Development of a location and movement monitoring system to quantify physical activity

There are currently 1 billion overweight adults in the world according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Being overweight can pose a major risk to the health of an individual. The main reason for the increase in obesity in the West is the large changes in society, for example, our work and our leisure pursuits are becoming increasingly less physically demanding. One of the main ways that, according to the WHO, an individual can combat this is to undertake 30 minutes of moderate physical activity a day. However, it can be difficult for a person to gauge this moderate physical activity. This paper describes the design of a prototype system which collects and subsequently combines data from an activity monitor and GPS device in order to help people to examine their activity patterns. The intention is that the integrated system will provide data to the user and others that will enable them to assess the effectiveness of attempts to increase activity and indicate where barriers to increased activity may exist, particularly those caused by the external environment.