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

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.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Wearable Electronic Devices
• Intervention / Treatment: Device: Blur Obfuscation; Device: Edge Obfuscation; Device: Cartoon Obfuscation; Device: Raw images

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 30
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Illinois
    • Chicago, Illinois, United States, 60611
      • Northwestern University Department of Preventive Medicine

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years to 64 years (Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

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 Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Basic Science
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

4

Arms and Interventions

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

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Mean Wear Time	Average duration in minutes of data collected per day, calculated from video time stamps	7 days

Secondary Outcome Measures

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

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Northwestern University
• Collaborators: National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK)

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): September 20, 2022
• Primary Completion (Actual): March 21, 2023
• Study Completion (Actual): March 21, 2023

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: May 24, 2022
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: September 16, 2022
• First Posted (Actual): September 21, 2022

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): October 27, 2023
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: October 25, 2023
• Last Verified: October 1, 2023

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Other Study ID Numbers: STU00213549; 1R03DK127128-01 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No