This document outlines the PEGASO project, which aims to develop an ICT system to prevent overweight and obesity in adolescents. The system will generate self-awareness, enhance motivation, and encourage behavior change towards healthy lifestyles. It will profile users based on physical, social, and behavioral attributes collected from sensors, questionnaires, and apps. Data mining will recognize short and long-term trends to provide personalized feedback. Motivation mechanisms like games and health education seek to influence behaviors long-term. The goal is to empower adolescents to actively manage their wellness through an engaging digital platform.

1. PEGASO
A Personalised and
Motivational ICT System to
Empower Adolescents
Towards Healthy Lifestyles
Stefano CARRINO(1), , Maurizio CAON(1), Leonardo
ANGELINI(1), Elena MUGELLINI(1),
Omar ABOU KHALED(1), Silvia ORTE(2), Eloisa VARGIU(2),
Neil COULSON(3), José C.E. SERRANO(4), Sarah TABOZZI(5),
Claudio LAFORTUNA(5), Giovanna RIZZO(5)
(1) University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland
(2) Barcelona Digital Technology Center
(3) University of Nottingham
(4) Universidad de Lleida
(5) IBFM, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche

2. OUTLINE
Goal and Motivation
User Modelling
Information Sources
Data Mining and Reasoning Approaches
Motivation Mechanisms
Conclusions

3. GOAL AND MOTIVATION1
Goal and
Motivation
1

4.  The rapidly increasing prevalence of overweight
and obesity among children and adolescents
reflects a global ‘epidemic’ worldwide
 Obesity already accounts for up to 7% of
healthcare costs in the EU, as well as costs to the
wider economy associated with lower
productivity, lost output and premature death
 Obesity in younger age groups has been
recognized as an alarming key predictor for
obesity in adulthood
 Short term health complications also in juvenile
age such as hypertension, type 2 diabetes,
metabolic syndrome, fatty liver disease, sleep
disturbances along with greater risk of social and
psychological problems
UNDERLYING MOTIVATION
Goal and
Motivation
1

5.  Addressing the obesity issues requires a
comprehensive approach taking into account the
individual's physical-physiological characteristics,
personality as well as the social and psychological
environments influencing decisions and habits in their
everyday life
 Prevention is of obvious importance and there is an
urgent need for further research into how physical
activity and training, in addition to nutrition, can
prevent the steadily increasing average body mass
index of Europeans
 The rapid development of the ICT, and in particular
mobile technologies, together with their increasing
diffusion among the EU populations, offers an
important opportunity for facing these issues in an
innovative manner introducing the possibility of a
new technological framework to re-design the
healthcare system model
UNDERLYING MOTIVATION
Goal and
Motivation
1

6. THE GOAL
PEGASO is aimed at developing a multi-dimensional
and cross-disciplinary ICT system that includes game
mechanics to influence behaviours in order to fight
and prevent overweight and obesity in the younger
population by encouraging them to become co-
producers of their wellness and take an active role
in improving it by:
generating self-awareness
enhancing and sustaining motivation
changing behaviour towards a healthy lifestyle
Goal and
Motivation
1

7.  Enhancing self-awareness of younger people for
health issues and promoting behavioural
changes in favour of physical activity and healthy
diets
 Preventing juvenile overweight/obesity and
reducing morbidities associated to juvenile
overweight/obesity in the short time, and long
term health consequences
 Reducing medical, social and personal costs
associated to juvenile and adult
overweight/obesity
 Developing a system suitable for interventions
based on equity and inclusivity
 Providing a transnational opportunity for a
coordinated effort to tackle a transnational issue
EXPECTED IMPACT
Goal and
Motivation
1

8. USER MODELLING2
User Modelling2

9. Virtual Individual Model
User Modelling2

10. A multifaceted profile is needed to
characterize the user
Physical activity and alimentary
behaviours
Psycho-social characteristics
Gamers profile
USER PROFILING
User Modelling2

