Cognitive Support Tools for a Pre-Performance Routine in a Darts Game

Abstract

This paper describes two types of a cognitive support tools for a pre-performance routine (PPR) in a darts game. PPRs entail the performance of determined motions before an action and are often executed in sports for the purpose of removing stress or raising concentration. The concentration-stabilizing phenomenon was discovered by the previous research, and it determined that the phenomenon appears more conspicuous in the case of experts and PPRs. A tool using a simple brainwaves sensor has been designed and shows us the current status of concentration and notifies us of the concentration-stabilizing phenomenon on a tablet computer. Another tool has been developed on a smart watch with a heart rate sensor. The smart watch indicated heartbeat as a “beep” sound to a user. It was designed based on a result that indicated that darts game scores tend to improve by throwing immediately after a heartbeat. The effectiveness of the tools were verified in several experiments.