanta, Ga., which one gets going by alternately pumping each
end of the board up and down as they ride. It's a good way to exercise the
thighs and so easy that even this reporter (who hasn't been on a skateboard
in more than 10 years) could do it. Check it out at www.pumgo.com.
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