Surgeons who play video games perform better surgeries!

OK, maybe my title is a little misleading, but it got your attention didn't it? The real article states that surgeons who play video games appear to perform better in a simulated surgery skills course. The course's goal was to perform a successful laparoscopic surgery.

Out of the 33 surgeons who participated, the surgeons who played video games frequently made 47 percent fewer errors, performed 39 percent faster and scored 41 percent better on the overall score. Coincidence, I do not think so, as it is widely known that video games can enhance your hand-eye coordination.

The author of this study said, "training curricula that include video games may help thin the technical interface between surgeons and screen-mediated applications, such as laparoscopic surgery". Translation, video games are truly a practical tool to help surgeons become more precise, and in the process save more people's lives. Who knew video games could affect so many facets of our lives?

A video game you play by using only your mind?

Yep, you read it right, no more need for controllers. A team from Washington University at St. Louis, shown in the picture to the right, successful devised a game that you can play with only your mind.

The experiment the scientists conducted was connecting a piece of hardware that recorded a 14-year-olds brain activity. Then they programmed the game "Space Invaders" to interface with these brain waves. The result was the boy being able to control and shoot the spaceship by only thinking about it.

Now you might be wondering why this is important. Well it just so happens that this is the kind of research that is necessary for progress in the field of artificial limbs. If this technology of moving things with your mind is perfected, we will be able to control artificial limbs with just our imagination. Can you imagine moving a prosthetic leg or arm, just by thinking about it?

Rock Band = Awesomeness

Mark your calenders folks, November 20th the game Rock Band hits. What is Rock Band you might ask? Check out the video below to get an idea.

How to Play this thing
Yep, you get to play the guitar, bass, drums, and sing with a microphone! The best part is you don't have to have any musical talent what so ever to have fun with it. While that video might give the impression there a real "rock band", they are all game controllers. Here's a close up of the drums to the right.

All you have to do to play is match the colored notes on the TV screen, with the color on your particular instrument. To sing, you have to try and match the pitch that it says on the TV. The microphone has a vibration sensor inside that evaluates the pitch.

Why So Great?
The reason I think this game is great, is it will raise awareness for how cool playing musical instruments are, and hopefully inspire people to play the real things. Also it takes four people to play the whole band, so it will have playing video games together socially, and hopefully strengthen relationships in that manner.

Video Game helps Flood Planners in UK

After reading this article on BBC News, I learned about the UK's preparations for global warming flooding. Their main tool for research is a video game called FloodRanger.

It allows you play a 100 year period in a fictional setting, and act out different scenarios with flooding. According to the United Kingdom's chief scientific advisor the number of people at risk of flooding in Britain will increase to 3.5 million by the year 2080.

While that might seem far in the future, the time for action is now. Preserving valuable coast line, as well as devising other long-term solutions takes time.

The game will help researchers learn where to effectively build dams, and reservoirs to limit any flood waters. Also it will save millions of pounds to test these flood scenarios in a video game rather than testing the real thing. You have to be careful though, because you will lose in the game if the public opinion of your leaderships dips below 30%.

Video Games Help those with Food Stamps?

This might be an even greater video game than that UN World Hunger game I wrote about a couple weeks ago. In this game pack, released in Michigan, young adults who have food stamps are challenged to eat as healthy and as cheap as possible.


The Fantastic Food Challenge, is a four game package that is essentially designed for those with food stamps to make better use of their money. Because so many young adults played such games as kids, they ought to be able to learn more easily from them, too, said the project's director.

In the one game, "Price Makes Sense", players have to use their math skills to figure out the best food deal; for instance, that six servings of eggs at $1.20 is cheaper per serving than five servings of chicken at $2.00.

I find it funny that Michigan Service employees find it interesting this game pack is more effective than the charts and pamphlets they use to hand out. I mean who wants to read about how they can be better spenders when they can play a computer game doing it? Seems like common sense to me, what do you guys think?

Check out the Full Article from Wired.com on the Food Stamps Game Pack

Video Games + Exercise = The Gamerunner

Who said video games can't help you exercise? This new invention, called the Gamerunner, allows you to control how you move your character. If you walk on the Gamerunner, the character on the game will walk. If you run on the Gamerunner, you got it, you run in the game.


I think this invention is extremely innovative but it has it's downsides. First, it is only designed for First-Person perspective games that use a keyboard and mouse. That limits the amount of games you can use it for.

Also on the Gamerunner website, you can't purchase one of these yet, but when you can the estimated retail price is five hundred dollars. Translation? Not many people will be able to make use of this product, which is a shame.

Video Games to help kids with ADHD?

I always thought giving all that medication to little kids for things like ADD and ADHD was bad. Apparently researchers in Sydney, Australia feel the same.

They are planning to do a study with kids who have ADHD to hopefully prove video games increase their ability to focus. This experiment is being conducted after American researchers reported last week the benefits of non-medical intervention in the treatment of ADHD.

The way this study works is giving children video games that have built-in biofeedback controls. It monitors things like heart rate and brainwave patterns to see how much concentration a child can gather while playing the game. If the child's heart rate or brainwaves drop below a certain rate they lose control of the video game their playing.

I think this study is so interesting not just because video games are involved, but because it could help prove all this medication we are giving our children is not necessary at all.

You should check the full article out over at the Sydney Newspaper's Website.