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Security Solutions for Application Equipment in Bodybuilding Management Mihai DOINEA Department of Economic Informatics Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania
[email protected]
Abstract: This paper presents the bodybuilding management and equipments for assessing the efficiency. There is described a distributed application for bodybuilding management and is created a security schema for this application. Keywords: security, solutions, bodybuilding, application.
1. Bodybuilding Management Bodybuilding management represents the activity through which all possible resources are used to achieve a predefined objective in the bodybuilding area, whatever it might be. Some examples of objectives that can be aimed by a bodybuilder are: • increasing the muscular mass [1]; • losing weight; • maintaining a daily régime; • following a certain calorie program. The management process can be achieved by several ways, from which we unfold some in the following list: • using IT resources; • consulting a bodybuilding instructor; • consulting a nutritionist physician. In the Internet era, almost all users have access to a private or public network. Especially users who are preoccupied about the latest aspect in a particular domain, who are visiting websites for searching information to stay updated. In this sense, IT resources offers lots of applications which can help users satisfy and achieve bodybuilding objectives. To benefit from the Internet’s possibilities, web applications can be used to easily help bodybuilders to create, manage and guide for a bodybuilder profile. A three tier web based distributed application, as depicted in figure 1, is a good choice when doing such interactions.
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Web Server Content Server Streaming media Server FTP & Email Server
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Fig. 1. The Three-Tier Web Based Distributed Application [2] There are two major concepts which can be used when developing this type of applications. When designing such applications, developers must take into account their target, for who application is aiming for. If we take this into account, we will realise that in this area the mass of users who actually can use such applications is very heterogeneous, which can result in difficulties in the following directions: • using the application; • the setup process. For this reason, when developing distributed application, developers must take into account the following directions: • using thin clients – the thin client concept is used when want to describe applications that are heavily rely on a other machines, named servers, for running and providing results to the end-users; • using thick clients – this concept, in opposition with the aforementioned type, represents a client in a distributed architecture which provides rich functionality independently from the servers that are part in the distributed architecture. In this particular case, the case of bodybuilding IT resources, a thin client is preferred because of the variety of users who are using the applications. It is not recommended the use for thick clients for the simple reason that additional applications which yet are providing rich and powerful experience to end users are not so easily customizable and the setup process is not something that an end user might be familiar. For the management process of bodybuilding, the SDACO application described in [1, 3] has the following options for managing the database: • inserting a new menu; • inserting a new ingredient; • visualizing the list of ingredients. In figure 2 is presented the option of inserting a new ingredient which will be available for the next operation of inserting a menu.
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Fig. 2. Insert Ingredient Administration Option For the operation of inserting a new item, all the necessary characteristics of an ingredient must be specified such as: • category in which is classified: meat, cereals, eggs, fish, drinks, cheeses, condiments, fruits, fats, milk, vegetables, sausages, wheat, seeds, sauces, sweets; • the unit of measure: millilitres (ml), grams (g) or pieces (buc); • the number of: kilocalories, proteins, lipids, fats, carbohydrates and fibers; • if the ingredient give know allergies like: seashells, peanuts, tree nuts, eggs and fish. Figure 3 is showing the full database load of ingredients depending on the ingredient type.
Fig. 3. Ingredients Table Figure 4 is presenting the options that are available for the operation of inserting a new menu. This operation will create a new menu record in the database with all information provided by the administrator to the application interface.
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Fig. 4. Insert Menu Administration Option The operation of inserting a new menu will save the image in the database as a BLOB field and the description of the menu as a text file on the server. With a proper interface, a distributed web based application could easily satisfy the needs of bodybuilders, with a proper management process. For a successful bodybuilding management using IT resources, the application objectives must be defined very well and the totally user satisfaction must be aimed.
2. Equipments for Assessing Efficiency The evaluation process of a bodybuilding program can be obtained using performance indicators which could estimate the trend of a followed diet. In figure 5 the concept of E-Scale is presented.
