Examples of how to get false steps

Why it’s so easy to trick fitness trackers  

Most popular activity trackers and smart watches (such as products from Apple, Amazfit, Coros, Fitbit, Garmin, Honor, Huawei, Polar, Samsung, Suunto, Withings, and Xiaomi) use an accelerometer to sense movement. This detects acceleration, which is your change in speed relative to time. Devices typically measure acceleration in 3 planes, hence they are known as triaxial or 3D. The planes are X, Y, and Z, which are your accelerations from front to back, side to side, and up and down. (To view great examples of raw accelerometer data for several activities, visit Unfit Bits: Research.) If you wear a fitness tracker on your wrist and you move your arms around (even if you aren’t taking any steps) the sensor detects accelerations, which may be counted as steps. Hence steps for napkin folding (confessed by a waitress), drum playing, and more. Conversely, if the sensor can’t detect your changes in speed, it may not count steps. Thus a wrist-based tracker may not measure activity done while your arms are motionless (cycling, carrying groceries, or pushing a stroller or lawnmower). However, if you’re moving over an uneven surface, the sensor may pick up wrist vibrations, giving you step counts that may or may not correspond with your actual steps. This is a key reason that a tracker’s location on your body is very important.

How trackers count steps and why they vary

Trackers use algorithms to analyze the raw data from the accelerometer to determine what gets counted as a step. Many data characteristics may be considered, including the amplitude and frequency of the 3D accelerations and the patterns of stepping bouts and pauses. Each company has different algorithms (typically proprietary) with different thresholds for what ultimately gets counted as steps. Hence different trackers can give a range numbers for the same activity. Lots of research studies have analyzed tracker accuracy. The studies typically compare a variety of consumer trackers to some sort of gold standard.

Research studies on activity tracker step accuracy have generally found:

• Trackers are less accurate at slow walking speeds (<2 mph)
• Trackers worn on the wrist may not detect steps if the arms are stationary while walking
• Trackers may greatly underestimate steps taken during household chores (such as vacuuming and making a bed)
• Trackers may not accurately count steps done during sports agility tasks (such as shooting free throws and ladder drills)
• Trackers may detect continuous large arm movements (such as folding laundry) as steps, resulting in huge over-estimations
• Trackers can be less accurate in people with gait issues (such as people who use a lower-limb prosthesis or have had a stroke)
• Trackers do a poor job of estimating energy expenditure (the number of calories you burn)
• The over-and under-estimations can add up significantly over days and weeks. This can throw off estimates of distances covered, calories burned, and other metrics

Why you shouldn’t be able to fool trackers

Tracker accuracy relies on pattern recognition. In a clever study, researchers gave participants smartphone-based activity trackers that used an accelerometer and a gyroscope (for rotational velocity around each axis). Participants were instructed to find ways to intentionally “cheat” the trackers (for example, by shaking a phone while seated to get the tracker to detect walking). The researchers were able to take the patterns of deceptive behaviors from all the participants and use them to “train” the tracker to recognize them as false, thus greatly improving activity recognition. With improvements in algorithms and machine learning, trackers will become much better at pattern recognition and thus become much more accurate. And as more sensors are added (gyroscope, magnetometer, altimeter, GPS; plus measures for posture, heart rate, heat flux, galvanic skin response, etc.) more contextual information will be built into the algorithms to distinguish factors such as movement intensity (light, medium, high) and body position (lying, sitting, standing). In the future you may be able to adjust your own tracker to tailor analysis of your movement patterns with just a few pushes of a button.

Steps you can take to improve your tracker’s accuracy

Although you currently can’t change the sensors and algorithms in your tracker, you don’t have to take the inaccuracy issues lying down. Here’s what you can do to improve your tracker’s accuracy:

• Do any calibration steps that are specified.
• Provide accurate personal data (such as height, weight, gender, and stride length). If one of these changes a lot (such as weight) update your information. These data are used in calculations to estimate parameters such as calories burned and distance walked.
• If you have an option of attaching your tracker near your hip, rather than on your wrist, do it. The closer it is to your center of mass, the more accurate it will be (especially for estimating calories burned).
• Think through your daily activities. If you wear a wrist-based tracker and regularly knead bread, shake cocktails, or direct an orchestra, consider removing your tracker while doing those activities. Alternatively, make a note of the bonus steps you’re getting during the activity.
• Securely fasten your tracker so it doesn’t bounce around.
• Pay attention to the updates, as they may improve the algorithms.
• Wear your tracker on your non-dominant wrist to reduce potential extra step counts from arm movements. (Some trackers may ask you to input whether you wear it on your dominant or non-dominant wrist as the algorithm factors in this variable.)

Overall, the ability of trackers to accurately count steps depends on the type of movements you make throughout your day. The most important movements you make, however, may be just to stand up and start walking. What crazy activities have you done that your tracker falsely counted as steps?

