Intelligent play equipment and wearable sensors; quality function deployment on platforms that increase physical activity

• Main Author: Lin, Han Cheng
• Other Authors: Leong Kah Fai
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2014
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Mechanical engineering::Machine design and construction
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/60928
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Significant proportion of sustainable health results from a healthy lifestyle, which includes regular physical activity. Lack of physical activity will result in health related issues such as cancer, cardiovascular diseases and obesity (Foo et al., 2013). Furthermore, physical activity during childhood and adolescence has the potential to affect health and physical activity in adulthood. With the increasing amount of interest regarding physical activity among children, there is a growing need to develop methods that can increase physical activity. The adverse health effects such as psychological factors (weight criticism and embarrassment), resulting from lesser physical activity may indirectly cause sedentary behavior, which can be characterized by inactive amount of activity (Hislop et al., 2012), too much sitting and insufficient physical exercises. Hence, methods have to be explored concurrently to find solutions for reducing sedentary behavior. Methods of assessing the level of physical activities and sedentary behaviors such as accelerometers will be reviewed and further analyzed to find areas of improvement. Accelerometers were found to be useful in detecting specific activity under controlled conditions. On top of that, it has the potential to measure the intensity of different activities accurately. However, it may not be capable of detecting specific activity in uncontrolled conditions. With respect to the existing platforms that are able to increase physical activity and decrease sedentary behavior could be outdoor playgrounds and Nintendo Wii Fit. Both platforms currently provide the infrastructure for physical activities. However,the motivation and enjoyment level to utilize the platforms were insufficient. In order to better understand the customer requirements of how a platform should aid in increasing physical fitness and discover the factors that affect the design of a platform, Quality Function Deployment method (QFD) will be applied. The QFD conducted indicated that more work needs to be done on both existing platforms. By introducing incentive based system, the motivation level to utilize both platforms will increase. Moreover, it will also increase customers’ motivation to improve their physical fitness. In addition, by implementing QFD, there will be a better idea of how customers perceive a functional platform that entices them to employ it and increase physical activity. Functions such as ability to detect specific activity will play a key role in determining whether the exercise games included in both platforms, as future work will be successful. Detecting the specific type of activity provides a form of feedback recognition to user that the exercise was conducted properly. This will give users more intrinsic motivation to use the platform further. Thereafter, there is a need to explore more sensors that have such capability in the future.