It takes only about 10-30 minutes into a sedentary lecture before audience attention is decreasing. There are different ways to avoid this. One is to use a web-based audience response systems (ARS), where the audience interact with the lecturer through their smartphones, and another is to take short breaks, including physical movements, to re-energize both the body and the brain.

In this study, these two methods have been combined and explored. By utilizing the motion sensors that are integrated in almost every smartphone, a physical activity for a lecture audience was created and implemented in the ARS platform Mentimeter. The proof of concept was evaluated in two lectures, based on O’Brien and Toms' model of engagement. The aim was to explore the prerequisites, both in terms of design and implementation, for creating an engaging physical activity within a lecture audience, using smartphone motion sensors to capture movements and a web-based ARS to present the data.

The results showed that the proof of concept was perceived as fun and engaging, where important factors for creating engagement were found to be competition and a balanced level of task difficulty. The study showed that feedback is complicated when it comes to motion gesture interactions, and that there are limitations as to what can be done with smartphone motion sensors using web technologies. There is great potential for further research in how to design an energizing lecture activity using smartphones, as well as in exploring the area of feedback in motion gesture interaction.