WebGL enabled smart avatar warping for body weight animated evolution

Abstract

Obesity represents one of the most important health risks for a steadily increasing part of the population. The effort to prevent it or fight it is often hindered by the fact that a considerable percentage of individuals perceive their body image as healthier than it actually is. It is, therefore, essential to enhance awareness on actual body figure and weight state. In the current work we attempt to achieve this goal through visual feedback on the actual individual's image, increasing the impact by animating the transition from the initial state to the future outcome. The proposed module commences from a current body figure image and, relying on lifestyle and dietary information, gradually warps it to reflect expected changes. The mechanism relies on pure WebGL/Javascript, animating the transition at a selectable pace and to the extent chosen by the user, based on triangulation of the body figure outline and warping of the resulting polygon and corresponding texture according to input parameters. The WebGL/Javascript platform in combination with the absence of usage of external libraries allows for a small footprint of the module while offering high portability due to its native support by most modern day browsers.