CHIBA, Japan – Takayuki Kosaka, Ph.D., has invented the world's first FPS.
That's Food Practice Shooter, not the other thing you were thinking of.
In between the giant, garish booths that Japan's goliath gaming companies pay top yen for at the Tokyo Game Show (though they're doing a lot less of that these days), the yearly game industry exposition also hosts experimental games made by college students, tech companies and design schools. In years past, we've found products with a serious purpose, such as a game made for the blind. Other times, they're just peculiar ideas that no one has tried before.
Food Practice Shooter is a bit of both. Described in the brochure as a "Serious Dietary Education System for Changing Food Preferences," it's a game designed to teach kids to enjoy eating vegetables – no small feat.
Kosaka, an assistant professor at the Kanagawa Institute for Technology, is the game's sole creator. He explained the philosophy behind Food Practice Shooter using the classic carrot-and-stick analogy: "Horses like carrots, but kids don't like carrots," he said. "But kids like videogames."
The game uses a complicated physical setup: A massive gun controller with a camera and various other sensors, and a set of scales on which an array of healthy foods are set – in this case, vegetable-flavored biscuit cookies.
Holding the gun, players shoot their way through a city under siege by giant vegetables. Each successive veggie kill depletes one of three ammunition supplies: carrots, green peppers and tomatoes.
In order to reload a certain type of ammo, players must put the gun down and eat the appropriate food. Before play can resume, the player must then look into the camera mounted on the gun and smile. This, Kosaka says, trains the kids to eat the vegetables and enjoy the taste, by associating it with the positive feelings of smiling.
Food Practice Shooter knows if you're cheating.
Since the cups containing the biscuits are sitting on digital scales, the game knows if a cookie was taken. And the headphones that players have to wear have reflective object sensors aimed at the players' cheeks. So they know if you're chewing. This means Food Practice Shooter is not only encouraging players to eat certain foods, it's making sure they take their time and chew their food as well.
With such a large amount of specialized equipment, there's no way Kosaka could sell Food Practice Shooter in stores. But he says he hopes to bring the setup to schools and public food events to reach as many kids as he can.
