A responsive and persuasive audio device to stimulate exercise and fitness in children

ABSTRACT

Designing to stimulate health and fitness in children proposes particular challenges because children lack direct control over their environment. Additionally, children respond more to activities emphasizing recreation over education. This paper details the design and development process for children, highlighting design choices with research from industry, parents and children. The end product is a responsive and persuasive audio player that controls and varies music tempo based on measured activity level. This device makes use of music's natural ability to fuel activity, and it gives children a way to directly control some portion of their environment. Additionally, it delivers increased exercise under the disguise of fun and recreation. This paper contributes to the HCI design process for children by showing how to develop persuasive technologies to implicitly succeed a specific goal without explicitly addressing an existing problem.

REFERENCES

• 1: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. BMI - Body Mass Index: BMI for Children and Teens. June 8, 2004. http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/bmi/bmi-for-age.htm.
• 2: Eppinger, Steven D., Ulrich, Karl T. Product Design and Development, Third Edition. McGraw-Hill/Irwin, New York, 2004.
• 3: Girls Just Want to Have Fun. American Fitness Magazine, September/October 2005.
• 4: Montoya, Carolyn. Keeping Children Healthy and Fit. Medscape. http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/506304.
• 5: Rellergert, Linda. Pedometer Pointers. Missouri Families. http://missourifamilies.org/
• 6: Tudor-Locke, C., Pangrazi, R., Corbin, C., Rutherford, W., Vincent, S., Raustorp, A., Tomson, L., and Cuddihy, T. BMI-referenced Standards for Recommended Pedometer-Determined Steps/Day in Children. Preventive Medicine. Vol. 38, Issue 6. p. 857 -- 864. June 2004.

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.2 User Interfaces (D.2.2, H.1.2, I.3.6)
          Subjects: Voice I/O

Additional Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.1 MODELS AND PRINCIPLES
      H.1.2 User/Machine Systems
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.1 Multimedia Information Systems
          Subjects: Audio input/output
      H.5.2 User Interfaces (D.2.2, H.1.2, I.3.6)
          Subjects: Haptic I/O

General Terms:
Design, Human Factors, Theory

Keywords:
children, music, pedometer, persuasive technology