Hitherto umpteen medical studies and researches have proven that playing video games for long hours regularly is indeed injurious to health. Much to the contrary of this conclusion, Simon Scarle, a computer scientist at the Simon Scarle, has devised a way to use an Xbox 360 to detect heart defects and help prevent heart attacks.

Apparently, this device is cheaper and faster as compared to the computer systems that are currently used by scientists to perform heart research. Scarle initially detailed this system in “Journal of Computational Biology and Chemistry”, a journal published in August, 2007 while he was a software engineer at Microsoft’s Rare Studio. He further modified a console that delivers data tracking (as to how electrical signals in the heart move around damaged cardiac cells) instead of producing graphics for the game.

This in turn creates a model of the heart that allows doctors to identify heart defects such as arrhythmia. Scarle believes that this computing hardware will be very useful for students who aspire to be scientists. No doubts, science is ever progressing but only time will speak if Scarle’s study will be accepted widely.

Via: Time