Phone App Developed at UH Gauges Physical Activity
From: University of Houston News - 02/08/2010
By: Shawn Lindsey

University of Houston (UH) researchers have developed Walk n' Play, an iPhone
application that provides real-time statistics of physical activity. Walk n'
Play enables users to track their physical activity and compete with other
users. Anonymous data, including physical activity, intensity of activity,
and the geographic region of the user is sent to a server at UH. "The
implications of the technology are far reaching, not only for developing a
healthier lifestyle, but also for doing science using novel data-gathering
techniques - I dare to say it is a paradigm shift," says UH professor Ioannis
Pavlidis. The Walk n' Play app tracks users' every movement, including
walking and climbing stairs, and translates it into calories burned. The app
provides accurate calorie counts by using a biomedical calibration process
applied by the iPhone's accelerometer, which can measure metabolic activity.
The method was developed in the UH Computational Physiology Lab. 

Read the entire article at:
http://www.uh.edu/news-events/stories/2010articles/Feb2010/02082010iPhoneApp-Pavlidis.php

Links:
Ioannis Pavlidis
http://www.cpl.uh.edu/people/ioannis_pavlidis
http://cpl.uh.edu/html/modules.php?name=zlTeam&func=detail&tid=11

Walk n' Play
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=306907041&mt=8
http://www.cpl.uh.edu/projects/walk-n-play/

Professor Devises Exercise Game For iPhone
http://breakthrough.nsm.uh.edu/2009_03/brief_walkplay.htm