Related popular posts

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Self-tracking meets ready-to-wear
Key Questions to Ask Before You Have Bodily Fluids Tested for Athletic and Health “Insights”

Wearable Tech Pinterest Board (Extensive listing of tracking gadgets, gizmos and garments)

References

• Boudreaux BD, Hebert EP, Hollander DB, Williams BM, Cormier CL, Naquin MR, Gillan WW, Gusew EE, Kraemer RR. Validity of Wearable Activity Monitors during Cycling and Resistance Exercise. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2018 Mar;50(3):624-633.
• Chen MD, Kuo CC, Pellegrini CA, Hsu MJ. Accuracy of wristband activity monitors during ambulation and activities. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2016 Oct;48(10):1942-9.
• Clay L, Webb M, Hargest C, Adhia DB. Gait quality and velocity influences activity tracker accuracy in individuals post-stroke. Top Stroke Rehabil. 2019 Sep;26(6):412-417. Epub 2019 May 29.
• Evenson KR, Goto MM, Furberg RD. Systematic review of the validity and reliability of consumer-wearable activity trackers. Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act. 2015 Dec 18;12:159.
• Freedson, P. Editorial: validation of a popular consumer activity tracker. J. Measurement of Physical Behaviour, 1(3), Sept, 2018.
• Fuller D, Colwell E, Low J, Orychock K, Tobin MA, Simango B, Buote R, Van Heerden D, Luan H, Cullen K, Slade L, Taylor NGA. Reliability and validity of commercially available wearable devices for measuring steps, energy expenditure, and heart rate: Systematic review. JMIR Mhealth Uhealth. 2020 Sep 8;8(9):e18694.
• Lynn R, Pfitzer R, Rogers RR, Ballmann CG, Williams TD, Marshall MR. Step-Counting Validity of Wrist-Worn Activity Monitors During Activities With Fixed Upper Extremities. J Measurement of Physical Behaviour. 2020 3(3) 197–203.
• Nelson MB, Kaminsky LA, Dickin DC, Montoye AH. Validity of consumer-based physical activity monitors for specific activity types. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2016 Aug;48(8):1619-28.
• O’Driscoll R, Turicchi J, Beaulieu K, et al. How well do activity monitors estimate energy expenditure? A systematic review and meta-analysis of the validity of current technologies. Br J Sports Med. Published Online First: 07 September 2018.
• Rosenberger ME, Buman MP, Haskell WL, McConnell MV, Carstensen LL. Twenty-four hours of sleep, sedentary behavior, and physical activity with nine wearable devices. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2016 Mar;48(3):457-65. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26484953
• Saeb S, Körding K, Mohr DC. Making activity recognition robust against deceptive behavior. PLoS One. 2015 Dec 11;10(12):e0144795.
• Smith JD, Guerra G, Burkholder BG. The validity and accuracy of wrist-worn activity monitors in lower-limb prosthesis users. Disabil Rehabil. 2020 Nov;42(22):3182-3188.
• Storm FA, Heller BW, Mazzà C (2015) Step detection and activity recognition accuracy of seven physical activity monitors. PLoS ONE 10(3): e0118723.
• Stackpool CM, Porcari JP, Mikat RP, Gillette C, Foster C. (2014) The accuracy of various activity trackers in estimating steps taken and energy expenditure. Journal of Fitness Research 3(3), December 2014.
• Svarre FR, Jensen MM, Nielsen J, Villumsen M. The validity of activity trackers is affected by walking speed: the criterion validity of Garmin Vivosmart® HR and StepWatch 3 for measuring steps at various walking speeds under controlled conditions. PeerJ. 2020 Jul 14;8:e9381.

 Note;  This is a updated, revised version of a post that was originally published October 16, 2016. For those especially interested in this field, take a look at the Journal for the Measurement of Physical Behaviour launched in 2018. It publishes “high quality research on fundamental measurement problems, and use and application of wearable technology to assess physical activity, sedentary behavior, movement disorders, and sleep.” Image:  Walkers – courtesy of  Elliot Margolies via Flickr Creative Commons (image has been slightly cropped)

The post Why it’s Easy to Fool Your Activity Tracker and What You Can Do About It appeared first on Kinetics.

[Resources updated September, 2020]

How many times have you attended a conference and noticed that the panels and keynote speakers were a fairly homogeneous crew that didn’t represent the diversity of the audience?

This happens much more frequently than it should these days. One of the most noted imbalances is when meetings feature only men behind the microphones. This has led to the creation of terms such as “manels” (all male panels); Female Conference Speaker Bingo (“a bingo card full of excuses for not having more female speakers at STEM conferences”), and the “Congrats, you have an all male panel!” Tumblr page.

Scientific articles have quantified speaker imbalances across STEMM (science, technology, engineering, math, and medicine) disciplines with tables and bar charts and scatter plots. While the numbers show that progress is being made, they also show there’s still a long way to go.

Imbalances in speaker diversity in STEMM stifle advancement in our fields. Limited representation results in limited viewpoints and perspectives. It mutes creativity, innovation and growth.

Promoting a broad range of voices that are diverse in gender, ethnicity, experiences, expertise, and approaches strengthens our future. Diverse voices at lecterns provide diverse role models for the next generation of scientists. Diversity provides richer networking and collaborations, advancing everyone’s careers fairly, along with advancing our fields.

