Footwear-based physical activity biofeedback device for weight management

描述（由申请人提供）：超重或肥胖的成人和儿童人数持续增加，并已达到流行病的程度。肥胖是由于持续的正能量平衡（能量摄入比能量消耗），通常伴随着低水平的身体活动（即久坐的生活方式）。肥胖和缺乏运动的结合导致高血压、中风、冠状动脉疾病、血脂异常、2型糖尿病、睡眠呼吸暂停和许多其他疾病的发病率和死亡率增加。为了减少这些健康风险，建议个人通过改变生活方式和参与日常体育活动来监测和控制体重。姿势分配（躺着、坐着和站着的时间）反映了个人的生活方式，并与肥胖有关，这表明监测姿势分配的能力可能对体重管理有用。监测体重和量化身体活动的仪器（如加速度计）已被证明对参与体重管理计划的个人有益，但在自由生活条件下准确性有限。一个能准确监测体重、姿势分配、身体活动（即运动）和能量消耗的单一设备将是一个非常有用的体重管理工具。我们的长期目标是开发一种简单、廉价、不显眼的设备，可以很容易地集成到传统的鞋类中，并能准确地测量体重、姿势分配、身体活动和每日能量消耗。这种设备可用于量化和调整超重和肥胖个体以及其他久坐不动的生活方式的身体活动和生活方式行为。我们建议，通过开发一个基于鞋类的硬件系统来测量足底压力和足部加速度，结合一个软件系统来分类活动和能量消耗，并通过手机提供反馈，我们将提供一个设备，可以帮助自由生活的成年人成功地管理体重。拟议的方法是基于廉价的技术，这将使研究、临床和消费者应用于估计每日能量消耗和行为改变。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The number of adults and children who are overweight or obese continues to increase and has reached epidemic proportions. Obesity is due to a sustained positive energy balance (energy intake > energy expenditure) and is typically coupled with low levels of physical activity (i.e. sedentary lifestyles). The combination of obesit and inactivity has resulted in increased morbidity and mortality from hypertension, stroke, coronary artery disease, dyslipidemia, type 2 diabetes, sleep apnea and a number of other conditions. To reduce these health risks, individuals are advised to monitor and manage their weight by altering lifestyle and engaging in daily physical activity. Posture allocation (time spen lying, sitting and standing) reflects an individual lifestyle and is related to obesity, which suggests that the ability to monitor posture allocation may be useful for weight management. Instruments that monitor body weight and quantify physical activity (e.g. accelerometers) have proven to be beneficial for individuals engaged in weight management programs but have limited accuracy in free-living conditions. A single device that accurately monitors body weight, posture allocation, physical activity (i.e. movement), and energy expenditure would be an extremely useful tool for weight management. Our long-term objective is to develop a simple, inexpensive, unobtrusive device that can easily be incorporated into conventional footwear and can accurately measure body weight, posture allocation, physical activity and daily energy expenditure. Such a device could be used to quantify and modify physical activity and lifestyle behavior in overweight and obese individuals and others with sedentary lifestyles. We propose that by developing a footwear-based hardware system that measure plantar pressure and acceleration of the foot, combined with a software system that classifies activities and energy expenditure and provides feedback via a mobile phone, we will offer a device that can assist in successful weight management in free-living adults. The proposed methodology is based on inexpensive technology that would enable research, clinical and consumer applications for estimating daily energy expenditure and behavior modification.