The squash courts at Dublin City University’s Sports Centre have been transformed into a wonderland of interactive games courtesy of CLARITY: Centre for Sensor Web Technologies.
Over the duration of this year’s annual DCU sports summer camp, up to 900 children between the ages of 6-11 are experiencing a sensor-based interactive team game which encourages leadership, communication and team-building, as well as being great exercise and buckets of fun.
This game, developed by researchers at the Science Foundation Ireland-funded CLARITY research centre, is a kind of “techie-rounders”, and involves a team captain wearing a wireless headset issuing instructions to his/her team. Points are scored as each player kicks or throws a ball at a moving target projected onto the back wall of the squash court. A sensor is used to detect where the ball hits the target, and team scores are given based to this. After the second week, over nine hundred shots had been taken.
Professor Niall Moyna (DCU’s Faculty of Science and Health), whose research students were involved in building the game, believes that team games like this are important for a variety of reasons: “This particular game helps children to develop motor skills and find the enjoyment in sports which could lead to more confidence in sports activities in their future lives”.
Mr. Edmond Mitchell, a PhD student in DCU who developed the software for the game said “it is great to see the kids really enjoying the cooperative nature of the game. The encouragement that each child gets before they shoot is amazing. It’s very fulfilling to see my research put to such a positive use”.
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