Wii vs. Real Life

Overview

Objectives/Goals Although many people have bought into the marketing that Wii can "make people fit" and "help people lose weight", using heart rate as a measure of exercise level, we tested the following: 1. Do Wii sports video games raise your heart rate to an exercise target heart rate? 2. Do they raise your heart rate as high as doing the activities for real? 3. If not, can you get your heart rate closer to playing the sports for real if you play the Wii Sports video games more vigorously? Methods/Materials We took the pulse of students while 1) resting, 2) playing Wii tennis and baseball at an average level by using a "flicking" motion to play, 3) playing Wii tennis and baseball vigorously, and 4) playing tennis and baseball for real. Student pulses were recorded and compared to each other and to target heart rates for kids their ages. Results The average student's heart rate did not go up as much when playing Wii Sports as it did when playing the real sport. However, you can raise your heart rate more if you play Wii Sports more vigorously. Wii Sports did not raise heart rates to an "exercise" level in most cases, either when played at an average level or played vigorously. Most students reached exercise heart rates when playing the sports for real though. Conclusions/Discussion If you're going to play Wii, you should play it vigorously to raise your heart rate more, but it's still best to play it for real outside. We also learned that Wii has a very strong marketing department.

Competition history

• CSEF 2009 Human Biology (Junior Division Only) · Entry J1318

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

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