Towards exergaming commons: composing the exergame ontology for publishing open game data

Area of Science:

• Digital Health
• Ontology Engineering
• Health Informatics

Background:

• Exergames provide physical, mental, and cognitive health benefits.
• Emerging use of exergames as health monitoring tools through game metrics.
• Need for open data access to evaluate exergame potential in health research.

Purpose of the Study:

• Develop a standardized ontology for describing exergames and their components.
• Create a framework for applying the ontology to online exergames.
• Enable open data access to exergame metrics for research evaluation.

Main Methods:

• Developed an ontology using Web Ontology Language (OWL) for exergames.
• Incorporated relevant existing ontologies and defined new classes/properties.
• Created a JavaScript framework for online exergame application and a SPARQL Endpoint for data access.

Main Results:

• Modeled exergame components including players, game sessions, and data metrics.
• Reused existing ontologies and defined specific classes for game goals, controllers, and hardware.
• Published data from 14 users' exergame sessions as open data in a triplestore.

Conclusions:

• Standardized structure for exergame concepts, enabling reference and comparison.
• First publication of actual exergame session data on the web as open data.
• Facilitates data integration and analysis for 'Open Trials for Active and Healthy Ageing'.