You wake up. Sit on the bed. Sit at the breakfast table. Sit on the bus. Sit in the office. Sit at lunch. Sit in a meeting. Sit on the bus. Sit at the dinner table. Sit in front of the TV. Sit on the bed. Sleep. Repeat.
“We’re one of the countries in Europe where people sit the most, easily up to ten hours a day. Not only do we get back, shoulder and neck problems. There’s also research showing that the risk of diabetes, cardiovascular disease and several common cancers increases, and that life expectancy decreases by 34 per cent. Sitting is dangerous for us!” says Aseel Berglund, researcher at the Department of Computer and Information Science.
Activate couch potatoes
The World Health Organization and the Public Health Agency of Sweden recommend that you stand up once every half hour and move your body for two minutes to get your blood circulation going, in addition to doing heart rate-raising exercises of about two and a half to three hours a week.
So how can you get these active couch potatoes sitting in their offices with stiff shoulders and curved backs to want to move more during the day?
Researchers Aseel and Erik Berglund believe they may have the answer. Together, they have created Liopep, a digital gaming gym available on your computer, and soon on your mobile phone, around the clock.
The basic idea is that there will be a regular reminder that you need to move when you are working at the computer. But what makes Liopep something else is the gaming feature where you, using your body's movements and the webcam, play computer games and get different challenges to be solved to collect points.
Gamification
This concept is known as gamification, and is a growing field of research. It can simply be described as introducing gaming features where such traditionally are not available, to increase engagement. This means that “boring” tasks can be gamified to be fun and actually performed. But this idea is by no means new.
“I usually compare it getting swimming certificates. That’s also a type of gamification. But we’re starting to talk about gamification as a concept in the digital world,” says Aseel Berglund.
In Liopep there are currently about 10 different games at different levels that train different parts of the body. More and more games are being added, and Aseel and Erik Berglund themselves invent and programme the games. According to Erik Berglund, Liopep is unique.
“Our niche is to make fun motion games and to use gamification so that you forget that you’re exercising. We’re unique in that respect. You’ll be able to keep going a little longer as you’re distracted by a game. This also provides mental relaxation and recovery because you don’t think about work,” he says.
Startup phase
Erik Berglund got the idea of gamifying the movement break at work when he developed back pain after long working days in front of the computer. But going to the gym was not a tempting option.
“Regular training is too boring for me, and I never get round to playing tennis with a friend. Also, research shows that more small breaks during the day are more important for preventing repetitive strain injuries. We need a new kind of work or life culture – sitting, moving, sitting, moving, sitting, moving,” he says.
The next step for Liopep is to grow as a company. With the help of LiU Innovation and the business incubator LEAD, as well as grants from Vinnova, Sweden Game Startup and Visual Sweden, the company is entering a startup phase, which means that they are moving from idea to product and are now about to market it. Being able to take your research ideas and turn them into products or services is quite unique for Sweden and a prerequisite for thriving innovation in a small country.
“There’s great value in the fact that research and commercialisation can coexist. Research can have more direct benefits to society, and research and development of the company can take place in parallel. This is a breeding ground for newly created companies that should be cherished, and also a strength for Sweden,” says Erik Berglund.
But both Erik and Aseel Berglund have noticed that the path to success is not straight.
“To reach out, you have to make the product available to users and customers, only then will you discover everything that doesn’t work with it. Then you have to go back to the drawing board and make adjustments. It’s a bit like a diamond, it takes time before it shines,” says Erik Berglund.
Aseel Berglund, who also teaches software engineering entrepreneurship, agrees:
“You need to work with your customer to actually understand their needs. And this brings in a lot of other aspects that you didn’t think about when doing the research,” she says.
Research and entrepreneurship
But she also sees parallels between research and entrepreneurship. A hypothesis becomes a business model and experiments become product testing. She also has good advice for others who want to develop their research ideas.
“Start with a minimum viable product which is at the heart of what you’re trying to do. Don’t spend time building everything around it and then launching it. Test your basic idea with customers early on,” says Aseel Berglund.
One company that has started using Liopep is Östgötatrafiken. After a first test, they now offer Liopep to their staff working in front of the computer. According to Östgötatrafiken’s HR manager, they have seen positive effects on employees, who are happy and have better concentration throughout the working day. Aseel Berglund says that most people who have tested Liopep are positive:
“When we’ve tested Liopep with other groups, the feedback has been that you get ‘sweaty and happy’ and that was exactly the effect we were looking for. You don’t have to get sweaty, because you can decide for yourself how hard you want to play, but happy, yes! This really confirms where we want to go. But it’s also taken a lot of work to get to where we are now.”
Curios of Liopep? Read more about it here: liopep.com
