BACKGROUND: Physical activity for the majority of individuals is below recommended levels despite strong evidence of its significant health benefits. Activity tracker devices present as a promising and affordable tool to help promote physical activity and active choices. Additionally, young adults present as an ideal age group to implement behavior change interventions. OBJECTIVE: To determine what features of activity tracker hardware and software are helpful in motivating active choices. METHODS: This cross-sectional study included 149 participants ranging in age from 18-29 years old who wore an ActiGraph GT3X+ accelerometer for one week. They then continued to wear the accelerometer in addition to a randomly assigned activity tracker (Apple Watch, Fitbit Surge, Basis Peak, or Microsoft Band 2) for an additional week. They also used the corresponding app for their activity tracker. Participants filled out a survey about their experience at the end of the study RESULTS: Overall hardware rating (p = 0.162) and overall software rating (p = 0.125) did not differ between the four devices. Degree of motivation of the hardware (p = 0.177) and software (p = 0.120) was also similar for all the activity trackers. There were 625 positive comments made about tracker hardware with the majority of these comments concerning mode options (n = 149), other (n = 94), and battery (n = 79). There were 287 positive software comments with the majority in the categories of other (n = 78) and information (n = 68). CONCLUSIONS: The analyses of our data did not show a significant difference between devices in any category. Furthermore, results indicated a high number of positive comments for both hardware and software overall. Users also reported device hardware and software to be personally motivating.

Sedentary behavior (SB) contributes to many negative health-related outcomes. Motivation to reduce SB and increase physical activity (PA) are necessary to reduce co-morbidities. Tracking SB and PA provides objective data to help promote wellness. The purposes of this quasi-experimental study were to 1) determine the accuracy of three commercially available activity trackers compared to research-grade accelerometers, and 2) explore whether using these activity trackers led to a change in activity level one week after gathering baseline data. Activity trackers used in this study were Apple Watch, Fitbit Surge, and Microsoft Band 2. A convenience sample of college-age students and community members wore the research-grade ActiGraph 3GTX+ accelerometer on the non-dominant wrist for one week. Participants returned and the activity tracker was added to the non-dominant wrist with the ActiGraph 3GTX+ for another week. All activity trackers significantly differed from the ActiGraph accelerometers. Fitbit Surge had a significant regression equation that could adjust for this difference, but not Apple Watch or Microsoft Band 2. Participants had below average sedentary time, exhibiting 288.4 min/day (SD 100.7) of SB. They also surpassed United States PA standards, averaging 130.3 (SD 48.8) min/day of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity. Few significant changes in activity level transpired between week 1 and week 2. In a group that already has low SB and high PA, activity trackers do not seem to make an impact on activity levels. Further testing is required to determine if activity trackers are motivating to reduce SB and increase PA in groups with different activity profiles.

Sedentary time and physical inactivity have negative impacts on health and health costs as well as an impact on workplace wellbeing. There is evidence that people are more sedentary and engage in less physical activity on work days. Additionally, sedentary behavior has been found to increase distress and negative mood. Activity trackers such as Fitbits are a useful way to collect and intervene on sedentary behavior and potentially impact other factors of workplace wellbeing in real time and promote self-monitoring. The reminder to move prompts that are now part of Fitbit models provide an innovative and simple way to intervene on workplace sedentary behavior with hourly movement prompts. This study examined the impact of an intervention on sedentary time at work with Fitbit reminders to move and what impact the intervention had on other factors of workplace wellbeing including depression, positive and negative affect, job stress, and productivity. Participants were university employees who wore a Fitbit device for three weeks and completed pre-and post-study measures. For the first week, the Fitbit displayed only the watch screen with no access to other data. This was done to establish baseline data. For the second week, the Fitbit device and Fitbit app allowed for self-monitoring by displaying the activity being tracked, including steps, distance, calories expenditure, and stairs walked. For the third week, the sedentary time reduction was implemented by activating the Fitbit application reminder to move. This caused the Fitbit to vibrate at the 50-minute mark of the hour if the participant had not moved 250 steps in that time. Results show that having the reminders to move prompt activated decreased sedentary time at work and increased steps throughout the day on work days. These changes in sedentary time significantly contributed to decreases in depression. From the start of the study to after the intervention, on average participants reported significantly less depression, negative affect, and stress and more positive affect, affect balance, social functioning, physical functioning, and productivity at work. The benefits of in the moment self-monitoring and an intervention around sedentary time with Fitbits on factors of workplace wellbeing are discussed as well as limitations, and future directions.

