iPhone Exercise

What can’t the iPhone do?  Thanks to a University of Houston computer science professor, it can even count how many calories you’ve burned in a given day.  

A free download called Walk n’ Play is available from Apple’s “App Store” that allows users to have fun while burning calories.  The game lets players keep track of their physical activity through their iPhones.  

Walk n’ Play was designed by a team of researchers from UH’s Computational Physiology Lab led by Ioannis Pavlidis, Eckhard Pfeiffer Professor of Computer Science and the lab’s director.  Co-developers include post-doctoral researcher Pradeep Buddharaju and doctoral student Yuichi Fujiki.

Walk n’ Play allows players to compete in real time against another iPhone user or against a simulator and watch the calories burn off as they go about their everyday walking.

“You just keep the phone attached to your waistband or carry in your pocket as you normally would, and it records every little motion you do – from walking to climbing stairs – and translates it into calories burned,” Pavlidis said.  “The game operates on a 24-hour cycle and tallies everything up daily.”  

While similar devices, such as pedometers, are nothing new, this iPhone application is unique in many respects.  Pedometers, for example, communicate measures with such things as steps.  Calories, however, are metabolic units and are the best measure of physical activity. 

The game also has an advantage over treadmills, which measure a user’s activity confined in space and time.  Walk n’ Play allows using the world as a treadmill, Pavlidis said, typically giving a more accurate calorie count.  

“Modern conveniences have changed our way of life,” Pavlidis said.  “The basic idea behind the application we’ve developed is for people to get motivated and back to living more active lifestyles.”