AR Dancee: An Augmented Reality-based Mobile Persuasive App for Promoting Physical Activity Through Dancing

Abstract

Being physically active is one of the most important healthy lifestyles that contribute to people’s overall health and well-being. Within today's fast-paced and sedentary society, the significance of physical activity (PA) cannot be overstated. Enhancing PA levels can be accomplished through various activities such as walking, cycling, swimming, or dancing. Adults are more likely to enhance their PA when participating in an enjoyable activity like dancing. Furthermore, engaging in an enjoyable activity like dancing is likely to have a positive impact on their overall mood. These factors motivated the present research to develop a persuasive mobile-driven intervention named AR Dancee that aimed at encouraging the public, particularly adults, to improve their PA in an enjoyable manner, potentially leading to improved positive mood. To achieve this objective, our research leveraged the persuasive capabilities of Augmented Reality (AR), Machine Learning (ML), and gamification to foster healthy behavioral changes towards PA through dancing. By combining these innovative technologies, we strive to create an effective intervention that can positively influence individuals' mood and motivations towards PA, ultimately promoting a healthier lifestyle. We conducted a user study with 104 participants for a 15-day period and interviewed 27 participants to get more insight about the intervention. The participants were asked to rate various design aspects of the intervention and share their experiences of dancing with the intervention. Through analysis of the collected data, we found that the intervention had a significant impact on increasing the participants' PA levels, motivating them to meet the minimum recommended weekly PA level of 600 MET. Furthermore, the intervention exhibited an equal level of effectiveness in promoting PA across all gender groups. However, it was found that the intervention was more effective in promoting PA among younger adults than older adults. The analysis also revealed that the intervention successfully introduced dancing as a novel approach to enhancing or maintaining PA levels. Moreover, the intervention significantly improved the positive mood of the participants during and at the end of the study. Additionally, participants reported a reduction in anxiety levels while dancing with the intervention, indicating its potential for stress management. Overall, these findings highlight the positive impact of the intervention in increasing PA levels, promoting emotional well-being, and offering stress reduction benefits. Our work contributes to the field of HCI, persuasive technology, AR, and ML by introducing a fun and enjoyable way for people to use these technologies to motivate people to engage in PA.