Jessilyn Dunn1, Marios Hadjimichael2, Yuriy Isparyan2, Diyalo Manral2, Ryan Runge3
13:25 - 14:15 | Thu 16 Feb | Ballroom D | ThRPF.4
To promote increased activity and healthy diet choices at a population scale, we designed a smart phone application called MoveIt! that utilizes real-time GPS-based location and context awareness data in order to learn an individual's real-time environment and make pertinent suggestions to easily incorporate healthy activities into everyday life. Our initial prototype suggests parks and healthy restaurants within walking distance of the user. Our 16 alpha testers were located across the globe (4 countries, 19 different cities, 9 different US states). On average, our users were located within a 39 minute walk from a local park and a 26 minute walk from a local restaurant. MoveIt!'s ranking algorithm integrated information from third party application programming interfaces to suggest healthy restaurant menu options (499 calories on average). Overall, our alpha testers reported a 27% increase in their motivation to walk in their neighborhood and a 32% increase in their motivation to choose healthy meal options. As we anticipated, dense cities had more nearby park, restaurant, and healthy menu options.