11. INFORMATION SOURCES3
Information
Sources
3

12. INFORMATION SOURCES
Sensing platform
Smartphone
Smart garment
External devices
Questionnaires
To acquire an initial profile
To acquire data difficult or problematic to sense
Smartphone applications
Serious games
Social media applications
Interactive multimedia diary
Information
Sources
3

13. DATA MINING AND
REASONING APPROACHES
4
Data Mining and
Reasoning
4

14. It interacts with the motivational
mechanisms
It is built upon the information coming
from questionnaires, the sensing
platform and the applications
 It provides dynamic multi-scale
modelling of user-specific data
BEHAVIOUR RECOGNITION SYSTEM
Data Mining and
Reasoning
4

15. BEHAVIOUR RECOGNITION SYSTEM
Small-timescale trend behaviour recognition
Raw data coming from sensors are sent to the smartphone
and processed
Data Mining and
Reasoning
4

16. BEHAVIOUR RECOGNITION SYSTEM
Long-timescale trend behaviour recognition
Algorithms to recognize habits, tastes and preferences
combined with statistical trend analysis
Algorithms allow answering questions as
• What kind of exercise does the user do?
• When?
• How long?
• Does the user use social networks?
• How many hours is the user watching TV?
• What is the mealtime on the different typical days?
• What is the amount of calories per meal?
Data Mining and
Reasoning
4

17. PHYSICAL ACTIVITY HABITS
The BRS provides a module to
bring together data from the
sensor platform to create an
environment in which data can be
read, analysed and interpreted
It comprises a post-processing
system based on data cleaning and
data mining algorithms to assure
accuracy, completeness,
uniqueness, timeliness and
consistency
Data Mining and
Reasoning
4

18. NUTRITION HABITS
PEGASO does not introduce
sensors to measure the food
intake
Questionnaire and multimedia
diary are adopted
Data Mining and
Reasoning
4
Data mining algorithms analyse questionnaires and
diary
Suitable algorithms verify the reliability of the
acquired information

19. INDIVIDUAL RISK FACTORS
Categorical data from physical, physiological,
psychosocial and social status factors will be
integrated with alimentary, physical activity and social
behaviours expressed in appropriate scoring scales to
yield an overall dynamic and individualised risk
Data Mining and
Reasoning
4
The system will take into
account missing data on
some elements that may
determine the user profiles
or the risk factors

20. MOTIVATION MECHANISMS5
Motivation
Mechanisms
5

21. ACTIONS
Short-term actions
Respond to real-time information from sensors or directly
from the user
The system provides a feedback aiming at reinforcing
user’s motivation
Motivation
Mechanisms
5
Long-term actions
Introduce a behaviour change in the
user
Three factors will be considered
• Motivation
• Ability
• Trigger

22. Actions
Motivation
Mechanisms
5
 Health companion [Lifestyle Management]
 Instant actuation mechanisms [Alert]
 Gamified virtual environment [Motivation]
 Intelligent system to influence the user towards
healthier lifestyle [Behaviour change]
 Virtual Individual Model Tailoring [Personalisation]
Short
term
actions
Long
term
actions

23. The adoption of the smartphone as
primary interface towards the user
allows developing games that can link
the physical activity to the dynamic of
a game
PEGASO will not be limited to game or
game-like applications
The system will suggest activities,
propose informative and educative
materials, promoting health literacy
and education
GAMES AND
PERSUASIVE TECHNOLOGIES
Motivation
Mechanisms
5

24. CONCLUSIONS6
Conclusions6

25. CONCLUSIONS
 PEGASO is aimed at empowering adolescents towards healthy
lifestyle
 User profile is based on a conceptual framework grounded on
the individual’s physical, functional and behavioural aspects
 The profile is enriched and tailored through reasoning on
information acquired through a sensing platform,
questionnaires and specific applications
 Small-timescale and long-timescale trend behaviours are
recognized, analysed and used to generate motivational
feedback
Conclusions6

26. THANKS FOR YOUR ATTENTION!
More about the project
 Web: http://pegasof4f.eu/
 Twitter: @PegasoF4F
 Facebook: PegasoFitForFuture
evargiu@bdigital.org