Stairstep recognition and counting in a serious Game for increasing users' physical activity. Issue 6 (November 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Ciman, Matteo; Donini, Michele; Gaggi, Ombretta; Aiolli, Fabio
• Is Part Of: Personal and ubiquitous computing. Volume 20:Issue 6(2016)
• Page Start: 1015
• Page End: 1033
• Publication Date: 2016-11
• Subjects: Activity recognition -- Energy consumption -- Pervasive and mobile computing -- Ubiquitous applications; Mobile computing -- Periodicals; Portable computers -- Periodicals; Human-computer interaction -- Periodicals; 004.16
• DOI: 10.1007/s00779-016-0968-y
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1617-4909

Abstract

Abstract The high diffusion of smartphones in the users' pockets allows to sense their movements, thus monitoring the amount of physical activity they do during the day. But, it also gives the possibility to use these devices to persuade people to change their behaviors. In this paper, we presentClimbTheWorld, aserious game which uses a machine learning-based technique to recognize and count stairsteps and aims at persuading people to use stairs instead of elevators or escalators. We perform a fine-grained analysis by exploiting smartphone sensors to recognize single stairsteps. Energy consumption is widely investigated to avoid exhausting smartphone battery. Moreover, we present game appreciation and persuasive power results after a trial experiment with 13 participants.