Project overview

PROJECT TITLE: A MOBILE FOOD RECOMMENDATION SYSTEM USING LOCATION CONTEXT

The goal of this research project is to develop and test a mobile platform to help people make intelligent food intake decisions. Mobile platforms provide several advantages over traditional methods of obtaining diet-related information and recommendations (i.e. face-toface diet counseling or information websites) including real-time and continuous communication capabilities, and a speedy, flexible, and a user-friendly customizable interface that provides
tailored feedback independent of time and location.

Research suggests that interventions using mobile health (mHealth) and electronic health (eHealth) technologies hold great promise for influencing knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors related to diet and physical activity. However, very little research has empirically tested the potential of interactive technologies to address impact dietary behavior. While recent mobile- and Internet-based research on electronic health care focus on the creation and use of new devices and ubiquitous access to information, this research aims to include mobile technology’s location-awareness and different views and interaction options for age- and gender-specific profiles.

The object of the proposed research project is to develop a food recommendation system prototype, which will allow students from multiple disciplines (Computer Science, Nutritional Sciences, Public Health) to study common problems related to user acceptance of mobile health
applications and use of such systems, including issues surrounding data collection and privacy, data representation, the user interface, design patterns, mapping between current location and a food intake place, content accuracy, and perceived relevance of the information to the location/situation. This research aims to include new insights on mobile computing applications for health care, such as the use of location-awareness: users will be able to compare their choices for eating out with a recommendation database.