intake and expenditure. The framework is designed to support
the development of family of games, each designed to fit the
needs of specific target groups as identified by obesity
therapists. Thus, the system will involve Qatari youth patients,
therapists, and patient's social network with the aim of
providing a holistic support for all participants. Following
subsections describe system objectives, activities, and features.
A. Objectives
Objective-1: To develop an adaptable ubiquitous gaming
system which unveil the hidden potential within obese youth
and improve their skills and physical activities and get them
healthy. This is intended to be done through the design of
wireless body area sensor network that allows for long-term
real time monitoring of the patient’s bio signals and
suggestions for suitable actions of physical activities.
Objective-2: To assist Qatari youth in their rehabilitation
process. We intend to develop new intelligent algorithms and
techniques for gaming interfaces considering physical
limitations, fitness, and preferences of the patients, in order to
achieve effective treatment of obese youth. We propose the
design of the treasure hunting game, where youth are requested
to perform both mental activities as well as physical activities
in order to move to the next game level.
Objective-3: To involve therapists and specialists in the
rehabilitation process. We intend to design a service oriented
information system for storage, analysis, and report generation
for long-term management of patients. The system will be
customizable and dynamic thus allowing therapists to add and
update game level according to specific rules. The system will
be able for measuring the food-intake and hence providing the
system and the therapist with better estimate on the needed
activities that the youth should perform. This in term requires
the development of physical activity recognition algorithms for
better estimation of total energy expenditure in a given context.
B. Design Activities
The system design is based on the required objectives stated
above. For each objective to achieve, a series of design
activities will be carried out. Those main activities are:
1. Design of an adaptive multi-user pervasive game
specifically for effective support of obesity rehabilitation.
2. Design of a prototype for body area sensor network
allowing for long-term measurement of bio signals.
3. Design of algorithms for improved activity recognition
allowing for better estimation of total energy expenditure.
4. Design and evaluation of pervasive gaming interfaces
considering obese physical limitations and needs.
5. Design and evaluation of a context-aware user interface
for semi-automatic recording of food-intake.
6. Validation of the ability for the system to improve the
energy balance measurements through context-aware user
interfaces encompassed by the pervasive gaming system.
7. Investigation of the impact of creating group awareness
on physical activities for improving obesity rehabilitation.