WildCam: A Privacy Conscious Wearable Eating Detection Camera People Will Actually Wear in the Wild

Not Applicable

Completed

• Conditions: Wearable Electronic Devices
• Interventions: Device: Raw images; Device: Blur Obfuscation; Device: Edge Obfuscation; Device: Cartoon Obfuscation

• Registration Number: NCT05547425
• Lead Sponsor: Northwestern University

Brief Summary

WildCam is a wearable device that collects video data of the user's face and upper torso to capture eating behaviors. WildCam and its accompanying software is privacy conscious, meaning it utilizes a computer vision algorithm that extracts proximal features (the user's body and objects-in-hand) from the video and digitally obfuscates the distal features (background environment and entities therein) to preserve the privacy of the wearer, as well as any bystanders who may be in the device's visual field. The present study tests the impact of 3 different obfuscation techniques on acceptability, including the willingness of users to wear the device. Participants are randomly assigned to 1 of the 3 obfuscation techniques (blurring, masking, or cartooning). Participants wear the WildCam during waking hours during a 7-day period with the randomly selected obfuscation setting enabled and a 7-day period with the raw images (no obfuscation) setting. The order of these periods is counterbalanced, and the two periods are separated by a 7-day washout period during which WildCam is not worn. Structured feedback, including user burden and acceptability surveys, is collected to determine the efficacy of each obfuscation technique on increasing user acceptability, including willingness to use the WildCam device, as opposed to a video-collecting device without obfuscation.

Detailed Description

Not available

Study Timeline

• Study First Submitted: 2022-05-24
• Study First Submitted QC: 2022-09-16
• Study Start: 2022-09-20
• Study First Posted: 2022-09-21
• Primary Completion: 2023-03-21
• Study Completion: 2023-03-21
• Status Verified: 2023-10
• Last Update Submitted: 2023-10-25
• Last Update Posted: 2023-10-27

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: COMPLETED
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 30

Inclusion Criteria

• BMI 30 or greater
• Chicago Metro Area resident
• Able to speak, read, and write in English
• Valid phone number
• Smartphone ownership
• Have Wi-Fi at home

Exclusion Criteria

• 15% or greater weight change in last 3 months
• Medication related weight gain
• Genetic obesity syndrome (e.g., Prader-Willi, Bardet-Biedl, Cohen Syndrome)
• Member of household enrolled in study

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: PARALLEL

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Raw images	Raw images	No editing is performed on images.
Blur obfuscation	Blur Obfuscation	Blurring is applied to objects and people in the background of images.
Edge obfuscation	Edge Obfuscation	Objects and people in the background of images are replaced with an outline of the object.
Cartoon obfuscation	Cartoon Obfuscation	Blurring is applied to objects and people in the background of images and the wearer's face is concealed with cartoon faces.

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Mean Wear Time	7 days	Average duration in minutes of data collected per day, calculated from video time stamps

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Acceptability	7 days	Score (0-80) obtained from User Burden Scale (Suh. et al 2016), collected post-study

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

Northwestern University Department of Preventive Medicine; 🇺🇸 Chicago, Illinois, United States