NEC Turns Your Energy Consumption into an Online Game
If the idea of tracking and analyzing your power consumption via a chart does not excite you, consider NEC’s online energy games. The electronics company’s program, currently undergoing a three-month trial in employees’ homes, uses a WiFi-enabled device attached to your circuit breaker to keep track of power consumption. Information is transmitted to your computer via Zigbee wireless technology, where it can be used to play games like “Carbon Diet” and “Carbon Ball”.
Carbon Diet lets you compete against other households to see who uses the least amount of power. The households with the most eco-points can buy virtual soil, water, flowers, and grass. Carbon Ball features dung beetles competing to travel the farthest, with distance determined by power consumption.
Carbon Diet and Carbon Ball probably won’t fly off… [view entry]
From the “Game of Life’ Files, comes this stub about 
