Playful Tray :
Adopting Ubicomp and Persuasive
Techniques into Play-based
Occupational Therapy for Correcting
Eating Behaviors in Young Children
Presenter :: Dori Tung-yun Lin
Jin-Ling Lo, Tung-yun Lin, Jen-hao Chen, Hsi-Chin Chou, Hao-hua Chu, Jane Hsu
National Taiwan University
Ubiquitous
Computing
integrates computing into everyday objects and activities
Lost ?
http://www.mtn
sys.com/Imags/
frmain1.jpg
Object location tracker
- Shin-jan Wu, NTU Ubicomp Lab
Smart
Environment
Smarter
users
Dumb
users?
Persuasive
Smart people.
Computing
Smart homes?
Textrix
VR
Bike
Tooth
Tunes
Baby think
it over
Persuasive Mirror
Related Works
Persuasive Computing
from a Computing Perspective
not only
sensing and tracking behaviors
but also
engaging people to change behaviors
Persuasive Computing
from an Occupational Therapist Perspective
extending therapists’ reach from
treatment clinic
into
the actual living environment
the problem…
Mealtime Behavior
 Nutritional concerns
 Affect the participation of children
in daily routines
 Negative parent-child interaction
Mealtime Behavior
Traditionally,
eating behavior interventions
depend heavily on parents.
•non-compliance of mealtime related parenting skills
•emotion
Play-based Feeding
Behavior Intervention
“ Play is a child’s way of learning and
an outlet for his innate need of activity. ”
-- N. Alessandrini, “A. Play—A child’s world”
Habitual
behavior
Partial
reinforcement
Active engagement
Three primary
elements
of play
`
Playfulness
Intrinsic
motivation
Internal
control
Suspension
of reality
Play-based Feeding Behavior Intervention
Habitual
behavior
Partial
reinforcement
Active engagement
Playful Tray
Design Considerations
`
Playfulness
Intrinsic
motivation
Attention
Internal
control
Suspension
of reality
(1/4)
 to split between game playing and eating
activities
Habitual
behavior
Partial
reinforcement
Active engagement
Playful Tray
Design Considerations
`
Playfulness
Intrinsic
motivation
Internal
control
Enjoyment
Suspension
of reality
(2/4)
 two kinds of enjoyment:
perceptual arousal / accomplishment
Habitual
behavior
Partial
reinforcement
Active engagement
Playful Tray
Design Considerations
`
Playfulness
Intrinsic
motivation
Internal
control
Suspension
of reality
(3/4)
Engagement
 to connect digital playfulness to active
participation in the target physical activity
Habitual
behavior
Partial
reinforcement
Active engagement
Playful Tray
Design Considerations
`
Playfulness
Intrinsic
motivation
Control
Internal
control
Suspension
of reality
(4/4)
 to give children choices in determining
game outcome
Implementation
[ Implementation 1]
Coloring Game
[ Implementation 1]
Coloring Game
frustration
─ Four Problems
when the cartoon character did not look colorful and happy at the end of the game
boring
(decrease of enjoyment)
attractive at the first few times, then became boring for the color mappings never changed
disengagement
grabbed too much attention that some children became distracted from eating properly
gobbling
(wrong attention target)
Some children became impatient to see their favorite cartoon characters fully colored
[ Implementation 2]
Racing Game
Palm-top PC with touch
screen
For placing the bowl
Weight sensor and sensing surface
[ Implementation 2]
Racing Game
Digital Playful Feedback
LCD Display
Racing Game
Eating Events
Weighing Sensing Surface
Weight Change Detector
Physical Eating Action
[ Implementation 2]
Racing Game
1. Choose one favorite character and start to dine
2. One randomly chosen character would run forward with
every bite of food
3. The racing game can proceed if and only if one eats
4. At the end of dining, the character in the front wins the game
[ Implementation 2]
Racing Game
• Control (choose the favorite character)
• Enjoyment (vision / accomplishment)
[ Implementation 2]
Racing Game
• Engagement (Eating events as inputs)
• Attention (low interactivity?)
User Study
• Done by professional occupational
therapist. (Prof. Lo and her student)
• 4 children aged from 4 to 7 years old.
•
•
•
•
A
B
C
D
–
–
–
–
7
5
5
4
yrs
yrs
yrs
yrs
old,
old,
old,
old,
• Long meals
Asperger’s Syndrome
High function autism
Asperger’s Syndrome
No specific diagnosis
• ranging from over 30 min. to over 1 hr.
User Study
Procedures
1.
2.
3.
4.
Children’s Mealtime Behavior Checklist
Interview - to clarify behavioral details
Record eating activities without the tray
Record eating activities with the tray
within 1 week
Evaluation
Behavior Coding System
• Use the taped video to identify positive and
negative behaviors
• active feeding / interaction / social behavior
• The P/N ratio is used to measure behavioral
improvement
(1) Self-feeding: a child place food into his/her own mouth
Mother
Child
Positive: A mother allows or promotes self-feeding,
Positive: A child attempts self-feeding, such as
such as verbal encouragement, praises, etc.
holding utensils, putting food into mouth, etc.