This list of resources features a wide range of experts in STEM fields. It is designed to assist conference organizers in promoting more diversity across panels, keynote speakers, boards, committees and collaborators, and to help journalists identify new subject matter experts. Some of the databases have extensive vetting criteria and include Nobel Laureates. Some lists include self-nominated experts.

Feel free to copy, share, and spread these lists far and wide. Please share resources that have been overlooked. Let’s hope this list – and these issues – seem quaint and out-of-date in the near future.

Speaker Resources (Listed alphabetically)

• AcademiaNet (Established by The Robert Bosch Stiftung and Spektrum der Wissenschaft, the Swiss National Science Foundation SNSF took over management in 2020)
  “A database of profiles of more than 2,800 female researchers from all parts of Europe, and beyond. Rigorous selection criteria include outstanding scientific qualifications, academic credentials and independent leadership activities.”
• All Raise Visionary Voices Speakers Bureau
  “Features nearly 1,000 extraordinary female or non-binary founders, investors, and operators from across the venture-backed tech ecosystem who are visionary leaders and domain experts.”
• Databases of Databases of Diverse Speakers in STEM  (2018 Georgia Tech Diversity & Inclusion Fellow project)
  “A web resource where conference, workshop, and panel organizers can locate diverse STEM experts to speak at their event.”  Extensive Google Doc of databases and resources.
• Directory of Women in Machine Learning
  A directory to look for invited speakers, area chairs, conference committee members, etc. (self-nominated directory)
• Diversity Database – Women in Engineering Biology (Engineering Biology Research Consortium, EBRC)
  “EBRC encourages organizers of scientific meetings, scientific review panels, and university symposia/lecture series to have a balanced representation of women and men.” The site offers a range of resources that promote diversity and inclusion.
• Expert Women in Life Sciences, WILS (EMBO)
  “The database aims to help scientists, universities, research institutions, political institutions, conference organizers and journal editors to identify appropriately qualified women scientists: as candidates for professorships and other positions; to speak at conferences and in seminar programmes; to participate in advisory groups, on monitoring panels, committees and commissions; to review manuscripts, to write commissioned reviews and to serve on the editorial boards of journals.”
• Folks in GCB (Genomics, Computational biology, and Bioinformatics)
  “A self-nomination list for individuals from groups that are underrepresented in genomics, computational biology, and bioinformatics. (e.g., women, racial or ethnic minorities, members of the LGBTQ+ community, veterans, among others.”
• Request a Woman in STEMM (500 Women Scientists)
  “A resource for journalists, educators, policy makers, scientists, and anyone needing scientific expertise.” Global vetted expertise that ranges from algebra to zoology.
• Speaker Database: Women in Healthcare (Rock Health)
  “A public database of leading women speakers to help get more talented women on stage.”
• Speakers List, Diversify STEM Conferences
  “A list of prominent underrepresented minority scientists across every field of STEM.”
• Superstars of STEM (Science & Technology Australia)
  Australian women employed in a range of roles in STEM who are highly visible public role models.
• Women in Biology Speakers List (ASCB and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
  Created to give more women a voice at scientific conferences and in the media, specifically on topics related to biomedical and biological research.
• Women in BrainStim
  “The database can be used to help conference organizers, journal editors, universities and other institutions to identify appropriately qualified female scientists to speak at conferences, join editorial boards, participate in advisory groups and on committees.”
• Women in Cell Biology (WICB) Speaker Referral List (American Society for Cell Biology, ASCB)
  “An extensive list of speakers, categorized by research area, who have won major awards, given Symposium talks at ASCB meetings or who have organized Minisymposia in their respective research areas.”
• Women In Neuroscience
  “The aim of the … Repository is to help you identify and recommend female neuroscientists for conferences, symposia or collaborations.”
• Women Speakers List and Minority Speakers List, (American Physical Society, APS)
  “Names, contact information, and talk titles of physicists who are willing to give talks on a variety of subjects. ‘Minorities in physics’ refers to Hispanic American, African American, and Native American Speakers.”
• Women in Technology Speakers Bureau (Women in Technology, WIT)
  “(WIT) speakers are experts in their fields and can offer informative and timely presentations on a wide range of topics. We welcome requests for specific speakers, or we can help you identify a speaker who would be a good match for your organization.” Topics include cloud computing, cybersecurity, enterprise systems, entrepreneurship, the Internet of Things, and technology policy.

