Chilling out with computer games

DUBLIN-Gary McDarby is an Irish electrical engineer admittedly besotted by science, but also keenly interested in helping children in need. A decade ago he was working as a volunteer, dealing with youngsters who had been forced to become child soldiers in Liberia. One 10-year-old lad, who had taken part in a firing squad that killed a woman, was so traumatized by nightmares that he couldn't sleep. McDarby, desperate to help the child, gave him a Walkman loaded with a tape of the serene Celtic chanteuse, Enya. It did the trick, quieting the boy and helping to ease him into sleep. After that incident, McDarby concluded that "smart technologies" that taught people how to calm down could one day be developed. He's now a principal scientist at MIT's Media Lab Europe in Dublin and leads the lab's MindGames team, which has designed computer games that help stressed out children to relax. McDarby admits that games that encourage calm reactions are a paradox, but they seem to work. And once the games have taught the children tranquillizing skills, those lessons can be put to use in real life.The true test is "how effective the learned behavior is in the classroom," McDarby notes.

His team has three prototypes ready, each created from scratch, using inexpensive technology. Nonetheless, he says, they look great, incorporating high-end, three-dimensional graphics to ensure that players are engrossed. One game, Relax to Win, has two players competing in a dragon race-the more relaxed the contestant, the faster his or her dragon goes. Electrodes attached to fingertips measure heart rates. Another game measures brain alpha waves and pulse rates, and the calmer players become, the more power they're granted. The first commercial versions of the games could be ready within a few months. McDarby's creations give the old phrase "relax, it's only a game" a new and poignant meaning.

Copyright American Society for Engineering Education Sep 2002
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved