Electronic game to get overweight youngsters moving to be tested at B.C. schools, hospitals

While many motivational apps encourage people to eat healthy and keep fit, MobileKids: Monster Manor, created by UBC engineer Guy Dumont, is the first children’s game to use physical activity as currency.

The project is part of a $3 million effort by the Peter Wall Solutions Initiative to get UBC researchers teaming up with communities to solve problems. Overweight youngsters are being recruited for a 10-week long project that begins in January to test the app at B.C. Children’s Hospital.

“In an ideal world I would like to see this becoming part of the Grade 4 or Grade 5 curriculum in B.C. schools,” says Dumont. “We have an incredible amount of computing power in our pockets and we need to tap that power to do something useful. The possibilities are endless.”