Professional Speaker Bureaus

• Female Speakers on Science (selected filters)  (Speaker’s Corner)
• Inspiring Women of Color in STEM Careers; Female Pioneers in STEM; Most Powerful LGBTQ People in Tech (All American Entertainment (AAE) Speakers)
• STEM (Great Black Speakers)
• STEM Speakers (Lavin Agency)

More Resources

• 100 inspiring Black scientists in America; 100 more inspiring Black scientists in America (Antentor O. Hinton Jr., CrossTalk Blog, Cell Press)
• 100 inspiring Hispanic/Latinx scientists in America (Christina Termini, Cell Mentor, Cell Press)
• 21 Technical Women Speakers for your Next Conference, or Manel! (Angie Chang, Girl Geek X)
• 30 Black Women Leaders in Tech #BlackHistoryMonth
• 500 Queer Scientists
  A visibility campaign for LGBTQ+ people and their allies working in STEM and STEM-supporting jobs.
• A List of Female Technology Policy Experts (Susan Hennessey, Lawfare)
  “A list of female experts to talk to when assembling panels, researching, or reporting on issues at intersections of technology, the law, privacy, civil liberties, and national security. … In order to be fully inclusive and reflective of the community, this list also includes technology policy experts who identify as genderqueer, non-binary, or otherwise.”
• Anneslist
  “Highlighting female systems neuroscientists … You can nominate yourself or a colleague.”
• Diversify Chemistry
  Directory to help identify diverse chemists for hiring, seminars, colloquia, and awards.
• Expert Women in Microbiology (Microbiome Digest – Bik’s Picks)
  “A list of hundreds of awesome women in the fields of microbial ecology, microbiome, pathogenesis, microbial genomics, bioinformatics, probiotics etc.” Google doc list
• Here are 592 women in the UK who could speak at your tech event (Charlotte Jee and Hannah Williams, Computerworld UK)
• Innovation Women
  More than 1200 female entrepreneurial, technical and professional subject matter experts.
• TED Playlist: Talks by Brilliant Women in STEM
• Think there aren’t qualified women in tech? Here are 1,000 names. No more excuses. (Melanie Ehrenkranz, Mic)
• Women in Data Science (WiDS)
  Line-up of data science experts and thought leaders at WiDS Stanford 2020
• Women Tech Speakers & Organizers (Fempire on GitHub)
  A list of women tech speakers & organizers. “Add yourself or others”

Even more resources

• Bringing STEM Guest Speakers into the Classroom (Amber Osuba, EVERFI, Inc)
• GlamSci
  “At GlamSci, we are dedicated to helping disadvantaged men and women into careers and education in STEM. GlamSci’s vision is to take STEM out of the classroom scenario, putting it back into the local community, giving people the reins to control their own educational journey by guiding them through STEM education, building trust and confidence, and get them involved in the world of endless possibilities that a career in STEM promises.”
• Million Women Mentors
  “A movement to spark the interest and confidence of girls and women to pursue and succeed in STEM careers and leadership opportunities through the power of mentoring.”
• Recognizing Women Leaders in Fire Science – Revisited (updated list, Fire 2018, 1(3), 45.)
• Skype a Scientist
  “Want to talk to a scientist? You’ve come to the right place.”
• Ten Simple Rules to Achieve Conference Speaker Gender Balance, (Martin JL (2014) PLoS Comput Biol 10(11): e1003903.)
• USA Science & Engineering Festival: Nifty Fifty Speakers
• Women in STEM: A Guide to Bridging the Gender Gap (Maryville University Blog)
• Women in STEM Resources
  A repository of peer-reviewed research and resources discussing the challenges facing white women and men and women of color in science.

Some of the many scientific journal articles on speaker diversity in STEM (most recent first)

• Suggestions for Improving Invited Speaker Diversity to Reflect Trainee Diversity. Hagan AK, Pollet RM, Libertucci J. J Microbiol Biol Educ. 2020 Apr 10;21(1):21.1.22.
• Association Between the Proportion of Women on a Conference Planning Committee and the Proportion of Women Speakers at Medical Conferences. Lithgow KC, Earp M, Bharwani A, Fletcher S, Ruzycki SM. JAMA Netw Open. 2020 Mar 2;3(3):e200677.
• Trends in the Proportion of Female Speakers at Medical Conferences in the United States and in Canada, 2007 to 2017. Ruzycki SM, Fletcher S, Earp M, Bharwani A, Lithgow KC. JAMA Netw Open. 2019 Apr 5;2(4):e192103.
• Request a woman scientist: A database for diversifying the public face of science. McCullagh EA, Nowak K, Pogoriler A, Metcalf JL, Zaringhalam M, Zelikova TJ. PLoS Biol. 2019 Apr 23;17(4):e3000212.
• How to banish manels and manferences from scientific meetings. Else, H. Nature 573, 184-186 (2019) (News feature)
• Gender disparities in colloquium speakers at top universities. Nittrouer CL, Hebl MR, Ashburn-Nardo L, Trump-Steele RCE, Lane DM, Valian V. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 115(1):104-108, 2018.
• Gender inequity in speaking opportunities at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting. Ford HL, Brick C, Blaufuss K, Dekens PS. Nat Commun. 9(1):1358, 2018.
• Gender equity at scientific events. Débarre F, Rode NO, Ugelvig LV. Evol Lett. 21;2(3):148-158, 2018.
• Progress and Prospects in Gender Visibility at SMBE Annual Meetings. Käfer J, Betancourt A, Villain AS, Fernandez M, Vignal C, Marais GAB, Tenaillon MI. Genome Biol Evol. 10(3):901-908, 2018.
• Gender parity trends for invited speakers at four prominent virology conference series. Kalejta RF, Palmenberg AC. J Virol 91:e00739-17, 2017.
• Representation of women among academic grand rounds speakers. Boiko JR, Anderson AJM, Gordon RA. JAMA Intern Med. 177(5):722-724, 2017.
• Not “Pulling up the Ladder”: Women who organize conference symposia provide greater opportunities for women to speak at conservation conferences. Sardelis S, Drew JA. PLoS One. 11(7):e0160015, 2016.
• Hot topics, urgent priorities, and ensuring success for racial/ethnic minority young investigators in academic pediatrics. Flores G, Mendoza FS, Fuentes-Afflick E, Mendoza JA, Pachter L, Espinoza J, Fernandez CR, Arnold DD, Brown NM, Gonzalez KM, Lopez C, Owen MC, Parks KM, Reynolds KL, Russell CJ. Int J Equity Health. 15(1):201, 2016.
• Countering gender bias at conferences. Arnold, C., Science, Jul. 29, 2015

