Healthcare is fair game for this and in this interview from CNN, a toothbrush is used as an example. With devices, such as the IPhone, we see some of this with 
going on line to compare your work out figures and other items against others on the web or with friends. This is also a legal outlet of sorts for promoting such software for other data reporting type services with the hopes that if an individuals gets acquainted with processes through playing games, there might be some additional hope for success when the game becomes secondary and collecting data about your health takes top priority.
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We have seen it on Facebook too where playing a game gets contributions send to place you never even thought of or to companies you may not want to send contributions, but it’s all part of the game. We have a scale that already connects and you can use it for your personal health records or you can play the game and compete with others on BMI, etc.
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A couple other items mentioned in here is that a “game” can be won, but all areas of life are not like that, so we get some immediate gratification along the line.
Just in the news today is a story about the VA using video games to rehabilitate veterans with brain injuries. This application I completely understand why too. If you notice in almost all the promotional material for many devices, they want the perception to be “fun” and have it be seen as a game of sorts. Again, there’s nothing wrong with this, but be prepared when the real data collecting and who has access kicks in, it’s all there either now or later. The pill bottle that reminds you to take medications is a good thing for what it does for consumers for compliance, but it also adds you medication information to a data base where your information is bought and sold and creates profits for companies in healthcare who mine and use that data.
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Walk N Play is a free iPhone application that will let you compare notes and play a game with the use of the accelerometer, so again when a data gathering program is initiated and perhaps there are savings for an individual through biometric monitoring of an employer to give discounts on employer health insurance rates, it is now more than the game, but that’s how it started. Computational Physiology Lab is the name of the company supplying the game, notice the name?
Walk n Play iPhone Application – Tracks Every Move You Make and Creates A Report
There’s some great psychologists walking around that have written some interesting games to get people interested I do have to say. If we have a society that revolves around entertainment, well games it is to solicit that mentality to learn I guess.
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This device, Fitbit has a game too with a lot of other disclosures you may want to read about too. See it states to compare with the “broader community”, i.e. a game.
Fitbit Wireless Device Monitors your Daily Activity and Movements Released
It does make one wonder if this is the direction the world is going with “gaming” algorithms designed to engage individuals with an idea that can be “fun” instead of using the word “learn”. I know I certainly have a difficult time in just suggesting to individuals to take maybe 10-15 minutes a day to read and learn something, in other words pull yourself away from gaming, watching TV and do this. I get looks like you cant’ believe and many who think they don’t need to read and that part is scary as those are the ones who don’t understand and get angry at some point and blame all those that do read for the basis of their problems. Yeah, that’s everywhere and not just healthcare.
If' I can have fun and win a game I guess folks are into it, if one has to read, focus and learn, well that is not as much fun, but again pay attention to how the games work and when they are somewhat of a front for data collecting and read the fine print as most of them will tell you, we are collecting your data, but have fun playing the game. BD
CNN) -- If you think an electric toothbrush is high-tech, wait until you hear about the Internet-enabled version.
Jesse Schell, a game designer and Carnegie Mellon University professor, says toothbrushes will be hooked-up with Wi-Fi Internet connections within five years.
The point? If the entire Internet knows how often you brush your teeth and for how long, there's an incentive to brush more often.
Toothbrush makers could offer rewards for frequent brushers, too. Say you brush your teeth twice each day for three months. A company like Crest or Procter & Gamble could reward you with coupons for more toothbrushes, since your well-used bristles would probably be frayed by then.
In fact, Oral-B is like halfway there. They already have a toothbrush that senses when you're brushing your teeth. And every 30 seconds, it beeps, meaning it's time now to change to a different corner of your mouth. So you do the four quadrants of your mouth, and when you've done all four, then it does a little special beep, and a happy face appears. And you don't get the happy face, you get a sad face, if you don't finishing brushing your teeth properly.
One of the main things that's appealing about games is that you know a game can be won. It's an unusual game that's impossible to win.
In real life, we have these problems, and the problems are hairy, and they're messy. You look at the problems that you face in your job or in your relationship or in your family, and it's like there's no clear winning, and there's no clear losing. Whereas, in a game, things are crisp and clear.
The game presents you with challenges that can be met, and then it congratulates you on your successes at those challenges. It's a thing we don't get everyday in life.
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