Improving Monitoring of Physical Activity using Context

Problem

Finding opportunities to incorporate physical activity into daily life is common struggle among people.

Existing devices and systems mostly show step counts and do not provide insight into what affects steps.

Approach

Systems should go beyond performance numbers and inform users of the patterns of their activities and behavior.

Users can learn the association between their step counts and behavior and how different aspects of their lives affect their step counts.

Solution

  • User tracks physical activity and contextual information (activity, location, people) using mobile phone.
  • User synchronizes daily data from mobile phone to web site.
  • User explores trends and history of steps and contextual data using visualizations.

Prototype / Demo

http://mobileimpact.cmubi.org/

Article

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Ian Li, Anind K. Dey, and Jodi Forlizzi. Using Contextual Information to Improve Awareness of Physical Activity. Engaging Data 2009, Boston, MA, 2009.

© 2010 Ian Li. All rights reserved.