MPTrain

Abstract

We present MPTrain, a mobile phone based system that takes advantage of the influence of music in exercise performance, enabling users to more easily achieve their exercise goals. MPTrain is designed as a mobile and personal system (hardware and software) that users wear while exercising (walking, jogging or running). MPTrain's hardware includes a set of physiological sensors wirelessly connected to a mobile phone carried by the user. MPTrain's software allows the user to enter a desired exercise pattern (in terms of desired heart-rate over time) and assists the user in achieving his/her exercising goals by: (1) constantly monitoring the user's physiology (heart-rate in number of beats per minute) and movement (speed in number of steps per minute); and (2) selecting and playing music with specific features that will encourage the user to speed up, slow down or keep the pace to be on track with his/her exercise goals.We describe the hardware and software components of the MPTrain system, and present some preliminary results when using MPTrain while jogging.

Into the Rhythm: Evaluating Breathing Instruction Sound Experiences on the Run with Novice Female Runners

“…The usage of sound tempo might be highly beneficial for breath guidance as well. Oliver and Flores-Mangas take this notion a step further in MPTrain, a system that automatically selects and plays music based on the runner's objectives and physiological reactions [59]. The abundance of Spotify (https://www.spotify.com/us/, accessed on 1 February 2024) playlists in various BPMs targeted at runners shows that sound is helpful for pacing.…”

Design and Development of Mobile, Tablet-based ECG Hardware and Software for Clinical Use

“…For example, Wang et al [15] explored the use of wearable sensors in combination with a patient's smartphone to upload long-term ECG data to the cloud. Researchers have explored mobile support for a variety of activities, such as stress management at home [13,14], physical training [12], and home monitoring for seniors [1,9]. However none of these projects have investigated the collection of clinical-grade ECG data.…”

Tailored motivational message generation: A model and practical framework for real-time physical activity coaching

“…In our example the representation, at its highest level, is natural language text. Natural language text is the focus of this work, but it should be kept in mind that there are various other possible ways of presenting the intention and content of a message to the user, such as through the visualization of a flowering garden [37], or music [38,39].…”

“…The examples given earlier are the flower garden of the UbiFit Garden application [37], in which feedback is given to the user by showing different types and sizes of flower on the screen, enhanced with goal setting by presenting a large butterfly if a daily goal is met. Another example is the music based feedback of the MPTrain [38] and TripleBeat [39] systems that automatically select music of an appropriate beat/rhythm to stimulate exercising (jogging) at the proper pace. Another different modality is used in the Haptic Personal Trainer [41,42] where vibration signals are given to the user to promote a faster or slower walking pace.…”