Photo by Kane Reinholdtsen on Unsplash (cropped slightly)

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The post Updated for 2020: 40+ Resources to Promote Speaker Diversity in STEM Fields appeared first on Kinetics.

Get plenty of sleep, eat right, drink lots of water, don’t smoke, get fresh air, exercise. That’s advice you could hear today from your mom. And your mom might have heard it from her mom.

Those tips, and several more for good health, were published in 1908 in a textbook called Introductory Physiology and Hygiene, by H. W. Conn, Ph.D. These vintage health rules still hold more than one hundred years later.

Now we have cutting-edge health tracking apps, wearables, and devices – for both your body and your home – that are designed to help you follow these guidelines (ok, maybe not the ‘tight clothing’ rule).

What devices will future moms have to help their kids follow these everyday health rules?

This book is from my collection of vintage health, wellness, fitness, and physiology-themed textbooks. This new post marks the 110 year anniversary of this book. I previously published a post on this book’s page several years ago.

Related popular posts

• Please touch: Lessons from Leonardo da Vinci
• The Future of Activity Monitoring: Innovating Beyond Steps, Sleep, and Speed
• Self-Tracking Meets Ready-To-Wear: Make Room in Your Closet for Smart Clothes
• Capturing the Past, Present, and Future of your Health: PHRs, Trackers, and Virtual Reality
• Dress for Success: Key Features Smart Clothes Need to Succeed

Recommended collections of vintage health / medical textbooks

• Wellcome Library: Medical Collection Rare Books
• U.S. National Library of Medicine Rare Books and Journals
• Library of Congress: Physiology Books and Printed Materials

The post 12 Vintage Health Tips: What’s Old Is New appeared first on Kinetics.

The world of digital health is rapidly transforming, especially in the wearable tech and health tracking space.

Some of the biggest shifts will be in moving from the health tracking of humans to animals; tracking that goes beyond steps and blood to sweat, tears, genes, poop, pee and more; the smarter design of smart clothes; and tracking that moves beyond an individual person (or animal) at their local level to sensing the global community.

Here’s a look at where I see this aspect of digital health headed in the future:

What do you see in your crystal ball for the future of digital health?

Popular Related Posts

• Why it’s Easy to Fool Your Activity Tracker and What You Can Do About It
• Self-tracking meets ready-to-wear: Make room in your closet for smart clothes
• Capturing the Past, Present, and Future of your Health: PHRs, Trackers, and Virtual Reality
• The Future of Activity Monitoring: Innovating Beyond Steps, Sleep, and Speed
• Self-tracking: Checking under the hood

Image: Crystal ball at the window courtesy of Mo via Flickr Creative Commons

The post 18 Digital Health Predictions: Transforming Wearable Tech and Health Tracking appeared first on Kinetics.

Thanks to technology, you now have the ability to look back at the history of your health with personal health records (PHRs) and to track your health in real time with sensors. Soon you’ll be able to glimpse the future of your health with virtual reality (VR).

Looking back
PHRs let you archive your health history. You can store information on your past vaccines, doctor’s visits, lab values, and checkups. You’re encouraged to document your family health history as well: health conditions your parents had or have, what your grandparents died of. PHRs are like an old family photo album that you revisit from time to time.

Capturing your present
Wearable trackers let you capture your body in real time, in real life. Sensors capture your steps, heart rate, body weight, sleep, mood, and dozens of other parameters of your choice. You acquire snapshots – data points – of how you’re doing, where you are, who you’re with, how you’re feeling. Your data are then added to a graph, with the passage of time across the bottom x-axis. This narrative of what you’re doing today will become your past by the time the sun rises again, with the data archived in your PHR.

Looking into your future
How do you glimpse the future of your health? In some cases you may see a shadowy reflection of it hiding in your past health history, such as the pattern of a grandmother, mother, and aunt who had breast cancer.

But how do you know how your health will evolve based on your day to day decisions, if you can’t see it or comprehend it? How can you understand how your health might be altered if you decide to take – or not take – medications for high blood pressure or diabetes? If you decide to lose weight or not put on a seat belt? If you choose to stop smoking or not put on sun block?

