Computer Science Honours 2018
The Virtual Gym Instructor
Supervisor: Dr Dane Brown
The industrial revolution and development of new technologies has presented a golden platter for sedentary living. Noncommunicable diseases such a cardiovascular diseases, cancers, chronic respiratory diseases and diabetes have reached epidemic levels as a consequence. Gym instructors screen participants for exercise programs, evaluate various fitness and physical activity components, prescribe exercise to improve these components and can help people lower the risk of such noncommunicable lifestyle diseases. However, gym instructors often come at a cost and are not always available or accessible.
This research investigated whether we can use modern computing power to develop a cost effective alternative gym instructor. Many studies and previous attempts at this have proven to be ineffective or not economical. Through application of computer vision algorithms with openCV an effective and economical alternative gym instructor was developed, the Virtual Gym Instructor.
To increase the chances of the Virtual Gym Instructor being successful in helping fight noncommunicable diseases, global determinants of physical activity in people were factored and a complementary social support platform (Keep Up) was developed.