IOT Persuasive Applications: Using the Environment to Achieve our Goals

Persuasive technology term has been coined in 2003 by B.J. Fogg. It is described as “software or information systems designed to reinforce, change or shape attitudes or behaviors or both without using coercion or deception”.

Persuasive applications can help us to change our behavior in order to achieve personal goals (i.e. quit smoking, loose weight, become more productive, more active).
Within the IOT context the potential exists to make use of the physical environment (=the objects around us) and get better support in fulfilling our goals.

Phase 1: Persuasive mobile applications

Since 2003 a great deal of progress has been made in developing applications of persuasive technology. Health maintenance, including dieting and discontinuation of smoking is one of the biggest applied areas. On the mobile phones the technology has the potential to increase the persuasive effect by the promise of giving feedback in the right moment, at the right place. Even more, the diversity of sensors now present on the smartphones provide ways to achieve persuasion not only based on time and location but also based on sensed context.

“Quitty” application has been designed to motivate health behavior change and persuade people to quit smoking. It engages smokers in real-time, wherever they are and its feedback is tailored to the quitting stage.

Figure 1: Quitty: smoking cessation application

Tens to hundreds of applications exist in the mobile stores to assist weight management and diet control, but according to a study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, most of them score low on inducing long-term behavior changes [1] “Lose It!” by Fitnow Inc. got the highest score on the usage of persuasive strategies. The applications includes weight tracking, food logging and calories counting, exercise logging and goal reminders and makes tracking as easy as possible in the aim to enable lasting lifestyle changes.

Figure 2: Lost it! Weight control application

Powered by sensors and ubiquitous connectivity, the persuasive mobile applications perform real time analysis of human behavior and allow for immediate feedback and interaction with the users. However their potential is limited. Being handheld or residing in the pocket, the device itself does not offer true ambient awareness and it is limited in the types of actuations it can provide.

Phase 2: Persuasive (Personal) Objects

With IOT and smart connected gadgets the applications can be extended further into the physical world. The surrounding objects can really help us to self-manage and induce positive changes in our behavior.

The emergence of commercial wearable devices for tracking fitness related activities represents the first widespread adoption of persuasive IOT devices. Fitbit, Microsoft Band and rest of the activity trackers on the market today are designed to encourage their users to maintain the desirable level of activity in their life – by applying Peter’s Drucker rule: “What’s measured improves”

Figure 3: Microsoft Band

Assisted weight management: applying the power of persuasive applications to the old-fashioned bathroom scale, Withings smart scale can measure weight and body-fat and privately uploads data to the cloud. “Because data is great, but personalized coaching is even better” the dedicated Health Mate application breaks down user’s main goals into achievable weekly targets and follows up the progress with relevant tips and reminders.

Figure 4 Withings smart scale

Poor eating habits are correlated to increased weight as well as to poor digestion and health risks – being one of the most common habits people are trying to change. The HAPIfork is a connected, sensor enabled fork that monitors eating habits and comes with an application and coaching program designed to improve the eating behavior and help you slowing down.

Figure 5: HAPIfork

There are even smarter gadgets that can help with improving our drinking habits. Vessyl is a cup that recognizes any beverage you pour into it, displays its nutritional content, and syncs all your drinking habits to your smartphone. The device tracks how much you’re drinking and indicates your hydration level. Can help to improve your water drinking habits, reduce your daily caffeine or sugary drinks intake and even support the weight management control with the capability to display the nutritional content.

Figure 6: Vessyl cup

Zami Smart Chair includes sensors that can track posture, sitting periods and even fine-grained details about your behavior while seated – such as whether you fidget. The companion applications is designed to prompt you to move more and provides feedback on sitting habits, coaching toward a good posture and a healthier lifestyle.

Figure 7: Zami Smart Chair

Medication management is another application area. CleaverCap is a persuasive pill bottle that connects to WiFi, dispenses only as directed, sends notifications and reminders and uploads patient data to the cloud. The system increases the adherence to medication and has the potential to decrease the patient’s health risks.

Figure 8:  Cleaver Cap

Teaching children healthy habits by using playful engagement techniques is not a new trend. It is hence not a surprise that one of the first applications of commercial IOT gadgets using persuasive technologies came in the form of smart toothbrushes for children. Kolibree is a sensor enabled toothbrush (has an accelerometer, a gyroscope and a magnetometer) that comes with a mobile application and motivates healthy habits by turning brushing time into an interactive game.

