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Automated and unobtrusive measurement of physical activity in an interactive playground

Accepted version
Peer-reviewed

Type

Article

Change log

Authors

Moreno, A 
Poppe, R 
Heylen, D 

Abstract

© 2019 Promoting physical activity is one of the main goals of interactive playgrounds. To validate whether this goal is met, we need to measure the amount of physical player activity. Traditional methods of measuring activity, such as observations or annotations of game sessions, require time and personnel. Others, such as heart rate monitors and accelerometers, need to be worn by the player. In this paper, we investigate whether physical activity can be measured unobtrusively by tracking players using depth cameras and applying computer vision algorithms. In a user study with 32 players, we measure the players’ speed while playing a game of tag, and demonstrate that our measures correlate well with exertion measured using heart rate sensors. This makes the method an attractive alternative to either manual coding or the use of worn devices. We also compare our approach to other exertion measurement methods. Finally, we demonstrate and discuss its potential for automated, unobtrusive measurements and real-time game adaptation.

Description

Keywords

Play, Interactive playgrounds, Automated behavior analysis, Physical activity, Exertion measurement, Depth cameras

Journal Title

International Journal of Human Computer Studies

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

1071-5819
1095-9300

Volume Title

129

Publisher

Elsevier BV
Sponsorship
Economic and Social Research Council (ES/N006577/1)