Virtual Dog Helps Children Lose Excess Weight: Study

Playing with virtual dogs helps increase physical activity levels and cut obesity risk in children, according to a new study.

Recently, researchers from the University of Georgia found children when placed partly in virtual and real environment tend to get more physical activity thereby avoiding the obesity and other diseases. The study involved 61 children aged about nine to 12 years who had made plans to lose weight in three days by playing games and indulging in outdoor activities. Half of the total participants were allowed to play with virtually designed obese dog that was created UGA College of Engineering and other universities to help it improve its health by shedding excess weight.

It was observed that participants that interacted with the virtual pet dog had 1.09 extra hours of daily physical activity than rest of the children. The researchers who designed the virtual obese dog wanted it to be simple, approachable and something the children could relate to in their lives.

"We didn't want children to approach the virtual pet and say 'wow that's really cool' and then forget about it," said Sun Joo (Grace) Ahn, study author and an assistant professor of advertising in the Grady College in a news release.

 "We really wanted them to integrate the virtual pet into their individual lives, their social lives and then bring it in as a part of their environment that enables them and encourages them to engage in physical activity."    

The children's interaction with the dog and their efforts to help it lose weight was monitored through a kiosk set that had a television, a computer and Microsoft Kinect motion controller. The participants were allowed to evaluate if their goals to improve dog's health were met and set a new goal. Each time the dog indulged in physical activity like running or playing, its appearance would change and gave congratulatory message to the children that was followed by a trick.

In case the children were unable to finish or take part in tasks for weight loss, the virtual dog would notify them with a feed back that was generated by computer system. However, the subjects' interaction with the dogs was limited to five minutes to reduce their screen exposure.

The authors are planning to re-conduct the experiment with more number of children to accurately understand the benefits training virtual pet on childhood obesity.

"I really believe that emerging technology is able to help people make better decisions and make behavioral changes for the better," Ahn said

More information is available online in the journal IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics.