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

Completed · Not applicable

Conditions studied: Wearable Electronic Devices

In brief

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.

Key facts

Study ID

NCT05547425

Run by

Northwestern University

People needed

30

Starts

2022-09-20

Expected to finish

2023-03-21

Last updated by the study team

2023-10-27

Who can join

Age: 18 and older, up to 64. Sex: any. Healthy volunteers: accepted.

You may qualify if…

• 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

You may not qualify if…

• 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

Where it is running

• Northwestern University Department of Preventive Medicine — Chicago, Illinois, United States

Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov

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