Physical activities during infancy and adolescence are well suited in order to prevent health hazards like obesity. Because of little motivation for an active lifestyle the challenge arises to attract physical exercises to young people. The aim of the project “Mobile Motion Advisor” is to assist and motivate pupils during their sportive activities through modern technologies (sensors, mobile devices, Internet).
The intention of any mobile motion assistance is to support athletes (leisure time and competitive sport) in their training. A mobile device gathers biomechanical and/or physiological parameter values on the spot and sends it to a server component for further analyses. The classification of the data and generation of (immediate) feedback is based on expert knowledge (sport scientists) and can be adapted sports specifically.
In cooperation with pupils and teachers of the partner schools relevant parameters for selected sports are specified. Next, hard- and software components for data acquisition and transmission are jointly developed. Web interfaces provide appropriate feedback information for the users. Groups of pupils should then evaluate the acceptance of the developed system.
The project involves the school partners in research and development activities, and offers an efficient knowledge transfer by applying theoretical fundaments, e.g. from electronics, computer science, biomechanics/biophysics, in practice.
This project is funded by the Austrian Federal Ministry for Science and Research within the Sparkling Science research programme.

Project leader: Prof. Baca / Contact person: arnold.baca@univie.ac.at