Virtual reality (VR) has the power to serve as a portal from your present self to your future self. VR can fast forward you through time to immerse you in your future. It can simulate outcomes – good and bad – based on your actions today.

You may travel inside your blood vessels to see how your current lifestyle will gradually lead to clogged arteries and a deadly heart attack. You may experience what it’s like to live with an amputated limb as a result of daily choices that leave your diabetes uncontrolled. Or you may experience the joys of playing with your grandchildren well into old age.

VR has the power to influence your behaviors today by superimposing their consequences on to your future.

VR has been widely touted as a way to generate immersive experiences that create empathy for social causes. VR can also give you empathy for your future self.

Summary Graphic
You can capture your past health with PHRs (and electronic health records, or EHRs). This is archived information that you can reflect on. You can explore your present health with trackers and biomarkers. You collect and review the data. This phase represents a zone between what you did and what you are going to do. You can glimpse the future of your health with virtual reality. VR lets you to predict, and potentially prevent, health problems.

Popular related posts
Why it’s Easy to Fool Your Activity Tracker and What You Can Do About It
Dress for Success: Key Features Smart Clothes Need to Succeed
The Future of Activity Monitoring: Innovating Beyond Steps, Sleep, and Speed
What if Wearable Tech was like Press-on Nails?
Self-tracking meets ready-to-wear

Wearable Tech Pinterest Board (Extensive listing of tracking gadgets, gizmos and garments)

Photo credits
Laptop photo courtesy of Thomas Wong on Unsplash
Watch photo courtesy of Crew on Unsplash
VR photo courtesy of Samuel Zeller on Unsplash

The post Capturing the Past, Present, and Future of your Health: PHRs, Trackers, and Virtual Reality appeared first on Kinetics.

Smart clothes are garments that have sensors integrated into them to monitor your body. The sensors may be part of the fabric (such as conductive thread that’s woven or knitted into the material). Sensors can also be attached, or can be applied on the fabric (e.g., screen printing).

The sensors typically come in direct contact with your skin, optimizing their ability to detect your body’s signals. They can detect an amazing range of stimuli from you and your surrounding environment, including mechanical, thermal, chemical, electrical, optical, and magnetic signals.

Sensors in Smart Clothes
Sensors in smart clothes can monitor heart rate, breathing rate, temperature, movement patterns, muscle activity (EMG), brain activity (EEG), electrodermal activity (EDA), pressure, sweat composition, location, and more. They may also monitor environmental characteristics, such as temperature, humidity, altitude, pollution levels, and UV index.

The signals are detected, collected, processed, and stored. They’re transmitted back to you, often via Bluetooth, to your smartphone. Feedback can include parameters such as sleep quality, fatigue, stress, calories burned, and numerous aspects of movement (speed, cadence, joint rotation, stride length, symmetry) in real time. In essence, smart clothing offers a second skin to help you understand what goes on under your real skin.

Tech, Fashion, and Health
We’re still in the initial stages of this exciting field, which weaves together the best in technology, fashion and health, and is part of the overall trend of wearable technology/wearable computing.

Smart clothes will play increasing important roles in sports performance and injury prevention, wellness and health tracking, acute and chronic disease monitoring, and worker safety and productivity, as well as in self-expression and social engagement. As the roles expand, so will the opportunities for both use and abuse.

Key features smart garments need to succeed:

Need / Desirability

• The garment should be designed based on a need, not driven by a technology.
• The garment should improve the wearer’s quality of life, and perhaps even solve a problem.
• The garment should make the wearer feel something: strong, safe, invincible, beautiful, happy, powerful, special, confident, or even … smart!

Wearability

• The clothes should fit comfortably.
• The clothes need to move as we move; they need to bend, stretch, and compress.
• The clothes should be washable, long lasting, and light weight. (Bonus points if they also wick moisture and are breathable.)
• The clothes should be easy to put on and take off so they can be worn by people of all ages and by people with disabilities.
• The clothes should look good.

Smartness

• Sensors should be accurate, reliable, sensitive, specific, and reproducible.
• Sensors should have a high signal to noise ratio (low motion artifacts).
• Sensors should require minimal power and be easy to recharge.
• The sensor data must be secure and private.
• The sensor data should be compatible across many different platforms.

Usability

• The sensor interface should be intuitive to use and provide feedback that’s intuitive and meaningful.
• The sensors should be appropriately conspicuous or discrete.
• The garment should be affordable.

As smart clothes get smarter, our relationship with them will become even more personal. They’ll not only help us express who we are, but also help us understand who we are. They have the potential to profoundly reshape our relationship with our body and to transform our health.

In the future, smart clothes will:

• Be powered by your body.
• Not be tethered to your phone or other gadgets.
• Be customizable: imagine bespoke sensors and feedback.
• Not only sense you and your environment, but anticipate and react.
• Provide an even greater form of self-expression and group expression.
• Merge with the Internet of Things (IoT) to become the Integration of You (IoY).
• Solve problems you didn’t even know you had.
• Help you tell stories about who you are.

What characteristics do you think are key? What do you think the future will bring?

