The potential for pervasive computing to change peoples cooking and eating habits

Lejsgaard Myrup, Martin

4. term

Software, Master

2011

2011-06-16

40 pages

This master thesis consist of two articles and a summery of those. The main theme is peoples cooking and eating habits and the thesis tries to answer the research question: Can pervasive computing be used to change peoples cooking and eating habits?. Using a literature survey, a questionnaire and a workshop this master thesis identified five areas that should be considered if new kitchen systems were to be developed for students. To motivate students to cook more at home, systems should make the cooking process more sociable; it should enable the student to easily keep track of expirations dates on groceries; make the cooking process more efficient; inspire the student and provide healthy alternatives to both recipe suggestions and ingredients. By utilising a system that enabled patients to see and communicate with a relative while admitted, interviews and grounded theory, this thesis suggest that it is possible to motivate patients at hospitals to eat more. Several other benefits of utilising the system was identified like feeling less alone; feeling closer to each other; positive change in mood; easing the everyday. These results indicate that for specific target groups it is possible to change cooking and eating habits by using pervasive computing. The results show that sociability, connectedness and the ability to make everyday activities easier should play an important role when designing systems for this purpose.

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