Health coach gets seniors moving
Prototypes
A group of senior citizens from South Boston, Roxbury, and other neighborhoods will be working in coming years with personal coaches who will push them out the door for brisk walks more often than they might go on their own. The coaches, all named Laura, will also chide them if they try to sneak in donuts, burgers, and other cholesterol bombs between healthy meals.
Laura is an artificially intelligent ``relational agent," an animated coach who dishes out advice and encouragement from behind a computer screen. Designed by Northeastern University professor Timothy Bickmore, Laura has already gotten seniors in one study to nearly double their daily footsteps (as recorded by pedometers) over a two-month period.
The seniors, patients in the geriatric ambulatory practice at Boston Medical Center, found their interactions with Laura to be an ``intuitive" experience, Bickmore said. In a coaching session, Laura appears on a touch screen to ask several multiple-choice questions. She responds not only with her voice, but with synchronized hand gestures and changes in facial expressions, even body posture. Those are the nonverbal cues that will help humans to form long-term bonds with artificial agents such as Laura, Bickmore believes.
He will soon use a $500,000 National Science Foundation grant to study whether Laura is engaging enough to keep seniors motivated for a year of more. (The study will also include more participants than the 21 in his original study.)
He is also developing a hand-held version of Laura to accompany study participants outside the home. The portable Laura may be capable of busting you in the act of woofing down a forbidden treat, and providing other types of on-the-spot intervention.
A few companies have expressed interest in commercializing aspects of Laura, Bickmore said. He insisted the agent is not meant to replace human relationships, but to augment them. Laura, he said, encourages seniors to get out and meet new people, and pair up with workout buddies who will also keep them motivated.
Mobile Navigation
Destinator adds features for chatty travelers
Some smartphone users can not only turn their devices into navigational aids, but also into tools for sending SMS text messages along with their coordinates. Say you're a kid stuck at the beach without a ride. Now mom can pinpoint your location and navigate to you by clicking on your SMS message, sent via Destinator 6, the latest version of the GPS software for Windows Mobile devices. Destinator's developers have also updated the software (available online for about $125) to tie in to real-time traffic, weather, and events information wherever those services are available.
Mobile Phones
Cingular's LG CU500 is nearly as sweet as Chocolate
Cingular wants to remind everybody that Verizon Wireless isn't the only company with an LG phone that plays MP3 files.
Like Verizon's LG Chocolate bar phone, Cingular's LG CU500 clamshell can play tunes you upload from your Windows PC.
You can also download media, such as movie trailers, at broadband speeds over the Cingular 3G network. And like the Chocolate, the CU500 has a microSD memory expansion slot for storing music libraries on the phone.
The CU500's outer shell has a small display and play/pause and forward and reverse buttons for playing music. Inside the black plastic phone is a larger display, and backlit keys set in a pad that looks like brushed metal.
The phone also has built-in stereo speakers, which surprised me with their clarity. But for the most rewarding listening experience, you will have to spring for extras like a Bluetooth stereo headset or a hardwired headset compatible with the CU500.
For a few dollars more, LG Electronics also makes a cute pair of battery-operated, portable stereo speakers that you can use with the phone.
The CU500 was selling on the Cingular website for about $80 after rebates and discounts, with a two-year contract.
With its music playback capabilities and 1.3 megapixel swiveling camera with video capture, that's a pretty good deal. Just remember to factor in the optional accessories you'll need to enjoy those music-listening features. 