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AI and Immersive Technologies for Sustainable Eating - a new approach to healthier, eco-friendly dietary choices through cutting-edge technology.
Part of the HPI-MIT Designing for Sustainability Program, this project uses VR and AI to create immersive experiences with future selves, promoting healthier, sustainable dietary choices. It supports SDGs 3, 12, and 13, aiming to reduce obesity and carbon footprints.
Jan Enkmann & Vincent Beermann
September 2024 (1-year, with potential for extension)
Dietary choices significantly impact obesity and carbon emissions. Sustainable, future-oriented decisions require delaying immediate gratification, and prior studies show that episodic future thinking (EFT) interventions, which involve considering future self-related events, can enhance long-term decision-making. We propose an innovative EFT intervention using virtual reality and generative AI to foster healthy, sustainable dietary choices by allowing users to interact with AI-generated future selves. This multi-modal intervention will enable individuals to see, talk to, and feel these future versions. We will test its effectiveness in changing dietary decisions through lab tasks like delay discounting paradigms, and examine psychological and neurophysiological mechanisms (e.g., attentional processes via eye tracking). This highly immersive EFT approach aims to promote future-oriented dietary choices aligned with health and environmental goals, contributing to SDGs 3, 12, and 13.
