Wellness, Fitness, and Lifestyle Sensing Applications

Abstract

Physical fitness is not only one of the most important keys to a healthy body; it is the basis of dynamicand creative intellectual activity. -John F. Kennedy, 35th President of the United StatesChapter 9 considered how sensors are playing an increasingly important role in health-related applications, such as chronic disease management. Medically, health is sometimes described as the absence of one or more of the "five Ds": death, disease, discomfort, disability, and dissatisfaction. Consequently, the focus is on determining whether disease is present and, when present, managing that condition (Edlin et al., 2000). Wellness takes a different perspective on health. It looks at the entire person, the manner in which they live their life, and lifestyle influences on their well-being. Wellness encompasses six distinct dimensions of well-being: emotional, intellectual, spiritual, occupational, social, and physical (Hettler, 1976). Collectively, these dimensions are often referred to as the holistic model of wellness. Sensors can be applied to quantify all dimensions of wellness to a certain extent. Of these dimensions, only physical wellness is monitored by individuals in the consumer domain. This chapter focuses on physical well-being and how sensing can be used to monitor and maintain physical wellness. Positively influencing physical well-being can also have significant benefits for other aspects of well-being, such as socializing with others during physical activities and helping to reduce emotional stress.A variety of factors can influence personal wellness, including diet, exercise, poor habits, proactive self-care, and seeking medical intervention when appropriate (Edlin et al., 2014). As such, wellness is a dynamic process that is constantly changing based on the daily decisions we make about what we eat, drink, how much exercise we do, and so on. It is easy to lose track of wellness with the demands of busy, modern lifestyles. Technology is now having a positive effect on individuals by helping them to manage their physical wellness. This trend will continue to grow in the future as sensing and supporting technologies are seamlessly integrated into our daily lives. Discrete sensors and sensors integrated into smartphones are already enabling us to monitor our activity levels, fitness, performance levels, and calorie burn/consumption through smartphone apps and web portals. In a broader context, pervasive sensing in our homes and leisure areas will provide passive monitoring on a long-term basis of our physical activities, interactions with our environment, and other physiological, cognitive, and biochemical parameters of interest without activity restriction and behavior modification. The collected data can be used to notify us of immediate risk or to identify trends in parameters that are outside of normative ranges. Sensing sleep quality, in babies and adults, is a now a common application of pervasive sensing. The consumer does not actively track their sleep in real time but they need to be alerted immedi...

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