Ever suspect you do more
housework than your spouse? Or that
certain tasks at work raise your blood
pressure?
Maybe you wonder why you are sneezing
more lately, or if carbs are really what is
making you tired after lunch?
Turns out, there's an app or gadget to test
all of that. Advancements in wearable body
sensors, mobile applications and other
gadgets mean that nearly everything we do
can be captured, logged and analysed.
And everyday consumers are jumping at the
chance to conduct their own experiments -
tracking sleep, caffeine intake, kids'
studying habits, household chores, even
whether a baby is nursing more frequently
on Mom's left breast versus her right.
"I don't know if I'd use the word
'obsessed'," said Ernesto Ramirez, a self-
tracking devotee who helped to organise a
two-day conference on the subject last
week in San Francisco.
Speakers at past "Quantified Self"
conferences have included a man who
developed his own app to see if he could walk
every street in Manhattan and a dad who
used trackers on his kids to monitor chores.
"I think there's an overall trend toward
curiosity and proving knowledge of one's
self in the world," Ramirez said.
When Tim Davis of Beaver, Pennsylvania,
tipped the scales at 144kg two years ago, he
bought a Fitbit gadget to track his physical
activity and the Lose It! app on his phone to
track calories.
He bought a Wi-Fi-enabled scale that
published his daily weight on his Twitter
feed and turned to other apps to track his
pulse, blood pressure, daily moods and
medications.
At one point, Davis said he was using 15
different apps and gadgets, which he said
helped him drop 29kg by that following year.
"It's the second-by-second, minute-by-
minute changes that really did it," said
Davis, 39. "If you're the type of person who
likes gadgets and devices and to collect
metrics, you're also the kind of person who
does not like gaps in data."
A paediatrician in Kansas City, Missouri,
Natasha Bugert, said apps that track
newborn feedings and sleep patterns have
become wildly popular among her patients
and she now encourages parents to send her
the data before their appointments.
"In the first few weeks, parents are so
tired. It's really hard for them to give you
objective data," Bugert said.
Public health advocates and researchers say
tracking technology could be used to
encourage people to use less fuel, conserve
water or drive slower by giving them real-
time feedback on their daily habits. It also
could expose causes of medical conditions
that baffle doctors.
HopeLab, based in Redwood, California, is
one nonprofit looking to harness technology
to improve health. It has developed a $30
movement-tracking device for kids called a
"Zamzee", and a website that rewards
activity with online points and badges.
HopeLab has developed video games for
young cancer patients that lets them
pretend to blast cancer cells. Researchers
there say their studies have shown that the
game improved patients' moods and
encouraged them to stick with treatment.
"When you give people a sense of autonomy,
a sense of agency, that can actually be very
transformative to their health," said
HopeLab spokesperson Richard Tate.
Ramirez said he thinks the next step will be
embedding sensors in nearly everything a
person encounters throughout the day and
linking that information together. Think of a
car that won't start if you've consumed too
much alcohol or a light bulb that changes
colours when it's time to go to bed.
Industry watchers say these kinds of data-
driven apps are finding their place in a
market that has struggled to profit from
advertising.
Raj Aggarwal, chief executive of Localytics,
a Boston-based analytics firm, says mobile
games are still by far the most popular
among consumers, but their fan base can be
fickle. If a data-logging app is useful
enough, it can convince consumers that they
should pay for upgraded subscriptions or
premium services that earn the developers
money.
One mobile app called "GymPact" has found
a novel way of making money off its
consumers' data.
The app lets people bet against one another
as to whether they will go to the gym. The
non-exercisers have to pay the exercisers,
with GymPact taking a cut.
Sent from my BlackBerry wireless device from MTN