Fig. 5. Evaluation E-Scale [4] The E-Scale is an electronic scale which measures the body weight and sends it on the internet to a distributed web based application via a wireless connection. In figure 6 are presented the values stored by the application described in [4].
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Fig. 6. Efficiency Indicators for Bodybuilding [4] The indicators calculated by the application in figure 6 are meant to provide information about the process of loosing or gaining weight and the last period when the measurements were registered.
Fig. 7. Individual assessment chart [4] Figure 7 present an atomic version of the results showed in figure 6, by describing at individual level the measurements taken over a period of time in terms of: • the weight registered on the start period; • current stored weight; • the goal desired to be accomplished.
Fig. 8. Daily indicator overloads [4] In figure 8 are illustrated the overloads or undercharges of the expected values for the kilocalories, carbohydrates, proteins, fats and liquids. The process of assessing the efficiency is highly influenced by the manner in which the previous indicators mentioned are calculated. Another mean of assessing the efficiency of 120
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an IT resource equipment is by evaluating the algorithm that stands on the back of all the estimation process. The logical schema of the presented algorithm is depicted in the following figure 9: START A.
B. C.
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Fig. 9. Algorithm Logical Schema For the SDACO applications, the algorithm for creating the menus to meet the daily calorie level has the following steps: A. calculating the daily calorie intake based on the effort intensity level; B. creating the vector off allergies to meet the individual requirements; C. choosing the menus from the database according with the allergy vector for each one of the menu types: Breakfast, Lunch First Meal, Lunch Second Meal, Lunch Dessert, Dinner Meal, Dinner Dessert by creating different arrays, ; D. from X only the solutions that are allowable are chosen for each day of the interval; an allowable solution is part of the set defined as and n – total number of days of the evaluation period; TDIi – total daily intake (kcal); E. final menus are assembled and presented to users. The total Cartesian product of all the menus available in the application for every possible bodybuilder can be diminished by applying filters at the menu level for different types of allergies. The algorithm doesn’t repeat the menus that were found at a previous step, but looks for other possible combination from the set of menus that remained after estimating a day.
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3. Distributed Applications for Bodybuilding Management The distributed application used for managing the bodybuilding activity provides users several options based on a standard set of input data such as: the sex of individual, the age, the weight and height, all expressed in standard metric. Every measure is registered in the database and a history page of all measurements can be viewed by each user. After the calculation of the basic indicators such as Body Mass Index, Basal Metabolic Rate and Lean Body Mass, the application is requesting a time interval for which menus would be generated based on the level of effort intensity specified prior by the user, as seen in figure 10.
Fig. 10. Primary processed information The time interval must be smaller than 7 days, but the final length of the interval must be set it after a prior examination of the time needed for the body to adjust and change its characteristics after following the regime proposed by the application. Other validation are applied for the time interval and as well for the inputed data which must match a specific format. In figure 11 is presented the second set of input values which must be provided by the user, consisting in: • the allergies to which a user is sensitive; • the effort intensity level for a particular day; • the printing option of a specific menu calculated in the process.
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Fig. 11. Secondary processed information After the menus were built and printed, the daily calorie intake is charted to show how the bodybuilder was actually evolving with his daily calorie consumption, as presented in figure 12.
Fig. 12. Calorie Fluctuation Chart The SDACO application is providing users a reach set of ingredients and menus to help them understand the importance of a healthy diet which allows them to easily maintain their current level of weight or a preferred one prior defined in the application.
4. Security Schema for SDACO When having at our disposal all the Information Technology resources, we could facilitate a lot, the procedures that otherwise will take us time and maybe a little of our patience. A common and easy way of doing so is by implementing a secure authentication schema, RFID based [5], for each participant in the gym class.
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The system is composed by several components which are securely interacting described below and also presented in figure 13: • the user which is the owner of a tag in device, a passive RFID tag which is activated explicitly by the user whenever he is approaching it to a RFID reader; • the RFID reader, connected to a PC or a console, is the device that activates the RFID tag and receives the information stored on it, processing them on a client-side application and transmitting them over a secure connection on the internet to an application server; • the application server is the server hosting SDACO which will make the necessary updates in the application for that specific user; • the application database server – a machine which stores all permanent information with regards to the interaction between users and the main application.