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Self-tracking meets ready-to-wear
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Wearable Tech Pinterest Board (Extensive listing of tracking gadgets, gizmos and garments)

Recommended resources on smart clothes / wearable tech / Fashion tech
Ecouterre – wearable technology
Electric Runway
Fashion Nerd
Third Wave Fashion
Wearable
The Wearable Guru
Women of Wearables
WT | Wearable Technologies
WT VOX

Image: Simplicity 8904 – c. 1970, courtesy of ionascloset via Flickr Creative Commons
Caption: “I love the girl who drew in the bouffants and fishnets.”  (Ditto!)

Top image: Stitching Machine, courtesy of Theen Moy via Flickr Creative Commons

The post Dress for Success: Key Features Smart Clothes Need to Succeed appeared first on Kinetics.

Have you been tempted to part with some of your blood, pee, poop, spit, or other bodily fluids for testing to gain insights on how you might optimize athletic performance, sexual prowess, sleep, well-being, longevity, or [fill in the blank here]?

Many companies now offer direct-to-consumer (DTC) lab testing that’s typically not part of routine medical care and doesn’t require a health care provider’s request or approval. The market is rapidly growing as companies target consumers who may seek a more direct, proactive role in their health and well-being.

Should you get a DTC test? What are the potential benefits and risks? Here are some questions to consider before you part with your tissues and money.

Testing Rationale

• What is your reason for getting a test? Do you have a health issue? Are you just curious? Is the question that you’re asking going to be answered by the data that you get?
• What do you plan to do with the information you get? Who will you share it with (no one, family, health care providers, coach, post on social media)?
• If the information warns you of an unexpected health issue, will you be prepared to handle it? Will you be willing and able to seek care?
• If the information suggests you make changes (such as altering your diet) are you willing to make the changes? Are you willing and able to discuss them with your health care provider?
• If you make changes, how will you know what the effects are? Do you have the resources — such as paying for further testing or taking the time to track other health measures — to determine whether your changes are leading to improvements (or decrements) in your health?

Quality

• Is the DTC test safe? Are there any risks in doing it?
• Is the test accurate? What’s the likelihood that you’ll get results that may not be correct?
• Is there published scientific data supporting the tests or data analyses? Are there links to scientific studies on the company’s website? Did the company conduct the work or are they linking to general information?  *** If a company only provides testimonials or personal stories, it’s a red flag.
• What promises does a company make? Are they realistic?
• Are the limitations of the testing explained?
• What instructions and guidelines are provided to prepare for testing? Are they controlling for factors that might influence how well the test works? (Examples of issues that can affect some test results include taking medications and dietary supplements, having certain medical conditions, being on a specific diet, and recently having an illness, traveling across several time zones, or completing a strenuous workout.)

Costs

• How much does the testing cost? Is any of it reimbursable?
• Can any of the tests be performed as part of your existing health care plan as a covered expense?
• Does the company recommend repeated testing? If so, how often, and what is the extra cost?
• Does the company recommend that other family members get tested?
• Does the company recommend that you subscribe to some sort of plan or pay a monthly fee for more services?
• Does the company recommend that you purchase additional products, such as supplements or meals?

Privacy, Security, and Confidentiality

• How much information is collected from you in order to “personalize” or “tailor” your results? Do they ask for information that doesn’t seem relevant?
• How secure is the personal information that you provide? What’s done with it? Is it shared with any other group?
• When you approve of the testing, what else are you giving permission for?
• How secure is your biological sample? Where does it go and what will happen to it after testing? Will it be destroyed? Can it be used for testing for other purposes, and if so, do you have the option to give permission?
• What happens with the data obtained from your biological sample? Will it be used for other purposes? If so, do you have the option to first give permission?

Results and Interpretation

• What information will you get? How will it be explained to you?
• Will you get actual data, or something in a format that’s based on a proprietary algorithm, like a “health score” or “wellness dashboard”?
• Will the information that you get be understandable, relevant and helpful?
• What resources are available to help you understand your data? Is personalized counseling available, or will you receive a general info packet?
• As more scientific evidence becomes available to better understand your data, will you be provided with updated interpretations?
• How will the new information fit into your overall health care? Can you share it with your health care providers? Can the information be integrated into your existing health records?
  Will the information you get give you insights about your health that you couldn’t get through your existing health care system?

What questions would you add? Have you had a DTC test or are you considering it?