Syftet med denna undersökning är att undersöka hur glanceable feedback kan implementeras i aktivitetsenheter för hundar för att skapa en bättre användarupplevelse och minska den teknologiska störningen i kommunikationen mellan människa och hund. Tidigare studier visar att utvecklingen hos aktivitetsenheter för hundar är långt ifrån lika framgångsrik jämfört med den för aktivitetsenheter för människor (Ramokapane, van der Linden & Zamansky, 2019; Väätäjä et al. 2018; Zamansky; et al. 2019). Väätäjä, et al. (2018) har påpekat vikten av att teknologin bakom aktivitetsenheten, så som mobiltelefoner, inte ska komma mellan hundägaren och hunden. Den får inte agera som ett störningsmoment som distanserar kommunikation eller interaktion mellan hund och människa (Väätäjä et al. 2018). Detta är idag oundvikligt i dagens aktivitetsenheter för hundar då användaren är helt beroende av mobiltelefonens tillhörande applikation (Väätäjä et al. 2018). Genom frågeställningen (Hur kan glanceable feedback appliceras i aktivitetsenhet för hundar för att ge hundägaren direkt information om hundens aktivitet?) undersöks hur glanceable feedback kan appliceras i aktivitetsenheter för hundar och undvika att kommunikation mellan hund och ägare störs med tekniken. Resultatet är aktivitetsenheten Good Boy. Enheten är försedd med en display och ett mekaniskt hjul som byter mellan de olika kategorierna distans/steg, puls/kroppstemperatur, info/kontaktuppgifter och led/lampa. / The purpose of this study is to investigate how glanceable feedback can be implemented in activity units for dogs to create a better user experience and reduce the technological disruption in human-dog communication. Previous studies show that the development of activity units for dogs is far from as successful as activity units for humans (Ramokapane, van der Linden & Zamansky, 2019; Väätäjä et al. 2018; Zamansky et al. 2019). Väätäjä, et al. (2018) have pointed out the importance of the technology behind the activity, such as the mobile phone, unit not coming between the dog owner and the dog. It must not act as a disturbance that distances communication or interaction between dog and human (Väätäjä et al. 2018). This is inevitable in today's activity units for dogs as the user is completely dependent on the mobile phone's associated application (Väätäjä et al. 2018).  The question (How can glanceable feedback be applied in an activity unit for dogs to give the dog owner direct information on the dog's activity?) Investigates how glanceable feedback can be applied in activity units for dogs and avoid that communication between dog and owner is disturbed by technology. The result is the Good Boy activity unit. The unit is equipped with a display and a mechanical wheel that switches between the different categories distance / step, pulse / body temperature, info /contact information and LED/lamp.

Physical activities like walking have proven health benefits. People are adopting fitness trackers to track physical activity, but they often stop using them after a relatively short time. Many apps and games exist in the app markets that use gamification to tackle this problem of motivation. In this thesis, we examined these existing gamified fitness tracker apps from app markets and looked at the usage of different game elements within these apps. We conducted a systematic review of existing fitness Tracker Apps from Google Play Store and Apple App Store and used a mixed-method approach to identify apps, categorize them by different game elements used and found gaps in the design space using basic statistics, group clustering algorithms, and network analysis using NodeXL. We also developed a mobile game that combines step tracker data, a compelling narrative, and a strategic resource management mechanic with social cooperative-collaborative gameplay to encourage users to keep using fitness trackers and exercise more. It utilizes game elements and mechanics that haven't been explored by previous research or games as validated by our results from the systematic review of gamified fitness tracker apps.

