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Study says, a chatbot could help in preventing eating disorders

 

To say that chatbots are having a moment in the health and fitness community would be an understatement. These interactive digital assistants have been proven to help people find health-related information, manage their depression, and even get more active by playing games with them. It was only a matter of time before someone developed a chatbot that could help people struggling with eating disorders.

What is a chatbot?

A chatbot is an artificial intelligence agent or program designed to interact with human users via auditory or textual methods. It is a conversational agent that’s able to understand natural language input, and perform tasks as instructed by users. Facebook Messenger now has its own bot platform (similar to Apple’s Siri), which allows you to use services without having to launch an app or navigate a website. Just start a conversation in Messenger with one of Facebook’s bots. These bots are powered by artificial intelligence technology and human operators that can scale based on customer demand. Here’s how it works: Let’s say you want your grocery list saved for later – just tap on that button in FB Messenger and tell it what items you need to pick up at CVS when you’re on your way home from work.

How this Chatbot Works?

The chatbot is intended to support people with anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa (or those who think they might have one of these conditions) by moderating online conversations between them and their friends. People with ED can continue to access treatment through their existing healthcare provider, but often find it difficult to discuss food and body image issues openly with others. They may also be reluctant to seek out support for fear of stigma or judgement from their peers. In addition, healthcare professionals may find it challenging to recognize signs of ED in patients who don’t fit certain expectations about what someone suffering from an eating disorder should look like. The chatbot supports a variety of different communication strategies and can also assist in identifying warning signs.

How it can help in preventing eating disorders?

The chatbot first helps people recognize and understand their condition, which can lead to them seeking professional treatment. Based on that data and any other factors (such as information about eating habits), it then compiles diet tips that would be relevant to an individual. For example, if a person goes on-and-off diets frequently or has yo-yoed weight before in her life, it might recommend a gradual approach. If another user is primarily concerned with being skinny rather than maintaining health levels (e.g., someone at risk of bulimia), it might suggest more drastic measures like fasting or following only low-calorie meal plans.

Final Thoughts

This is an example of how advanced technology is already changing our lives for the better. When paired with cutting-edge medical science and precision nutrition, artificial intelligence has incredible potential to improve people’s health. The future of healthcare involves more data collection—but that doesn’t mean privacy concerns should be dismissed or forgotten about. We have to work toward a system that respects both individuals’ privacy and their medical information by making sure that it remains protected from unauthorized access or use.
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LG’s Smart TV now tracks your health

 

Lucky for all of us, technology continues to advance at an increasingly rapid pace and will likely continue to do so in the future as well. Because of this, we get better and better products such as smart TVs that can help improve our health. The most popular brand of smart TVs – LG – has recently introduced a new feature that helps track your fitness and health, called the Health Mate app, and it’s sure to be very useful to many people.

The LG Wellness Way

Most of us know that exercise is an important part of a healthy lifestyle. But how many of us are actually following through with it? And how many people who do follow through actually understand what to do? LG Electronics thinks it has found a solution: health tracking built right into its newest smart TVs. Say hello to The LG Wellness Way, a software platform that brings fitness and nutritional advice directly to your living room couch. It’s like having a virtual personal trainer that you never have to leave home to meet! The app works by tracking information from connected devices like heart rate monitors, pedometers, and smart scales; by logging food and calorie intake using apps like MyFitnessPal; or by using an existing smartphone GPS to track exercise, too.

How Does it Work?

LG has included a new Health app in its newest line of smart TVs, providing owners with a window into their health and fitness activity. Once you download LG’s Health mobile app to your smartphone, select Add account from within LG’s Health app and follow a few on-screen prompts. As you perform various activities—running, weight lifting, walking—your smart TV will track your progress through an array of sensors that can detect when you get up or sit down. After performing these actions for five minutes, you’ll earn points which act as incentives to keep going. This way, users are less likely to give up in frustration due to no immediate positive feedback.

Why is this Important?

The new platform, dubbed LG Health, lets you record information like how many steps you take a day and how much time you spend on physical activities. It also features sleep tracking capabilities that let you know just how long it takes for you to fall asleep at night. You can then use these insights to learn about your habits and establish new routines that are more likely to help lead to better health over time. While we’re all quite familiar with wearable gadgets like Fitbit trackers, LG’s approach is different in that it doesn’t require a separate device—you can get most of these same insights by simply buying a new television set.

What will it be used for?

The idea is that consumers can keep tabs on a number of aspects related to their wellbeing. The device will track a user’s heart rate, nutrition intake, stress levels and sleep patterns. Also featured are more standard features such as a virtual trainer and pedometer that can be synced with other services like Fitbit or Apple HealthKit. Whether users will take advantage of these tools remains to be seen, but if they do then it could help LG position itself as an innovator in its sector (TVs). Moreover, if results show that LG TVs have a positive impact on consumers’ well-being then there’s little doubt many competitors would jump at the chance to follow suit—thereby opening up another avenue for LG to capitalize on its lead.

