E-mailed the Virtual Worlds

It might seem a little over-the-top but I thought it might be a good idea to see what Nicktropolis and CBBC's Virtual World would say about incorporating a Healthy Eating/Living zone into their realities.

It's tough getting any sort of contact details off their websites, but I managed to send both an E-mail and I'll update this post with any useful information I receive back off them.

So watch this space.

Admin: Meeting 4

The fourth meeting is scheduled for Thursday 8th February at 3-4pm (just before C++).

We're not sure yet if we have to meet with Russell on Wednesday, when I receive more information regarding this, I'll update the blog accordingly.

In the next meeting, hopefully with Adele, we can further discuss a concrete tool regarding healthy eating. I would also like everyone to think of a third concrete idea (using the information we have gathered thus far, and anything else you find) that we can discuss, so that we end up with 3 main ideas that we can evaluate against each other.

We should also discuss the time of the next meeting.

Admin: Meeting 3 Summary

Attendants:

Ashley Harris
Elliot Hyde
Mark Mitchell
John Saunt

Apologies:

Adele Tyler - twisted her ankle and was unable to attend university.

It was decided that the team should branch out into new ideas at this early point in time, rather than focus solely on the Sports Training tool, until we had met and discussed our ideas with either Russell or one of the demonstrators.

As Adele was absent and she was the main person behind the healthy eating idea, the team struggled to create a concrete idea about the subject. However, some interesting ideas came out of the meeting regarding a particular tool for healthy eating:

1. A virtual world designed to be interactive and education for children; using the technologies as Nicktropolis and CBBC's Virtual World.
2. A portable device (most likely a device strapped to the child so they don't lose it) that could monitor the child's food intake based on a non-intrusive tool, i.e testing body sweat or saliva to see what the child has eaten - then giving that child feedback and education.

Case: Child Fitness Machines

I have found an article, which relates to our sports training idea. A machine has been invented which encourages children who play video games on a Playstation to exercise while playing.

The exercise device is a stepping machine where the child has to do stepping exercises at a certain rate to keep the game that their playing active. The device is linked to the Playstation controller and not directly to the Playstation, meaning it should work on all Playstation games.

If the child does not keep up the certain pace of exercise, the controller will be made inactive and the game will be paused until the child reaches the appropriate exercising pace again.

The ‘Step2Play’ exercise machine as it has been named, is aimed at children under the age of 12. There is no price currently mentioned.



The article and picture can be found here

Case: Teaching Healthy Eating

On the 1st February I posted a Healthy Eating Mind Map, on it I suggested that the device would also teach children how different foods help their bodies and that this could be achieved by using educational games and cartoons with specially adapted characters.

learntobehealthy.org is an American website for both educators and students with many games and animations with healthy food characters including Captain Calcium, Princess Protein, King Carbohydrate, Fat Cat, Wonder Water and Vita Man. The site also includes lesson plans for school teachers of grades 1 to 6. These are the exact kind of features I had in mind.

Click here to play the e-learning kit activites at learntobehealthy.org

Case: Healthy Eating Labels

Last month the Food Standards Agency introduced 'traffic light colour coded labels' to be printed on the front of food packaging. The three colours (red, amber and green) represent the high, medium and low amounts of saturated fats, sugars and salt in complex foods such as ready meals.



Some supermarkets such as Tesco already label the front of their food packaging showing the percentages of different contents in the food, however the The Food Standards Agency believe colour coding the quantities will make such details clearer and will put the quantities into perspective.

The bottom of this lemonade label shows Tesco's current nutrition content table, the colours used distinguish different contents, not content level:


Click here for more information from the Food Standards Agency

I think this supports our earlier idea that children would understand food nutrition more easily if foods were colour coded.

Case: School Laptop

This product links in with my idea posted on the 29th January about a child's PC desktop...

RM have designed a laptop specially for children to use in a school environment called 'Mobile One', it is aimed at children aged 4+ (from first year of primary school).

The laptop includes many specially designed features including:

1. a hard LCD screen (so no sharp objects such as pens and pencils can pierce
   it)
2. a primary keyboard (utilises different colours and keys show both upper and lower case letters)
   
   
3. a rubber bumper bar (provides extra protection in transportation)
4. anti-scratch finish
5. external battery (can be used with the multibay battery charger so batteries can easily be changed and charged)
6. quick release cable connectors
7. strong powerport (can withstand 10kg of force in any direction)
8. anti-trip power cable
9. well spaced USB ports
10. optional waterproof cover

Click here for RM's Official product summary

Also see:
TARGET IT 2007 (10th Edition), published by GTI - 'Peer pressure: notebooks designed to withstand school life' (Page 77)