Autom™ : Personalized and private help for keeping your weight-loss diet on track


A counter-top robot named Autom is in the works, being developed by Intuitive Automata in Boston. Autom asks you to record daily dietary and exercise data on a touch screen, and then it talks to you about your progress.

Statistics show that dieters who consulted daily with a diet coach stuck to their regime nearly twice as long as those who used hand-written logs or computer logs to keep tabs on their progress. Meet your new diet coach : Autom !

People who keep track of how much they are eating and exercising are more likely to lose weight and keep it off over time. But also most people who try to keep track give up within a month. It's not that they don't want to do it, it's just that it's so difficult for people to keep up this habit day after day when daily routines get in the way.

We also know that losing weight permanently is difficult. You're excited to start a new diet, but start to lose your motivation after only a few weeks. Autom™ is an in-home weight loss coach that can help you stick with that diet so that you lose weight and keep it off over time. She'll help you make those changes last so that you're not regaining those pounds a few months later.

Autom is even equipped with motors and cameras in its big brown eyes so that the robot appears to be listening to you as you confess the cheesecake you indulged in at lunch.

But a robot with big brown eyes is still a robot. And anyone who's seen the movies "2001: A Space Odyssey" or "I, Robot" may balk at the idea of keeping an unblinking android in their home. When a soothing voice says something like, "Good evening, Fred or Wilma. What did you eat today?", one might be tempted to tell Autom to mind its own business.

But we're beyond 2001 and the future is here. You can talk to Autom for just a few minutes a day to help you keep track of how you're progressing towards your goals. No two conversations with her are alike and she's always ready to give you encouragement and advice to keep you going. You tell her what you have eaten and how much you have exercised and she remembers it all. Whenever you want to see your progress, just ask her and it is there for you.

In a recent randomized controlled study, comparing people using Autom to people using a computer-based system or a paper-based system for keeping track of how much they were eating and exercising each day, it was found is that Autom helps people to stick with their diet for nearly twice as long as with other methods. Autom could mean the difference between another yo-yo diet and a lasting change.


( Autom™ is not available for purchase yet, but you can get more info and sign up for progress updates at http://intuitiveautomata.com )

Update : 01/22/09

The Discovery Channel aired the video interview below with Dr. Cory Kidd and Autom for it's Daily Planet show in Canada. The show also aired in the U.S. in late Fall and may appear again in the future.

This was the first footage of Autom™ shot in Hong Kong since relocating there from Boston. You can see the Mongkok neighborhood in the background, where Intuitive Automata's temporary office was located before moving into Science Park. These may be the last images using the old Autom prototype from studies while in Boston.