Fig. 13. RFID Secure Data Validation Schema The RFID tag is a device that can store information about the daily user activity such as: • •
the time he spent on the gym class or on to a specific exercise machine; the level of intensity effort for that user corresponding to a specific type of exercises to determine the level of calories spent in that particular exercise; • the goals aimed for calories to be burned in that day of training; • an e-purse for paying based on a predetermined tariff or based on a combination of services. The secure solution for implementing such feature to SDACO application is meant to: • minimize the interaction of the user with the application interface on the time he’s spending on the gym class but yet to provide sensitive information about his progress by a simple RFID tag reading process; • enrich with multiple features the SDACO application, by offering users new services like: the secure e-purse option; a list of types of exercises whose effects in terms of calories burned can be evaluated based on the time the user spends on it and the level of exercise intensity; suggestions about what is the recommended intensity effort which must be done in one day of exercises for reaching the desired weight in a predefined period of time, and more others. The security schema presented above is meant not only to help users to easily interact with the application interface but also to achieve better results in their bodybuilding activity process. 124
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5. Conclusions Bodybuilding is a rich and vast area of research which needs more attention especially from the Information Technology field because of its great potential which can be used to make it easy and automates some bodybuilding related activities. The fact that IT&C is used for bodybuilding purposes should motivate and push forward this field to new and diverse interactions which eventually will bring to all participants lot of good things. The implementation of a security schema for a communication RFID based is an easy and cheap choice for offering bodybuilders a high level of quality, performance and reliability.
Acknowledgements This article is a result of the project POSDRU/6/1.5/S/11 „Doctoral Program and PhD Students in the education research and innovation triangle”. This project is co funded by European Social Fund through The Sectorial Operational Programme for Human Resources Development 2007-2013, coordinated by The Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies, project no. 7832, Doctoral Program and PhD Students in the education research and innovation triangle, DOC-ECI.
References [1] M. Doinea, “Analysis upon the influences of calories intake on the human body,” Body Building Science Journal, Vol. 1, No. 2, 2009, pp. 75 – 82, ISSN 2066-8007. [2] C. Boja and M. Doinea, “Security assessment of a web distributed application,” Informatica Economica Journal, Vol. 14, No.1, 2010, pp. 152 – 162, ISSN 1453-1305. [3] M. Doinea, “Distributed application for calories optimization,” Body Building Science Journal, vol. 1, no. 1, 2009, pp. 72 – 83, ISSN 2066-8007. [4] BodyTrace, Electronic Scale, [Online], Available at: https://www.bodytrace.com [5] Wikipedia, Radio-frequency identification, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio-frequency_identification.
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[6] C. P. Lambert, L. L. Frank and W. J. Evans, “Macronutrient considerations for the sport of bodybuilding,” Sports Med., Vol. 34, No. 5, pp. 317-327, 2004. [7] America’s Authority of Fitness, (2009, Aug.), [Online], http://www.acefitness.org/FITFACTS/fitfacts_display.aspx?itemid=32
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[8] I. Ivan and C. Boja, Practica optimizării aplicaŃiilor informatice, ASE Printing House, Bucharest, 2007, ISBN 978-973-594-932-7, 483 pg. [9] Word Wide Web Consortium, W3C, HTTP State Management Mechanism – RFC 2109, Available at: http://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2109/rfc2109. 125
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[10] Word Wide Web Consortium, W3C, Hypertext Transfer Protocol – RFC 2616, Available at: http://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616.html
Author Mihai DOINEA received a PhD scholarship from the Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania in Economic Informatics at the UvA Research Center. He has a master diploma in Informatics Security (2006). He is also a lecturer assistant and he teaches data structures and advanced programming languages at the Academy of Economic Studies. He published more than 20 articles in collaboration or as single author and co-published two books in his area of interest. His research interests are given as follows: informatics security, distributed applications, optimization criteria, databases, artificial intelligence, information management, security policies, mobile devices, networking and wireless communication.
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