The Pedagogical Use of the Internet of Things in Virtual Worlds to Encourage a Behavior Change in Obese Individuals

The growing number of people suffering from obesity requires innovative weight loss programs, with a high level of personification and interactivity. Although face-to-face behavioral programs have proven to be most effective, they are expensive and often inaccessible. The use of virtual worlds has been emerging as an alternative to perform experiments, as it offers to the user a sense of reality, allowing interaction with 3D objects. This paper discusses the use of the Internet of Things in virtual worlds, with a view to encourage obese individuals to learn more about self-care in order to improve their life quality and lose weight. One of the key factors to deal with obesity is the engagement of the subject. The qualitative research investigated the impact of the alliance of 3D virtual worlds with the Internet of Things and mobile devices as elements capable of promoting motivation in subjects enrolled in an obesity control program. This set of technologies was used as a support strategy aimed at offering to the user the feeling of "being present" in a context particularly developed to encourage motivation and learning with the interaction with 3D objects. This paper has a cutout on the pedagogical use of the theoretical background, which is the Theory of Self-determination and it explains how the software that validated the proposal was developed. Preliminary data analysis proved that the research managed to motivate and influence people enrolled in the program in their weight loss process.