Figure 9: Kolibree toothbrush 

Phase 3: Persuasive Ambient Intelligence?

By combing and adapting the power of IOT personal devices and public ambient devices, the next phase can emerge: ambient intelligence or “smart environments that change and accommodate users’ needs and wishes when a person enters it” [2]

In such a scenario the environment or physical space of a person consists of sensors that can sense the user and his surroundings and actuators that can offer feedback and evoke actions perceivable to the user. The ambient intelligence is providing consistency and cross-application of persuasion independent of the object used and only based on the knowledge that persuasion is required.

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It’s 2020 and your goal is to lose some weight. But now it’s Friday evening and none of your friends are available, you are getting quite bored and the idea of a pizza and beer start to sound very good indeed. You start walking toward your favorite pizzeria and when you order the menu board at the pizzeria refreshes to show the calories you are going to take in; your wearable band privately notifies you on the consequences on your diet. You have second-thoughts, start to wonder if you can actually skip the pizza and in that moment your friend calls and asks you to a dance club. You cancel the order and go for the dance — your weight target is under control!

What happened? Was it a coincidence or did all the pieces really come together at the right moment? Did the environment support you in achieving your weight goals?

The menu screen at the pizzeria detected that you have a very low calorie target set on your wearable device. It therefore connected to your wearable band to send the significant calorie intake of your order. Combined with the information received from the weight scale in the morning and the activity tracking data, the wearable app was able to calculate accurately the pizza’s impact on your weight and predict what you will see tomorrow morning on the scale. The GPS on the mobile phone identified the location you are in as being a pizza place and sent the information (together with a calorie alert) to your friend which was part of the support group helping with your weight target.

The data has flowed through your environment (both the surrounding gadgets and your virtual networks) to influence your behavior and delivered on the desired persuasion.

As the IOT continues to evolve, the strategies of persuasion will blend into the environment creating an ambient intelligence where the physical and virtual spaces are merged.

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References

1. Mobile Applications for Weight Management: Theory-Based Content Analysis. Kristen M.J. Azar & all. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, Volume 45, Issue 5, November 2013, Pages 583–589.
2. Persuasion Mobility in Ambient Intelligence. Lukas Ruge, Andreas Schrader. Ambient 2013, The Third International Conference of Ambient Computing, Applications, Services and Technologies

Article originally Published in Prescouter Journal

Smarter Devices or Smarter People?

In a world of “everything connected” we will have the possibility to do many things differently. It is the creativity in finding this difference that will lead to the breakthrough in the Internet of Things.

We are thinking today how to build smart devices. Nest, Google’s smart connected thermostat learns the environment and your habits and in about one week is able to personalize its features to you and dynamically adapt to the context.

How about devices that would help people to better adapt to the context, to react faster to a change in environment? What if the teacher in the classroom does not need to have doubts anymore – “Is this lecture proceeding well or are all my students bored to death”? What if the sensor data from the smart connected desks in the room can be collected to give to teacher an average of the “class engagement” so they can adapt the speed and tone of the lecture?

Today we have our smartphones, the best example of how smart and connected our devices became. When we are looking into buying our next smart phone – we are searching for one even smarter. More processing capacity, they “think faster”, have more memory, a better “vision” with higher and higher camera resolution, improved audio system with dual-sensor array microphones and more.

What we would really want is for us to become smarter. To have better memory. To see or hear better.

Would the smart connected wearables of the future help me to become (or at least appear) smarter, more knowledgeable, to have a better vision or hearing?

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Read more about "Internet of Things- A Challenge of Imagination"
@ http://www.prescouter.com/2015/01/internet-of-things-a-challenge-of-imagination/

2015 Trends for Wrist Wearables: From Niche Use Cases to Mainstream Business

Several forecasts issued in the last months (IDC, CCS Insight, 451 Research) are estimating significant increase of the wearable volumes in 2015 compared to 2014 and even stronger growth by 2019, with volumes estimated between 155 and 250 million units globally.

What appears evident from all the forecasts is that wearables are becoming a mainstream business.

The change might be fueled by couple of new business models – which are breaking the current limitations of the category perceived as solving only “niche consumer needs”.

Symbiosis with a mass-market industry: Smartwatches - Automotive integration accelerates

At IFA 2015 in Berlin, a new generation of smartwatches has been introduced. Top brands like Asus, Motorola, Samsung, Huawei and Alcatel each presented at least one smartwatch and several of them were stressing the devices' capabilities to integrate with some late-model connected automobiles and offer new levels of control and interaction.

