Protection of health and environment thanks to mobile phones

Plan your travel season right away because the mobile phone can not only help you maintain your exercise routine, but also help lose weight even in winter days without using your hands to control .

Researchers at the University of Washington and Intel have invented a new type of mobile application, UbiFit and UbiGreen, that automatically tracks environmental activities and travel. Exciting pictures show programs on the phone screen that change as much as the more active users and the use of environmentally friendly vehicles regularly.

The purpose of this application is to change the attitude of people to be more positive, which is commented by Sunny Consolvo, a graduate researcher at UW School of Information Technology and author of UbiFit. In a three-month experiment, all UbiFit users with the background display maintained their active habits through the winter days - a time when most people were reluctant to operate while those others must reduce their diet.

UbiFit and UbiGreen are part of UW's huge project to use mobile phones to control daily activities and coordinate long-term goals such as health, project director James Landay assistant professor UW art and computer science said. You cannot have a well-proportioned body for a short time and just sit still where it requires a long period of time in different places and in different ways.

The latest version of UbiFit and UbiGreen uses external sensors (Intel mobile touch floor) installed on the belts of users. This kit includes an accelerometer to feel the movement of the user. Programs can run on the phone with the addition of a new accelerometer, such as the new generation Iphone and Android G1 without any external devices supported. UbiGreen also has to rely on changes in phone signal poles to know whether users are walking or not. Landay commented.

The sensor knows what the user is doing based on the signal that vibrates around and the movement signal is located at your waist completely different if you are walking, jogging or sitting in the car. Landay also added that the sensor will send signals three times faster every second than Bluetooth to mobile phones where the sensor application will synthesize signals and tell you what you're doing. like walking or driving for about 20 minutes.

The more leaves, flowers and fruits, the more evidence that the owner of this handset is environmentally friendly.The icon to the left of the screen has a function to indicate the change.And the circles on the bottom turn green, indicating that users save a lot of money and practice it by walking like this.(Photo: Washington University)

UbiFit has the ability to display an empty dry grass from the beginning of the week and during that week the flower will bloom only when the user moves continuously. Different activities, flowers will be different. Weekly users will indicate their goals and when that goal is achieved they will be rewarded with a butterfly. Users sometimes have to adjust manually moving information when the sensor malfunctions as they forget to install them on their belts or some actions that the touchscreen cannot recognize.

The display of the wallpaper shows that the device is being activated, said Consolvo, a researcher at Intel Seatle Research Institute. She had a study in this field from November 2007 until January 2008, with 28 participants . The results were announced at the UbiComp conference in Seoul in September. In her study, the participants used the UbiFit desktop to maintain their movement during the holiday while those without the display had to skip the activity. their.

Consolvo recognizes that 'the greatest success of this research is success in displaying wallpaper' . UbiGreen's designs are inspired by UbiFit. This project was launched on November 18 at the conference on climate change, energy and attitudes of people in Sacramento, Calif., Mr. Landay added.

UbiGreen automatically records user journeys such as walking, running or cycling. A quick survey takes place at the end of the journey with users who choose cars, buses or trains. Usually, this application is programmed to gather information from the accelerometer because the movement of cars, buses or trains is very different.
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UbiGreen displays a green tree on the background of the phone and this tree leaves leaves, flowers and fruits because its users have made a green choice. The icons light up when those options save money, are useful for sports training or allow users to do many things at once. A blue bar and a green figure also indicate how much CO2 you have limited on that trip compared to driving a car.

UbiFit and UbiGreen may be available to the public within the next 1-2 years , especially the accelerated mobile phones will become more popular, Landay said.

'30 years of the end of the PC era can support people at their desks, but the next wave will be mini-computers that follow us everywhere anytime and understand everything. Case in this life. '

Intel is the main sponsor for the project. UbiFit and UbiGreen researchers include Jon Froehlich, a recently graduated UW engineering and computer science researcher; Pedja Klasjna - UW information technology graduate student; Jennifer Mankoff - Associate Professor of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University; Tawanna Dillahunt - Carnegie Mellon's computer and human graduate student and Beverly Harrison, a researcher at Intel Seatle Research.