Health maintenance system for children

• US 20050287502A1
• Filed: 06/28/2004
• Published: 12/29/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 06/28/2004
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Barbara Helen Southard, Douglas Ralph Southard
• Original Assignee: Barbara Helen Southard, Douglas Ralph Southard
• Inventors: Southard, Barbara Helen, Southard, Douglas Ralph
• Application Number:
  US10/878,202
• Publication Number:
  US 20050287502A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 434/236
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 19/0092 Nutrition
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/60 relating to nutrition control, e.g. diets

Abstract

A system for monitoring and maintaining dietary intake and physical activity levels for children which involves reinforcing good dietary practices and punishing poor activity and dietary practices which utilizes a core application controlling access to selected third party software and which has an interface to allow parents to set goals and plan contingencies.

Claims

1. A method of preventing and treating childhood obesity which involves parental or guardian involvement by means of interfacing with the personal computer of a child, the involvement attempting, by behavioral modification, to improve the child'"'"'s diet and exercise regimen so as to treat any tendency toward obesity, said method comprising

a. providing a core application that controls access to third party software including at least one personal computer and at least one internet game,

b. Interfacing with said third party software which can be used by child to assist him or her in obtaining desired weight control results,

c. providing software interfaces to allow parents or guardians to set goals and contingencies and for data input,

d. coding said software interfaces to control the core application,

e. providing a resource website for parents or guardians,

f. providing interfaces to allow parents and guardians to make necessary changes to the goals and contingencies to better effect the child'"'"'s ongoing behavior as to diet and exercise.

2. The method as in claim 1 wherein the parental interface is used to allow the child to access the third party software.

3. The method as in claim 2 wherein one of the third party software programs available for use is an Internet-enabled computer game designed to promote health and nutrition and physical activity.

4. The method as in claim 1 wherein one of the contingencies is for dealing with the condition that the child is not eating healthy foodstuffs.

5. The method as in claim 4 wherein the parents or guardians are able to reward the child for a proper diet by providing him or her access to play computer games, Internet sites or Internet-enabled applications including other third party software.

6. The method as in claim 1 wherein the child'"'"'s efforts may be measured by third party hardware such as an automated physical activity monitor or pedometer.

7. The method as in claim 6 wherein the child is rewarded for achieving the exercise goal as measured by the automated physical activity monitor or pedometer.

8. The method as in claim 7 wherein the child'"'"'s personal computer automatically denies him or her access to third party software if his or her performance does not meet pre-established goals.

9. The method as in claim 1 wherein parents or guardians may change goals and contingencies as the child ages and/or makes progress during his or her participation in the effort.

10. The method as in claim 9 wherein the parents may grant more or less access to third party software depending on the child'"'"'s participation and progress.

11. The method as in claim 1 wherein the parent or guardian may input a certain number of steps taken from a pedometer into the core application on the child'"'"'s personal computer or have networks or other computer connected to the Internet so as to constantly update the number of steps the child has achieved in each preset time period in order to avail himself or herself of the rewards.

12. The method as in claim 1 wherein the parents or guardian selects from a pre-selected and already provided list of rewards the child is to be granted access to if he or she performs so as to meet the goals set.

13. The method as in claim 1 wherein the core application has a separate and secure timing function so that the child cannot manipulate the reward time allowance.

14. The method as in claim 12 wherein the child'"'"'s personal computer will show a dialog explaining why the child cannot access any particular reward function if he or she has not performed satisfactorily during the time period.

15. A method as in claim 1 wherein the interface will allow the parent or guardian to monitor more than one child at a time.

16. A method as in claim 1 wherein the interface provides a wizard program to allow the parents or guardians to set reasonable goals for each child using the system.

17. A method as in claim 16 wherein the wizard program correlates activity and desired parental goals in setting the number of steps taken daily, the servings of healthy foods, the hours of TV watching, and the hours of computer/video game playing.

18. A method as in claim 17 wherein the servings of healthy foods are taken to mean servings of fruit and vegetables.

19. A system for directing children on their personal computers to adopt a healthy regimen to offset tendencies toward obesity by improved diet and exercise, said system comprising:

a. core application software for controlling access to third party software,

b. a child'"'"'s personal computer and a parents computer, both connected to said core application.

c. interfaces to allow parents to set goals and contingencies and for data input, said interfaces being coded to interface with the core application,

d. a resource website for parents, and

e. means of evaluating the results of the child'"'"'s behavior as to healthy eating habits and exercise over time.

20. The system of claim 19 wherein the application allows the parent to limit access to third party software if the child has not performed satisfactorily in terms of exercise and diet.

21. The system of claim 19 wherein the system includes an automated physical activity monitor whereby the parent may monitor the exercise activity of the child which is automatically inputted into the interface.

22. The system as in claim 19 wherein the child'"'"'s personal computer automatically denies him or her access to third party software if the child does not perform satisfactorily.

23. The system as in claim 22 wherein the child'"'"'s computer automatically shows a dialog explaining to the child why the third party software is not available to him or her due to unsatisfactory performance.

24. The system as in claim 22 wherein the system has the Internet enabled game that reinforce good exercise and eating regimens.

25. The system as in claim 19 wherein the child'"'"'s computer is one of a minimum of 700 MHz, 128 MB Ram, 700 MB HD, graphics accelerator card, CD-ROM drive and Windows 98 operating system.

26. The system as in claim 19 wherein the system has a SQL server database to track selected third party software and data input by parents.

27. The system as in claim 19 wherein the password to access the core application is encrypted.

28. The system as in claim 19 which has a website housed on a Windows 2000 and is firewall protected.