Augmented reality to fight obesity
Lately, all those who are interested in “ICTs” only talk about “Magic Leap”, this company that has raised more than 400 million euros from various investors, including the giant Google(1) even though it does not achieve any turnover. This start-up specializes in augmented reality, which consists of inserting computer-generated images onto real-world images. What is completely revolutionary is that, thisfalse realityis, quite simply, capable of deceiving our brain…
Thus, visualizing a generous amount of food on our plates even when the portion is reduced means, in augmented reality, a satiety assured. Promising, isn’t it?
How, in the real world, does our body assimilate food?
While obesity is a major international public health problem, WHO is multiplying its National Nutrition for Health Programmes. With the slogan “eat balanced”, “eat, move” or “five fruits and vegetables a day” etc., it is clear that this is not enough to stop this epidemic. A large part of the population eats too much and no longer knows when or how to stop ingesting food that satiates and in which they take refuge. Recent studies have shown that the feeling of satiety is directly related to the “filling” of our stomach. But not only that…
The Hirose Tanikawa group at the University of Tokyo explains that the greater the amount of food, the faster the feeling of hunger subsides. Physiologically, when the stomach fills, signals are sent to the brain.
Butappetite is also regulated according to the amount of food that is in front of our eyes: the more food on the plate, the less hungry we are. It is from this state of affairs that scientists have turned to augmented reality to combat the phenomenon of obesity.
What about new technologies?
They are called connected objects and they make our lives easier. We already know the watch and bracelet for us to lose weight. There is also a new fork (HapiFork) that begins to vibrate to limit the “good fork strokes”. On this subject you can findour article on the slimming market, always more connected.
Then there is GoogleGlass, this pair of glasses connected to help patients, suffering from eating disorders, to better manage their food consumption. Moreover, it is these glasses that will make augmented reality concrete. Regarding diets, it is a software that will returna fake and distorted image of reality. The food thus visualized will gain in volume.
How does it work?
For the experience, twelve people confronted augmented reality on their plates. When food is 1.5 times larger, the amount of foodingested decreases by 10%. Conversely, foods reduced by a third are, psychologically, insatiable and consumers eat up to 15% more food(2).
For the vision to be as real as possible two adjustments are necessary: while the food grows, the hand, plate and cutlery remain of normal size. Everything is done so that the illusion is perfect and that theobese person can, finally, lose weight in a natural way. Only a little physical activity is missing on the side to perfect the silhouette.
Will we be able to avoid draconian diets or even surgical interventions? To be continued. Because it is true that this technology, which is not yet fully developed, may well invade many homes. It also remains to know the price.
Stephen Paul is the lead author and founder of My Health Sponsor. Holder of a diploma in health and well-being coaching with more than 200 articles in the field of health, he makes it a point of honor to offer advice based on reliable information, based on scientific research, and verified by health professionals.