A child swinging his arms inside a virtual reality headset looks like he is getting real exercise, and he is. He is just getting less of it than everyone watching believes, including the fitness tracker on his wrist.
Twenty-eight children averaging nine years old ran through a series of ten-minute sessions while researchers measured their oxygen consumption and heart rate, according to a study published in Games for Health Journal. The children sat at rest, played a conventional seated video game, walked on a treadmill at about three and a half miles an hour, and then played two VR games — the rhythm game Beat Saber and a boxing game called Thrill of the Fight.
The seated video game barely registered above sitting still. Both VR games clearly beat it. But only the boxing game reached the same intensity as the treadmill walk. Beat Saber, which is the title far more children actually own, came in lighter than that.
The more useful finding is about measurement. A separate team reported that heart rate during VR play points to light or moderate activity while the energy actually burned corresponds to something lighter still, and concluded that heart rate should not be used as the only measure of exertion in VR. Excitement raises the pulse. It does not move the legs.
The children in the study rated the VR games as more challenging, more visually satisfying and more fun than the seated game, and said the boxing game demanded the most concentration.
Motion sickness proved to be a minor problem. Two of the 28 children reported any symptoms at all, and neither one asked to stop playing.
Rick Good spent ten years in the newspaper business, including with The News & Observer (Raleigh, NC) and The Greenville News (Greenville, SC). He co-wrote, with Melinda Coleman, Rutledge to Riley: Governors of South Carolina, 1776–Present (Published by The Greenville News), and is the author of Mind Games Trivia #1 (Amazon). He has recently spent 15 years creating original trivia content through Sounds Good Mobile Entertainment and continues that with his new company, SGME Software. He edits The Smart Reader’s money, real estate, and business coverage.