Future Applications

With a full year of data behind it, LG says its system is smart enough to identify patterns. You’ll be able to look back and see how much time you spent sedentary and get suggestions for improving that over time. I love how forward-thinking LG is with health tracking in its TVs! Just a few years ago, we were reading about biometric sensors in phones and hearing about tech companies implanting microchips into employees—now our TVs are doing it for us. This isn’t all just science fiction: whether you realize it or not, there’s innovation happening right in front of us every day. This is just one example; use these prompts to brainstorm examples of where you see innovation—or think you could help innovate—at work.
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Virgin Orbit’s first satellite mission after SPAC merger

 

After Virgin Orbit’s merger with Sir Richard Branson’s space-focused company, Virgin Galactic, earlier this year, the aerospace startup has just launched its first commercial satellite mission after months of preparation, and it looks like the spacecraft was well worth the wait. This is a real game-changer in terms of what Virgin Orbit can do, with many more such projects likely on the horizon. Stay tuned to the company’s social media accounts to see what they come up with next!

 Virgin Orbit and The Spaceship Company announce merger

Virgin Orbit has announced that it has reached an agreement to merge with The Spaceship Company (TSC). This is a positive move for Virgin Orbit, giving them more operational and financial resources for long-term growth. As part of a larger Virgin group, Virgin Orbit will have access to TSC’s technical know-how and advanced technologies developed by The Spaceship Company.

Virgin Orbit’s first satellite launch

Virgin Orbit successfully launched its LauncherOne rocket, an air-launched rocket designed to place small satellites into orbit. Virgin has plans to launch hundreds of microsatellites for companies and government agencies that can’t afford their own rockets. This week’s success came a few months after it was announced that Virgin is merging with The Spaceship Company (formerly part of Virgin Galactic) and OneWeb, a provider of internet service using low-orbit satellites. The name SPAC comes from combining Space and Pace, highlighting how merging these two powerful forces in aerospace technology will enhance innovation in spaceflight.

A closer look at the LauncherOne system

LauncherOne is a single-stage launch vehicle system that can deliver satellites weighing up to approximately 500 pounds (230 kg) into Low Earth orbit (LEO). Based on Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo technology, LauncherOne will make use of modified SpaceShipTwo rocket motor casing, which acts as both airframe and propulsion for LauncherOne. The system will make use of a carrier aircraft based out of Mojave Air and Spaceport in California called Cosmic Girl. After Cosmic Girl flies to altitude at a specified location, it will release LauncherOne which then fires its rocket engine and delivers its payload into orbit.

Final Thoughts

Virgin’s New Space company is now taking on its new name, Virgin Orbit. It’s a name well-suited to the company’s growing ambitions in space. The company has made much of its presence at Spaceport America in New Mexico, home to Virgin Galactic and a host of other start-ups.
The merger will see both companies combine their resources as they continue to grow as an aerospace company to serve commercial customers worldwide
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Should We Design Clean Energy Tech for Recycling?

As clean energy becomes more and more important, companies are devising creative ways to make electricity using sustainable sources like solar power and wind turbines. In the process, they’re creating products that need to be reused, recycled or repurposed as much as possible – but most of them don’t consider how these systems can be easily taken apart and put back together when it’s time to dispose of them. To recycle clean energy tech effectively, use these three tips from experts in the field.

 1) Develop designs for easy disassembly  

It’s no secret that clean energy tech is becoming more popular, but there’s a big problem: Not only do companies need to develop renewable technology, they also need to build it with recycling in mind. That means making it easy to disassemble so that people can take parts out and recycle them rather than letting them go into landfills. After all, it only makes sense: The less junk we throw away, the cleaner our environment will be. But not everyone is convinced. Some experts have argued that building clean tech requires an entirely new mindset—and that designing tech for modularity could make things too complicated; maybe, then, it’s better to just design stuff to last until its end of life? What are your thoughts on sustainable tech design? Does it need to be designed for both durability and ease of disassembly or modularity? Why? Why not? Or does sustainability boil down to something simpler altogether? Let us know what you think!

2) Include a cradle-to-cradle life cycle in design

When designing new clean energy technologies, we need to take into account how these products will be recycled once they’ve outlived their usefulness. In fact, there are a number of compelling reasons why any piece of technology should be designed with recycling in mind from day one. First, it would eliminate an entire category of waste that builds up on our planet and poses serious environmental concerns; second, it would create a secondary market for clean tech components that could help bring down costs.
So what does it mean to design something for recycling? Ideally, products would have a cradle-to-cradle life cycle. For example, a wind turbine might only last 10 years, but its components could be easily disassembled and re-used elsewhere. This is an admittedly difficult task given that there are so many different pieces of clean tech out there and no clear definition of how they should be recycled. Still, we need to start thinking about these issues now if we want future generations to enjoy a cleaner world.

3) Use materials with low toxicity

Many clean energy sources, such as solar panels and wind turbines, use rare-earth elements to increase efficiency. However, recycling these materials is difficult; they’re not designed to be disassembled and need highly toxic chemicals to separate them from other materials. Instead of using these materials to improve efficiency—or even simply making sure our technology uses fewer rare-earth elements—should we instead design clean energy tech for recyclability so that we can easily reuse it in future technologies? What do you think? Share your thoughts on Twitter using #BuiltToRecycle. For more details about recycling high-tech components, read our past post: Could This Material Make Solar Power Twice As Efficient? Using recycled material is key to fighting climate change : All those scientists have found a way to safely store radioactive waste inside diamonds! How cool is that? Here’s some important questions that come with developing new ways to utilize existing material and helping out with global warming. First, what if you could develop a better phone without generating new material…would you do it?
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