No more active exercise in the urban air without a customized app!?
12-05-2020
The health of urban residents appears to be worse, and their life expectancy shorter, than that of residents in rural settings. One of the causes is that people don't exercise enough outside the door. To help people in the big city to get active outside, researchers at the PAUL project - Playful Active Urban Living - have developed an app.
In the Vondelpark, it is crowdy because of people who run, boot camp or hang in the climbing frame to keep fit. However, this is a small group: two out of three Amsterdammers still do not exercise enough. To help these people on their way, researchers from the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (AUAS), Amsterdam University (AU) and Utrecht University (UU) have developed a personalized exercise app.
Customized coaching
The PAUL app is accessible and suitable for activities such as walking, running or performing strength exercises. The special thing about the app is that it provides customized coaching. The app takes into account your agenda, your habits and the weather conditions when it sends you a reminder to exercise, so that you are motivated to move at the right time. To achieve this, a self-learning algorithm developed at Amsterdam University is used.
In addition, the PAUL app takes you to do strength exercises in the open air around the corner. For these boot camp exercises you can use objects that are already present in the area. In various parks in Utrecht and Amsterdam, so-called 'beacons' have been installed that communicate with the app where you are, so that it can pass on the right exercise to you at the right time. For example, PAUL users are shown a sample video of a person who is pressing themselves on a bench, while exactly the same bench is actually in their own neighborhood.
Tested successfully
Rémi de Boer, software engineer at our Digital Life research group (Faculty DMCI), and Nicky Nibbeling of the Faculty of Sports and Nutrition -both of which are part of the AUAS- play an important role in the development of the app. After a test phase with various test subjects last November, the first study was fully completed at the end of April this year.
One of the results that emerged from the test phase is that the participants were generally very enthusiastic about one of the innovative functions of the PAUL app: the 'boot camp function'. 'The addition of a boot camp makes this app special and sports more fun, because there is more variety,' said one of the participants.
In the coming period of the research project, some technical improvements will be made. We are also currently investigating whether the app can be made more fun by using game techniques. In addition, Utrecht University will probably start in September with a more extensive follow-up study on the current version of the app.
All city dwellers among us are waiting in suspense ...!
More information
More information can be found at the PAUL-website. Do you have any questions? Send an email to Karlijn Sporrel from Utrecht University. Click here for an overview of all organizations and partners involved.