The primary aim of this study is to investigate the impact of an avatar to dog’s daily pet care for the quantified pet users. Furthermore, it explores the design challenges of creating a dog-like avatar for Human-Pet-Computer Interaction. Pawmoji, an emotionally expressive avatar, was designed as a supporting element on the interface to help users interpret the data and increase motivation. Pawmoji changes emotional states according to pet’s daily activities. The data from the device is conveyed to the user via changes in the emotional state of the avatar. This concept was evaluated by pet activity tracker users. In the evaluation, users interpreted the presented emotions of the dog-like avatar in a similar way to human emotions and generally identified the needs of their dogs with high accuracy. The study has also identified design challenges, such as representation and message delivery, and revealed the potential impact of the avatar in daily pet care activities: unpleasant emotions displayed by the avatar were found to be less motivating by the participants. The study shows that an emotionally expressive avatar has the potential to motivate the dog owners and increase awareness of the dog’s state and feelings during the pet-caretaking process. / Det primära syftet med den här studien är att undersöka en avatars påverkan på hundägares husdjursvård för den kvantifierade användaren. Vidare, en emotionell uttrycksfull hundliknande avatar skapades för att fungera som ett designkoncept. Pawmoji ändrar emotionella tillstånd i förhållande till djurets uppmätta aktiviteter. Data från enheten transporteras till användaren genom förändringar i avatarens emotionella tillstånd. Konceptet utvärderades genom en aktivitetsspårare för husdjur. I utvärderingen tolkade deltagarna känslorna som presenterades av den hundliknande avataren, på samma sätt som en människas känslor kan observeras och kunde generellt sett identifiera hundens behov med hög precision. Studien har också identifierat designutmaningar som framställning och mottagning av meddelande och upptäckte den potentiella påverkan avataren har i dagliga aktiviteter för husdjursvård: Obehagliga känslor som presenterades av avataren ansågs vara mindre motiverande för deltagarna. Studien visar att en emotionell uttrycksfull avatar har potentialen att motivera hundägarna och öka medvetenhet om hundens tillstånd och känslor under processen av djurskötning.

A novel, interactive Android app has been developed that monitors the health of type 2 diabetic patients in real-time, providing patients and their physicians with real-time feedback on all relevant parameters of diabetes. The app includes modules for recording carbohydrate intake and blood glucose; for reminding patients about the need to take medications on schedule; and for tracking physical activity, using movement data via Bluetooth from a pair of wearable insole devices. Two machine learning models were developed to detect seven physical activities: sitting, standing, walking, running, stair ascent, stair descent and use of elliptical trainers. The SVM and decision tree models produced an average accuracy of 85% for these seven activities. The decision tree model is implemented in an app that classifies human activity in real-time.

Children’s energy requirements may vary during school and summer camp days. To evaluate energy balance during these two periods, seventy-eight children (45% females, 8–10 years) living in Parma, Italy, were enrolled in this observational study. Participants completed a 3-day food diary and wore an activity tracker for three consecutive days during a school- and a summer camp-week to estimate energy intake (EI) and energy expenditure (TEE). Height and body weight were measured at the beginning of each period to define children’s weight status. BMI and EI (school: 1692 ± 265 kcal/day; summer camp: 1738 ± 262 kcal/day) were similar during both periods. Both physical activity and TEE (summer camp: 1948 ± 312; school: 1704 ± 263 kcal/day) were higher during summer camp compared to school time. Therefore, energy balance was more negative during summer camp (−209 ± 366 kcal/day) compared to school time (−12 ± 331 kcal/day). Similar results were observed when males and females were analyzed separately but, comparing the sexes, males had a higher TEE and a more negative energy balance than females, during both periods. The results strongly suggest that an accurate evaluation of children’s energy balance, that considers both diet and physical activity, is needed when planning adequate diets for different situations.