Negative: A mother discourages, disallows, or
interrupts self-feeding, such as pushing the
Negative: A child rejects self-feeding, such as saying
child’s hands away, telling the child that she will
“no” or pushing away given food.
feed the child, etc.
(2) Interaction: Actively initiated behavior and the synchronous responsive behavior of the feeding partner
Mother as the actor
Child’s responsive behavior
Positive: A child accepts food when it is offered, or
Positive: A mother attempts to arouse a child’s
self-feeds food.
interest, such as talking about food, models, food
games, etc. A mother refocuses the child’s
Negative: A child ignores the mother’s cue, refuses,
or walks away from the mother’s cue.
attention on food when the child is distracted.
Negative: A mother intrusively attempts to direct
Positive: A child responds by self-feeding.
feeding, such as force-feeding the child, holding Negative: A child ignores the mother’s attempts,
a child’s head, body, or hand, and threatening
refuses, or walks away from the mother’s
the child.
attempts.
Mother’s responsive behavior
Child as the actor
Positive: A mother synchronously responds to
promote continuous feeding, such as interpreting
Positive: A child initiates an attempt to eat, such as
a child feeding cues, responding to a child’s
looking at food, talking about food, requesting
needs, etc.
food/drink, or touching food.
Negative: A mother synchronously responds to
interrupt the child’s feeding.
Positive: A mother synchronously responds to promote
continuous feeding, such as interpreting the child
Negative: A child shows disinterest,
feeding cues, responding to the child’s needs, etc.
discouragement, or stops eating or chewing.
Negative: A mother synchronously responds to
interrupt the child’s feeding.
(1) Self-feeding: a child place food into his/her own mouth
Mother
Child
Positive: A mother allows or
Positive: A child attempts
promotes self-feeding, such
self-feeding, such as
as verbal encouragement,
holding utensils, putting
praises, etc.
food into mouth, etc.
Negative: A mother
discourages, disallows, or
Negative: A child rejects selfinterrupts self-feeding,
feeding, such as saying
such as pushing the child’s
“no” or pushing away
hands away, telling the
given food.
child that she will feed the
child, etc.
Results
Mealtime duration with and without the playful tray
for the four children subjects
Avg.:
32min.
(23-41min.)
Avg.:
21min.
(7-29 min.)
Results
The child’s P/N ratio with and without the
Playful Tray
0.80~13.33
6.95~19.00
different food types (rice/ dumpling→easy to eat → less self-feeding actions) ↑
Results
The mother’s P/N ratio with and without the
playful tray
0.79~ 4.00
4.30~30.00
Conclusion
• Utilizing Ubicomp and persuasive technology
extends the reach of occupational therapists
from their treatment clinic into the actual
living environment of a patient.
• The Playful Tray can effectively improve child
meal completion time by 35%.
• The Playful Tray can also make change of
parent behaviors.
Limitations
• Lack pre-interview process
• Identify the real needs of real users
• Only informally talked to a parent and
some young children
• Lack long-term user studies evaluation
• - Pre
Intervention
Post
Future Work
• Long-term user study.
• Understand users’ real needs.
• Focus group or 1-on-1 interview
• Observe weight changes through dining to
improve the eating behavior recognition.
Future Work
Output
Any
Animated
Other
Racing
Simulation
Games!!
Game
Camera
Weighing
RFID
Reader
Sensor
(teeth
(eating
(toys’ brushing)
location)
event)
Game
Input
Accomplish smarter users
Output
via smart environment.
Game
Input
Publications
 Jin-ling Lo, Tung-yun Lin, Jen-hao Chen, Hsi-Chin Chou, Hao-hua Chu, Jane Hsu,
Playful tray: adopting Ubicomp and Persuasive Techniques into Play-based
Occupational Therapy for Correcting Poor Eating Behaviors in Young Children,
Pending for International Conference on Ubiquitous Computing (ACM UBICOMP)
2007
 Tung-yun Lin, Keng-hao Chang, Shih-yen Liu, Hao-hua Chu, A Persuasive Game
to Encourage Healthy Dietary Behaviors of Young Children, Demo Paper &
Adjunct Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Ubiquitous
Computing (ACM UbiComp 2006), California, September, 2006.
 Keng-hao Chang, Shih-yen Liu, Hao-hua Chu, Jane Hsu, Cheryl Chen, Tung-yun
Lin, Chieh-yu Chen, Polly Huang, Diet-Aware Dining Table: Observing Dietary
Behaviors over Tabletop Surface, in Proceedings of the International conference
on Pervasive Computing (Pervasive 2006), Dublin Ireland, May 2006, (Lecture
Notes in Computer Science 3968, Pervasive Computing 4th International
Conference, PERVASIVE 2006, Springer), pages 366-382.
 Chon-in Wu, Chao-ming (James) Teng, Yi-chao Chen, Tung-yun Lin, Hao-hua
Chu, Jane Yun-jen Hsu, Point-of-Capture Archiving and Editing of Personal
Experiences from a Mobile Device, to appear in ACM/Springer Journal of
Personal and Ubiquitous Computing (PUC), Special Issue on Memory and Sharing
of Experiences, 2006.