What would jiminy cricket do? Lessons from the first social wearable

Abstract

Work towards the development of a "wearable conscience" that helps individuals make healthy decisions in their everyday lives is described. To be effective, such a system must be portable, sense key elements of the user's environment, have knowledge of counseling and health behavior change techniques, be able to effectively communicate with the user, and have social competencies for maintaining an ongoing working relationship. The design of a prototype system is presented, along with results from a series of design and usability studies. Current and future directions for the research are also discussed. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007.