Opportunities for smart & tailored activity coaching

CONCLUSION We have identified six areas where smart technologies can be applied to tailor various aspects of an individualized activity coach. Location-aware activity-type sensing (1) and self-learning individual goal setting algorithms (2) should form the basis for providing awareness of physical activity as well as obtainable goals. The generation of motivational messages can benefit from complex pattern analysis to determine an optimal timing (3) and content (4) of messages for the user in his current context. Language generation tools can alleviate the problem of repetitiveness in natural language interaction between user and coach. The presentation of an intelligent coach can use advanced HCI methods — e.g. the use of ECA’s (5) — that can migrate with the user through various devices in order to optimally use the available interaction resources at the user’s current location (6).