Device to measure a persons fitness regime

From my research there seemed to be four main options to accurately measure the exercise a person claims to undertake. 

1. Heart Rate Monitor

• Very easy accessible and cheap
• Can upload information to he internet
• Used by athletes to condition or improve performance
• Can be affected by stress
• Used for tactical training
• Used for motivation already connected to a watch giving immediate feedback to user
• If used near another heart rate monitor can give false reading  

The major bonus of heart rate monitors is the fact it can be uploaded to the internet already, but I don't think it would give an accurate reading for resemble a workout as stress effects it also.

2. Pedometer

• Counts number of steps a person takes
• It is worn throughout the day by a person
• Constant update of how steps you have taken
• Most basic pedometer is the spring-levered pedometer
• Piezo-electric pedometer (accelerometer) more accurate than spring-levered pedometers
• GPS pedometer

This device has numerous advantages can be uploaded to the internet, gives accurate reading but all it is doing is measuring steps undertook in a day which to athletes wouldn't be considered as a workout.

3. Telematics

This is a GPS system measuring distance is possible for cycling, running etc. It is a good system to measure distance and speed for a user but a user would have to undertake long hard exercise regimes to give the system useful feedback.

4. Skipping Counter

• Gives accurate amount of skips taken
• Calculates calorie lose
• Motivates a user by itself already
• 70-110 calories in 10mins
• 600-900 calories in 1 hour
• Cheap and easy accesible
• Upload to the internet unknown

This seems to be a suitable device as it measures accurately already is motivational and is not a daunting task for some one to attempt. I'm still not sure if it can be uploaded to the internet I have emailed a few producers of the product to see if it is possible.

Interactive Boxing Bag

Domyos Interactive Punching Bag

 

This is interactive boxing bag is also like a beep test

Interactive Torso

The Slam Man

Made from blow moulded polyethylene plastic, the Slam Man will absorb punches and quickly return to its original shape. Designed to withstand a heavy pummeling it will work well during all temperatures. Fill the base with 240lbs of sand to gain ultimate stability, ensuring that whatever you throw at it the Slam Man will remain sturdy.

 

Has the following features......

• 5 boxing programs
• 3 training levels
• 8 target lights
• Performance feedback
• 10kg when empty
• Fills with 240lbs of sand
• Includes instruction DVD, boxing gloves and boxers eating plan
• Stands up to any beating you can inflict

 

Conclusion:

What I noticed from the Slam man it is more like a beep test with outputting lights that the user hits. I would rather see the the torso giving out instructions to the user that they would follow.

 

Boxing Bag's in GYM's

After interviewing 3 different GYM instructors including the college GYM instructor, the reasoning behind not having a boxing bag is of people messing and not taking it seriously. This even lead to a court case as someone twisted their wrist! For this reason I'm not sure if a boxing bag is the right component I should utilize for my project I still must talk to a few more different instructors for their opinion on using multimedia to motivate people to get fit. I also have got a few books to read, there about motivation in sports so I shall see what they shall say about the issue and it would be good to see what traditional forms of motivation included.

Further Research

I'm going to begin researching which sensor's are most appropriate to detect movement or power I will also start using Ardunio boards to accomplish this.

I also plan on doing experiments to see which media would be best to communicate with a person while they are training. I will use people with boxing background and get feedback off them to see which they taught was the most effective. I also will talk with other martial arts instructors to see if I could get more feedback off them.

Persuasive Technology in Martial Arts

I had an informal meeting with my Martial Arts instructor Frank Murphy about how could technology help teach or improve a person's martial arts skill. We discussed that if you could have sensors on a boxing bag measuring punch per minute or something of the sort it could improve peoples speed and accuracy. It wouldn't necessarily improve a person's technique as that would have to analyzed by a professional instructor but still could be very effective. I also discussed this sort of idea involving a boxing bag with Paul Green in a formal meeting on Wednesday evening in his office. What I propose to do is have sensor's connected to the boxing bag and using flash to maybe display it on a screen that gives a user feedback. Also I could have the program giving the user instructions what to do (Hook, jab etc) and having a leader board for speed for certain programs. 
                        I think this could also encourage more people without a boxing background to use a boxing bag as part of their work out. As they would have a aim and be given instructions to what to do. As I am unfamiliar with flash I'm not sure what I could do with it but I would like to try have an avatar resembling the person hitting the boxing bag on screen copying their punches and kicks.

