Liberating housebound obese individuals using augmented virtual reality

使用增强虚拟现实解放足不出户的肥胖者

• 批准号: EP/K012673/1
• 负责人: Ara Darzi
• 金额: $ 31.18万
• 依托单位: Imperial College London
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2013 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP%2FK012673%2F1
• 关键词: Liberating; housebound; obese; individuals; using

The NHS costs attributable to overweight and obesity are projected to double to £10 billion per year by 2050, and the wider costs to society and business are estimated to reach almost £50 billion per year. NICE guidelines state that obesity treatment needs to include strategies to increase people's physical activity levels, improve eating behaviour and reduce energy intake. Lifestyle coaching sessions including education and physical activities are often delivered to groups in local community centres and schools. However, some of the most severely affected members of society do not have cost-effective access to these life-changing treatments because they find travel difficult or impossible. So here we propose to use technology deployed 'in the wild' to help specific groups of housebound obese individuals: people with learning disability or with psychological problems such as anxiety or depression that keep them at home and others who are functionally limited because of their physical condition. We know that there is much to be gained from engaging overweight and obese individuals in moderate physical activity. Even small improvements in this group could greatly enhance their wellbeing and personal health so one of our goals will be to see how much impact we can make on an individual's ability to engage in everyday activities.Virtual worlds are live, online, interactive 3-dimensional environments in which users interact using speech or text via a personalised avatar. Accessible from home all that is required is a modern computer and internet connection. Primarily used for social reasons, healthcare practitioners are increasingly utilising virtual worlds for team training, conferences, patient support groups and collaborative team-working.Our group at Imperial College London is currently working with the Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and MoreLife (a provider of weight loss interventions for obese and overweight children and adults) to provide virtual world group coaching for weightloss. MoreLife, our official project partner, delivers a 12-week educational programme across the internet, where participants attend as avatars and do not have to travel, or expose their real selves in public. In these groups they learn about food intake and nutrition, and are encouraged to engage in more physical activity and exercise. A slideshow illustrating the virtual world pilot project can be seen here: http://tinyurl.com/healthrez.Here we propose to take this several steps further by using the Microsoft Kinect Sensor to enable housebound individuals to attend group sessions incorporating physical activities specially designed to help them transform their lives. The Kinect is a motion sensing input device developed by Microsoft initially for the Xbox video game console and more recently for the Windows PC. Incorporating depth-sensing webcams, it can directly capture the user's movements and transmit them across the internet where they are mirrored by their avatars, without the need for anyone to see a video image of the real person. A movie demonstration is available here: http://tinyurl.com/healthrezk. Our potential users, their carers and our partners' instructors are very enthusiastic about this project and we hope to show that by deploying this extremely cost-effective and scalable digital technology we can improve this disadvantaged group's health and wellbeing and thereby provide them with life opportunities previously denied them. We have already shown in a previous study that virtual worlds can be used to provide health care-related information to people with learning disability, and we will continue this work with the Grace Eyre Foundation in Brighton and with other charitable foundations.

到2050年，可归因于超重和肥胖的NHS成本预计将翻一番，达到每年100亿GB，更广泛的社会和企业成本估计将达到每年近500亿GB。NICE指南指出，肥胖治疗需要包括增加人们的体力活动水平、改善饮食行为和减少能量摄入的策略。生活方式辅导课程，包括教育和体育活动，经常向当地社区中心和学校的团体提供。然而，一些受影响最严重的社会成员没有成本效益地获得这些改变生活的治疗方法，因为他们发现旅行很困难或不可能。因此，我们建议使用在野外部署的技术来帮助特定的居家肥胖者群体：有学习障碍或心理问题的人，如焦虑或抑郁，使他们呆在家里，以及其他因身体状况而功能受限的人。我们知道，让超重和肥胖的人进行适度的体力活动会有很多好处。在这一群体中，即使是很小的改进也能极大地提高他们的幸福感和个人健康，因此我们的目标之一将是看看我们可以对个人参与日常活动的能力产生多大影响。虚拟世界是实时的、在线的、交互式的三维环境，用户通过个性化的化身使用语音或文本进行交互。只需要一台现代计算机和互联网连接，就可以从家里访问。主要出于社会原因，医疗从业者越来越多地利用虚拟世界进行团队培训、会议、患者支持小组和协作团队工作。我们伦敦帝国理工学院的团队目前正在与帝国理工学院NHS信托基金和MoreLife(为肥胖和超重的儿童和成人提供减肥干预措施的提供商)合作，为减肥提供虚拟世界团体教练。我们的官方项目合作伙伴MoreLife在互联网上提供了一个为期12周的教育项目，参与者以化身的身份参加，不必旅行，也不必在公共场合暴露自己的真实身份。在这些小组中，他们了解食物摄入量和营养，并被鼓励从事更多的体育活动和锻炼。可以在这里看到虚拟世界试点项目的幻灯片：http://tinyurl.com/healthrez.Here我们建议进一步使用微软Kinect传感器，使呆在家里的个人能够参加小组会议，其中包括专门为帮助他们改变生活而设计的体育活动。Kinect是微软开发的一款动作感应输入设备，最初是为Xbox视频游戏机开发的，最近是为Windows PC开发的。它集成了深度感应网络摄像头，可以直接捕捉用户的动作，并通过互联网传输，在互联网上，他们的头像反映了这些动作，而不需要任何人看到真人的视频图像。可在此处查看电影演示：http://tinyurl.com/healthrezk.我们的潜在用户、他们的照顾者和我们合作伙伴的导师对这个项目非常热情，我们希望通过部署这种极具成本效益和可扩展的数字技术，我们可以改善这一弱势群体的健康和福祉，从而为他们提供以前被剥夺的生活机会。我们在之前的一项研究中已经表明，虚拟世界可以用来向学习障碍者提供与医疗保健相关的信息，我们将与布莱顿的格雷斯·爱基金会和其他慈善基金会继续这项工作。

项目成果

Motion Sensor Games to promote physical activity for obese adolescents

运动传感器游戏促进肥胖青少年的身体活动

• 发表时间: 2014
• 作者: Taylor, M.J.

Measurement of the association between perceived exercise capability and childhood obesity: a feasibility study

感知运动能力与儿童肥胖之间关联的测量：可行性研究

• DOI: 10.1016/s0140-6736(15)00909-5
• 发表时间: 2015
• 期刊: The Lancet
• 作者: Taylor M

Using Motion-Sensor Games to Encourage Physical Activity for Adults with Intellectual Disability.

使用运动传感器游戏鼓励智力障碍成人进行身体活动。

• 发表时间: 2016
• 期刊: Studies in health technology and informatics
• 作者: Taylor MJ