Hybrid Media in Personal Management of Nutrition and Exercise: Report on the HyperFit Project

Paula Järvinen (Editor)

    Research output: Book/ReportReport

    Abstract

    The purpose of the HyperFit project was to develop communicational tools for personal nutrition and exercise management. The main result of the HyperFit project is the HyperFit application, an Internet service for personal management of nutrition and exercise. It provides tools for promoting healthy diet and physical activity. The principle of the service is to mimic the process of personal nutrition counselling. It includes self-evaluation tools for assessing eating and exercise habits and for defining personally set goals, food and exercise diaries, and analysis tools. The service also gives feedback and encouragement from a virtual trainer. Recommendations by the Finnish National Nutrition Council are used as the nutritional basis for the service. HyperFit uses a food database that contains the nutritional information on approximately 2,500 foods, either product-specific or average. The products that are not included in the database are replaced with the average foods. However, HyperFit is able to use a more comprehensive product specific food database. Hybrid media and mobile technology are applied to improve the usability and interest to use the system, especially among younger and technically-oriented people. The service can be used both with a mobile phone and a PC. A camera phone can be used to add food and exercise entries to the diaries by reading product barcodes. Exercise data can be inserted directly from a heart rate monitor to the system. The usability and user experiences of the HyperFit service have been tested throughout the development process. Furthermore, HyperFit has been tested with potential end users, weight management groups and professional nutritionists as part of their weight management efforts or professional counselling in several field trials. The participants in the trials have been content with the system and, on the whole, comments have been positive. The trials suggest that a HyperFit type of service can be used to promote independent weight management and the use of hybrid media gives extra value to the service. A patent application has been submitted for the system and the commercialisation of the product is on the way.
    Original languageEnglish
    Place of PublicationEspoo
    PublisherVTT Technical Research Centre of Finland
    Number of pages128
    ISBN (Electronic)978-951-38-7048-5
    ISBN (Print)978-951-38-7047-8
    Publication statusPublished - 2007
    MoE publication typeD4 Published development or research report or study

    Publication series

    SeriesVTT Publications
    Number656
    ISSN1235-0621

    Keywords

    • pervasive healthcare
    • nutritional information
    • hybrid media

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