An Interactive Health Game Using Machine Learning: A Prototype

Abstract

AbstractAccording to World Health Organization (WHO) 2016 report, there are over 650 million obese adults and more than 2 billion overweight individuals in the world and it is estimated that this number will reach 2.7 billion in 2025 [1]. A sedentary lifestyle with low physical activity is considered to be one of the most effective environmental effects leading to various chronic disease phenotypes such as obesity and metabolic syndrome. On average, every 1 out of 3 people over the age of 20 in Turkey are known to have struggled with the metabolic syndrome [2]. Our project aims to apply the concept of “serious gaming”, to entertain people, play games, socialize and exercise in parallel to increase the ratio of the healthy individuals in our society. In this project, we applied machine learning techniques to integrate real-life accelerometer and gyroscope sensor data obtained from mobile phones to develop an interactive mobile based exercise game which does not require any external device such as smart watches. To our knowledge and research, our game is the first mobile-only interactive serious game that integrates machine learning techniques and an encouraging virtual environment to the individuals in need of exercise.