Volkswagen partnered with Samsung. Car-Net e-Remote app for Gear S2 will interact with certain Volkswagen models and offer the capability to start, lock and unlock the car as well as enable access to climate control or locate the car.

BMW groups together its range of intelligent services under the BMW ConnectedDrive banner. At the IFA 2015 BMW showcased new solutions for the “connected car”, including a new Remote App for Samsung Gear S2.

Ford developed an advanced remote-control key app for Moto 360 – which allows users to check driving range and battery charge for plug-in hybrid or electric vehicles. It also allows them to track their vehicle.



Wearable technology seem to be the next wave of our digital world interweaving with our automotive lives. This newly born symbiosis between smartwatches and cars might become one of the best use cases and killer apps for the wearables.

Addressing the growing consumer segment: Smart bands for seniors

According to a new study the AARP agency conducted in conjunction with Georgia Tech and Pfizer, elderly users find fitness trackers handy but feel they lack the right features and functionality.

Toshiba has decided to enter into this (potentially large) untapped market and launched in August a pair of smart bands specifically targeted for seniors. The Silmee W20 and Silmee W21 are professional-level devices with the Silmee biometric sensors for health and fitness measurements. They can automatically measure the amount of conversation and detect the user’s meal time, able to track the UV level, the heart rate, the skin temperature, the sleep quality as well as measures related to the physical activity. Both feature an emergency button to call a preferred phone number in case of need. The Silmee W21 contains GPS for remote location tracking.

With Japan market being few steps ahead in terms of aging population (25% population is over the age of 65 compared to US and UK where the percentage is about 15%) it comes natural to have a Japanese firm leading the focus on this specific consumer segment. But the aging population trend is global, this consumer segment will continue to increase across the globe and we can expect more companies tapping into it.

Entering the Enterprise

451 Research, an information technology research and advisory company, has released this summer a report titled "Time for Work: Smart Watch App Development Turns to the Enterprise" which concludes that wearables - specifically smartwatches - are no longer a niche consumer products but are gaining traction within the enterprise.

Key findings in the report showed 39% of the US IT decision-makers at companies that use or plan to use wearable technologies will deploy solutions in the next six months with another 24 percent planning to do so in the next year. The vast majority favor smart watches.

“The release of Apple Watch has opened the flood gates governing wearables’ adoption,” said Ryan Martin, analyst, IoT and Wearable Technologies. “We expect wearable technology to deliver a key interface and input into the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). Wearables have the potential to become an interface – if not the interface – for IIoT access.”

The idea of wearables playing a larger role in the enterprise space is one shared by other players in the industry, including Intel’s Steve Holmes who said he expects wearables to become a major influence in the IT space

A world of Connected Gadgets

"Everything connected” is arguably the hottest topic in the technology world right now – even if universal consensus has not been reached on what “everything” is.

Key trends like ubiquitous connectivity, low-cost sensors and cloud computing are driving the changes and will eventually impact all the objects around us. More meta data is captured by sensors and everything gets connected, from the watch to the pill bottle.

Billions of sensors will be shipped each year. These sensors are on devices like wearable, lights, beacons, appliances and home automation systems; they get connected to other devices and Internet ecosystems. The pivotal point is that the sheer quantity of the connected devices is increasing as dramatically as their prices are dropping.

These connected devices are beginning to quietly talk to each other, leaving us to carry on as they recede into the background to make smarter choices for us. The impetus behind the user adoption is efficiency and productivity. Furthermore this “smartification” of objects, and the new forms of interactions they’ll give rise to, might have an impact on our social behavior.

It's happening already. Thing by thing.

The tag that will alert you when you leave your precious things behind.

http://www.m2mevolution.com/topics/m2mevolution/articles/371020-internet-things-advances-through-nokias-treasure-tags.htm

The smart lamp or the wireless charging plate that notify when you've got a missed call or a new message.

http://wmpoweruser.com/microsoft-mobile-shows-off-bluetooth-lamp-which-can-show-notifications/

The fitness band packed with 10 sensors that generates data about your heart rate, calories burned, sleep quality and activities throughout the day,

http://blogs.microsoft.com/iot/2014/10/31/the-power-of-iot-on-your-wrist/



The Nest smoke detector, Parrot plant sensor, Beam toothbrush, Adheretech wireless smart pill bottle and so much more.

How many "smart connected things" you have in use already? What is your favorite scenario in a world where the new smart things and connected gadgets would really start to improve our lives?