Visualizing exercise hidden in everyday activity

Abstract

Obesity in the United States has reached epidemic proportions and inactivity is a key factor in this health problem. One difficulty in promoting an active lifestyle is the idea that getting enough "exercise" means jogging, going to the gym, or riding an exercise bike for half and hour every day. While these activities are helpful, they can be daunting for an inactive person and difficult to plan into a busy schedule. Alternatively, many regular activities such as using stairs or walking to work can also provide healthy exercise. To bring attention to the exercise present in everyday activities, I created visualizations of full-time measurements of heart rate. These visualizations were designed to improve a person's sense of control over physical fitness. They show how everyday activities can accumulate into significant amounts of exercise. I conducted a pilot test of this device on a small number of subjects. These tests indicate that feedback of all-day heart rate measurements may lead to changes in beliefs about exercise.