From Tuscaloosa News:

This scene isn’t out of a science fiction novel — it happened Saturday afternoon at the YMCA of Tuscaloosa County, where Jones and a host of other children got their first look at “Lightspace,” a game in the center’s new Kids Zone.

After taking the stairs directly ahead of the front desk, the room of red, yellow and blue-painted walls opens up and is filled with video games that kids play with their bodies, not hand-held controllers.

Byron Langdon, YMCA sports director, said the YMCA needed a place that kids between the ages of 6 and 14 could hang out, since they are too big for day care and too young to use the facility’s fitness center.

Langdon said the idea for the new area came from a Chicago YMCA that recently added the same program to their facility with the help of Motion Fitness, a company that sells and installs the games.

After touring the Chicago YMCA, Langdon said he knew it would be the perfect addition to the new Kids Zone. With the help of the YMCA Men’s Club, the idea became a reality.

“Motion Fitness came in the first part of April and installed the games and we played with them for a few weeks to make sure everything was working,” he said.

From guardian.co.uk:

The government is to launch an anti-obesity TV campaign that aims to promote the virtue of children playing videogames such as those for Nintendo’s Wii that require physical activity.

This marks a rapid U-turn by the government, weeks after it angered the games industry with a press campaign which implied that sitting inside playing games could lead to an early death.

The Department of Health’s new TV campaign, the latest stage of the government’s £75m anti-obesity advertising strategy, aims to push the message that not enough children are doing the recommended 60 minutes a day of some form of physical activity.

In the TV ad, which breaks tonight, the animated Change4Life family find ways to give kids 60 minutes of activity a day.

Solutions include playing videogames that require physical exertion – typified by products such as Nintendo’s popular Wii Sports and Wii Fit games franchises – as well as walking to school and playing in the park.

From Pocket-lint:

"Active is a platform not a game", Moore told us in a one to one interview after flying over from America to see us.

Rather than merely offering downloadable content, Moore outlined to Pocket-lint that fans of the game would likely see expansion packs based around specific areas like football, baseball or tennis, as well as specific fitness packs that would allow you to get fit.

One such suggestion is for an "abs pack", to help people hone certain areas of their body.

According to EA, the game, which has seen a strong marketing push with stars such as Davina McCall involved, has already garnered plenty of pre-orders ahead of its launch.

From McGill Reporter:

For the past four years, a small team of Masters students led by Prof. Gordon Bloom, Director of the McGill Sport Psychology Research Laboratory, has been quietly conducting bio/neurofeedback training with dozens of elite athletes, including skiers, skaters and hockey players. The goal of the program, funded through Sport Canada and the Centre nationale multisport in Montreal: help Canada’s Olympians achieve peak performance at the Vancouver games next winter.

Neurofeedback training, designed to enable people to alter their brain activity, has been used widely in the treatment of conditions such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. But relatively little rigorous work has been done on adapting the technique to help give top athletes a mental edge.

Bloom’s student-trainers conduct individual sessions in the McGill Seagram Sport Science Centre or at a satellite lab in Olympic Stadium.  The athlete, seated in front of a computer, has sensors placed on the scalp and ears to monitor brainwaves. The athletes can see their brain activity on the computer screen – and learn gradually, through exercises such as video-game simulations, to produce patterns closer to the desired form.

From RedFerret (via Geek.com):

This Virtual Soccer Ball may not make it to the World Cup, but it’s got enough fun tech to keep younger feet happy. The digital LCD display keeps track of ball juggling and how long you can keep the ball in the air. What it really needs is a camcorder attachment which will let you upload your exploits to the web, but that’s for the next model yeah? $17.99.

Encourage active play with this hi-tech soccer ball, complete with a digital display that tracks cool moves on the field. * Digital display keeps track of how long you can keep the ball in the air * Includes an invisible sensor that counts how many times you juggle the ball * Design and colors resemble a regular soccer ball, but with a hi-tech edge * Great for one or multiple players Go for the goal with this innovative soccer ball and become a superstar player!

From odemagazine.com:

The Humana Foundation capitalized on these two key issues to create a video game that encourages kids to exercise – outside. It’s called The Horsepower Challenge. Created to fight obesity, the game involves a pedometer that measures the steps of kids and uploads the count wirelessly to the web, so that the kids can even play outside while participating in the challenge. Several schools can compete with each other for the highest total steps, and each individual can customize his or her horse character with new colors, hairstyles and accessories with money earned by their step count. Also, the race measures participants’ progress along a path of world landmarks, sneaking a little geography into the mix.