Wednesday, September 21, 2011

I'm diving into the world of Quantified Self (QS) monitoring with my smartphone

Are you familiar with the Quantified Self (QS) movement?

After attending the Medicine 2.0 conference where I learned more about the Quantified Self (QS) community, I've decided that I want to get a QS device and I want to start tracking some of my own biometrics so that I can share that information with the QS community. When I exercise at the gym, I usually wear a Polar heart rate monitor, but that's about the extent of collecting quantifiable biometric data on myself.

There are a number of QS devices out there ranging from clips, arm bands, keychains, and watches. Which one should I get? Should I wait for some of these newer devices to get released? Or, maybe I'll end up using 2-3 of them simultaneously. That's my style of testing devices. That wouldn't be a true comparative study, but it would give me some qualitative data on these different digital tools.

Stay tuned. I'll share more information as I research QS devices and pick one (or two) out. Several of these QS devices communicate via Bluetooth with your smartphone. There are a variety of apps available on the iPhone and Android for some of the major QS devices. I plan to test some of these over the coming weeks, so stay tuned. One of the first devices I plan to test is the BodyMedia FIT armband that has Bluetooth so that I can use my smartphone to track my biometrics. The BodyMedia FIT will help you track:

  • Total Calories Burned
  • Total Steps Taken
  • Total Time Spent In Physical Activity
  • Sleep Duration and Efficiency
You can learn more about the BodyMedia FIT armband here.

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