The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) announced more than $1.85 million in grants for research that will offer unprecedented insight into how digital games can improve players' health behaviors and outcomes. With funding from RWJF's Health Games Research national program, nine research teams across the country will conduct extensive studies to discover, Health Games Research is supported by an $8.25 million grant from RWJF's 

Teachers College, Columbia University is developing a Game Intervention for Nicotine Smokers on a mobile phone.  The game is intended to be an alternative to smoking with the goal of reducing or eliminating tobacco use in players' lives. The game involves breathing into a microphone to control gameplay and is coupled with sound, color, images, challenges and feedback to mimic the stimulant and relaxant effects of smoking.  Effects will be evaluated through emotional response and physiological measures (electroencephalogram (EEG), heart rate, galvanic skin response) and compared to subjects after smoking or after playing the game in lieu of smoking. If successful, the game will emulate the effects of smoking as a replacement therapy for smokers who want to quit.

 

The article "Nine Leading Research Teams Selected to Study How Digital Games Improve Players' Health" was published on November 6th, 2009 in Reuters. http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS214760+05-Nov-2009+PRN20091105