Persuasive Technology

Persuasive technology is defined as a computer system, device, or application that is intentionally designed to change a person’s attitude or behavior (Fogg 2003). This technology uses tools (e.g., pedometer or balance board), media (e.g., video, audio, or both), and social interaction (e.g., playing with another person) to persuade individuals to adopt the behavior without their actually knowing it. Although the DDR was not developed specifically to promote physical activity, it has changed exercise attitudes and behavior of children and youth using principles of persuasive technology. Dance Dance Revolution uses video, music, and a dance platform to capture interest and engage children in the activity without their being fully aware that they are exercising. The emerging field of persuasive technology has enormous potential for promoting physical activity and healthy behaviors (Fogg and Eckles 2007; Zhu 2008).

Fitness Social Networks

I would have two options when it comes to trying to utilize a social network to help motivate people, either create a Facebook app or else create a Social network. If I was going creating a website I probably would use ELGG. 

"Elgg is an award-winning social networking engine, delivering the building blocks that enable businesses, schools, universities and associations to create their own fully-featured social networks and applications."

After basic research using Google and Yahoo i came to the realisation that there already is numerous fitness social networks on the web I could be here listing them all evening. That's not what I want to create, and end up being just another number in a long list of sites. 


If I could come up with a device of some sort that was capable of motivating people to do fitness in an area that hasn't been completely addressed yet by a new media, I would drop the social network idea.

Stepmatron

This project was funded by Lincoln City Council, it uses a pedometer (counts how many steps a person walks). This information is then displayed on the persons facebook app which could be seen by all their friends on the social network site. It was tested with 20 nurses and the results (Table Below) proved that it motivated the nurses to walk more to boast their results on the social network.

This showed me that multimedia can be utilized to motivate people to get fitter. This project was also basically what I was thinking of doing, so I'm going to try specify what kind of fitness I'm going to promote using multimedia. I'm going to go to the GYM and see if I can think of anything that could be utilized using multimedia to motivate people more to use it. I'm also going to discuss the subject with my martial art's instructor.

"Creating a motivational atmosphere to help improve people's fitness, using a social media"

I'm after narrowing it down to the fitness aspect of sports, and peoples lack of motivation when it comes to fitness interests me.

To make a multimedia learning environment you need these four qualities. (Malene & Lepper 1987)

1.Challenge

2.Curiosity

3.Control

4.Fantasy

I'm researching any new motivational methods combining both a Facebook  app and maybe an iPhone fitness app. By doing some sort of fitness measured by the iphone app would allow the user be rewarded in the Facebook app allowing them to compete with friends.

It would either be an arbitrary iphone app that people could be exercising even if trying to cheat to get rewarded or else maybe an app measuring how much physical exercise some one is after doing and reward them on that basis. 

My Mind Map So Far (will be constantly updated)

Starting My Research

Technology/Multimedia in sport both includes macro and micro-interventions. I'm going to research both aspects and see which appeals to me the most. Firstly lets see whats the difference.


Macro-technological interventions: Are those that involve equipment, external / internal alterations of joints or ingestion of a substance.  


Micro-technological interventions: Are those practices, which make possible acquisition of sports skill's and include such things as bio-mechanical adjustments and repetitive skill exercises. 


Definition from Debra Shogan in "Sport Technology: History, Philosophy and Policy"

Change of Idea for my Project

What I'm going to research for my project is "Multimedia in Sports". I came to this conclusion after considering my interest's / skills and trying to combine them with an idea with relevance. I have great interest in Sport in general, I have played soccer and football with my local clubs and I'm currently a member of a martial arts group so i will see how multimedia has already influenced sports and how it could in the future. I will concentrate on more the training aspect of sports to see can multimedia improve the training of any particular sport. I will also research any previous studies, tests or documents on this subject already to see what has been researched previously.

Scott Snibble (Artist)

This artist has numerous different types of art work. These are few I picked out of his work.

The Bathysphere: Motion Capture as Art

This is from the UNC Chat festival 2010

I found it quiet amusing so see the audience interaction with the wall every one having a unique experience

FILE in Brazil

This is an festival held in Brazil the Electronic Language International Festival.

This was the winner Tardigotchi. It is an artwork featuring two pets a living organism and a life avatar.



I found it very interesting and made me wonder about social media as the tamagotchi is from years back at even then humans felt the need to have contact with artificial intelligence and AI has evolved rapidly since and would wonder is there anything like this anymore. 

Interactive Art

"Interactive art is a form of installation-based art that involves the spectator in a way that allows the art to achieve its purpose. Some installations achieve this by letting the observer walk in, on, and around them." Wikipedia


This area interested me so I'm beginning to research interactive artist's and festivals dedicated to interactive art.