Using Asynchronous Exergames to Encourage an Active Ageing Lifestyle: Solitaire Fitness Study Protocol.

A healthy and active lifestyle can significantly improve the well-being and quality of life; however, some elderly people struggle to stay motivated and engaged with any form of exercise. The project Elaine (Elderly, AI and New Experiences) addresses this problem by seeking to improve the quality of life of the elderly through exergames. Currently, the project explores a novel approach in the field of health informatics called asynchronous exergaming. This approach, a new trend in games in the health domain, allows the elderly to workout at their own pace, and in their own time, with their physical activity linked asynchronously to a game. This paper presents the study protocol for Solitaire Fitness, a new asynchronous exergame developed by the team. The game aims at increasing the motivation of the elderly to engage in physical exercise whilst helping to maintain their cognitive abilities. It also describes the protocol for the trial. The result of this research has the potential to benefit elderly that need nudging to be motivated to exercise, health care providers treating people with sedentary lifestyles and researchers investigating ways to encourage the elderly to exercise.

Weather effects on the patterns of people's everyday activities: a study using GPS traces of mobile phone users.

This study explores the effects that the weather has on people's everyday activity patterns. Temperature, rainfall, and wind speed were used as weather parameters. People's daily activity patterns were inferred, such as place visited, the time this took place, the duration of the visit, based on the GPS location traces of their mobile phones overlaid upon Yellow Pages information. Our analysis of 31,855 mobile phone users allowed us to infer that people were more likely to stay longer at eateries or food outlets, and (to a lesser degree) at retail or shopping areas when the weather is very cold or when conditions are calm (non-windy). When compared to people's regular activity patterns, certain weather conditions affected people's movements and activities noticeably at different times of the day. On cold days, people's activities were found to be more diverse especially after 10AM, showing greatest variations between 2PM and 6PM. A similar trend is observed between 10AM and midnight on rainy days, with people's activities found to be most diverse on days with heaviest rainfalls or on days when the wind speed was stronger than 4 km/h, especially between 10AM-1AM. Finally, we observed that different geographical areas of a large metropolis were impacted differently by the weather. Using data of urban infrastructure to characterize areas, we found strong correlations between weather conditions upon people's accessibility to trains. This study sheds new light on the influence of weather conditions on human behavior, in particular the choice of daily activities and how mobile phone data can be used to investigate the influence of environmental factors on urban dynamics.

Weather effects on mobile social interactions: a case study of mobile phone users in Lisbon, Portugal.

The effect of weather on social interactions has been explored through the analysis of a large mobile phone use dataset. Time spent on phone calls, numbers of connected social ties, and tie strength were used as proxies for social interactions; while weather conditions were characterized in terms of temperature, relative humidity, air pressure, and wind speed. Our results are based on the analysis of a full calendar year of data for 22,696 mobile phone users (53.2 million call logs) in Lisbon, Portugal. The results suggest that different weather parameters have correlations to the level and character of social interactions. We found that although weather did not show much influence upon people's average call duration, the likelihood of longer calls was found to increase during periods of colder weather. During periods of weather that were generally considered to be uncomfortable (i.e., very cold/warm, very low/high air pressure, and windy), people were found to be more likely to communicate with fewer social ties. Despite this tendency, we found that people are more likely to maintain their connections with those they have strong ties with much more than those of weak ties. This study sheds new light on the influence of weather conditions on social relationships and how mobile phone data can be used to investigate the influence of environmental factors on social dynamics.