Recommended Reading

• Buying Health Products and Services Online, OnGuardOnline.gov
• ‘Only a click away — DTC genetics for ancestry, health, love…and more: A view of the business and regulatory landscape’. Andelka M. Phillips, Applied & Translational Genomics
• Ordering Your Own Lab Tests, Aimee Swartz, Wall Street Journal
• The Hottest New Wellness Trackers You’ve Never Seen – and Never Will, Anna Medaris Miller, U.S. News & World Report
• Communicating effectively about concussion research: 6 tips for writers, Matt Shipman, Health News Review (Great insights about concussion testing that apply to DTC testing)
• Can amateur cyclists benefit from blood analysis? Cycling Weekly
• They Want Your Blood, Erin Beresini, Outside magazine
• Should You Map Your Microbiome? James Hamblin, The Atlantic

Added recommended reads:

• A ‘Shark Tank’-funded test for food sensitivity is medically dubious, experts say, Allison Bond, Stat, Jan 2018
  
• I paid $300 for DNA-based fitness advice and all I got was junk science, Angela Chen, The Verge, Nov 2017
  
• DNA tests for IQ are coming, but it might not be smart to take one, Antonio Regalado, MIT Technology Review, April 2018
• These DNA testing companies are mainly trying to sell you other stuff, Emily Mullin, MIT Technology Review, April 2018
• False-positive results released by direct-to-consumer genetic tests highlight the importance of clinical confirmation testing for appropriate patient care. Stephany Tandy-Connor, et al., Genetics in Medicine, March 2018
• The online gene test finds a dangerous mutation. It may well be wrong. Gina Kolata, New York Times, July 2018

Recommended Related Posts:
Is your activity tracking gadget accurate? Do you care?
The Future of Activity Monitoring: Innovating Beyond Steps, Sleep, and Speed
Track, Share and Compare: The Hot Trend of Self-Tracking
20 Predictions for the Future of Wearables
Why it’s Easy to Fool Your Activity Tracker and What You Can Do About It

Some currently available DTC tests (listed from A-Z)
(This list is provided for information only. Inclusion on this list doesn’t imply recommendation or endorsement.)

23andMe, Any Lab Test Now, Color Genomics, Counsyl, Dexafit, Direct Laboratory Services, DNA Testing Choice, Gene by Gene, HealthCheck USA, Helix, Home Access Health, InDurance, InsideTracker, Mapmygenome , Precision Food Works, Request A Test, Sonora Quest Laboratories, Theranos, uBiota, uBiome, Walk-In Lab, WellnessFX, Xcode Life Sciences

Comprehensive list of DNA testing companies (International Society of Genetic Genealogy Wiki)

Image: Blood Test 4 by Alden Chadwick, courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons

The post Key Questions to Ask Before You Have Bodily Fluids Tested for Athletic and Health “Insights” appeared first on Kinetics.

“Hello, ma’am. Are you interested in AI?” The weathered gentleman in the cowboy hat greeted me as I ambled by his wearable tech booth. He wasn’t referring to artificial intelligence; he was referring to artificial insemination. In cows.

The setting wasn’t a neon exhibit hall at a huge tech conference in Vegas. It was a dusty concourse at the National Western Stock Show in my hometown of Denver. Wearable tech has migrated from the tech halls to the rodeo pavilions. And it’s moved from the gyms to the grasslands.

While dog trackers that measure frolic indexes have been around for a while, they just scratch the surface of what’s going on in animal tracking. Wearable tech for animals is big business and growing by leaps and bounds. Marketing analysts point out the popularity of pet trackers and the growth of dairy and meat producing countries. Scientists are noting the importance of biologging and biotelemetry, and speak of quorum sensing and a global animal collective.

It’s been estimated that there are about 7.77 million species of animals on Earth. When the estimate was made, in 2011, about 953,500 species had been described and cataloged. So essentially we have several million species to track that have yet to even be described!

Wearable tech will be used to track animals including pets, livestock, and endangered species. The tracking of animals will be integrated with environmental tracking (weather patterns, temperature, light, chemicals and pH, depth/altitude). It will play an essential role in food supply, conservation efforts, understanding physiology (e.g. hibernation metabolism), anticipating natural disasters, and predicting disease outbreaks.

Roll over, Quantified Self. Make way for Quantified Earth!

This post and presentation provide a more in-depth and expanded version of an invited talk given at the International Conference on Ambulatory Monitoring of Physical Activity and Movement (ICAMPAM) in Limerick, Ireland.

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References, resources, and recommended reading

• The golden age of bio-logging: how animal-borne sensors are advancing the frontiers of ecology. Wilmers CC, et al., Ecology. 2015 Jul;96(7):1741-53.
• Terrestrial animal tracking as an eye on life and planet. Kays, R. et al., Science, 12 June 2015, 248 (6240).
• How many species are there on earth and in the ocean? Mora, C., et al., PLoS Biol. 9, e1001127, 2011.
• Catalogue of Life (online database of world’s known species of animals, plants, fungi and micro-organisms)
• Ecology and neurophysiology of sleep in two wild sloth species. B. Voirin, B., et al, Sleep. 2014 Apr 1; 37(4).
• Sleeping outside the box: electroencephalographic measures of sleep in sloths inhabiting a rainforest. Rattenborg, NC, et al. Biology Letters, 4(4), 2008.
• Linking animal-borne video to accelerometers reveals prey capture variability. Watanabe, YY, et al, PNAS, 110(6), 2013.
• Testing optimal foraging theory in a penguin–krill system. Watanabe, YY, et al, Proc. Royal Society B, 281(1779), 2014.
• Wearable Technology for Animals 2015-2025: Technologies, Markets, Forecasts
• Wearable-Tech Market for Pets Expected to Reach $2.6 Billion by 2025
• Veterinary Wearable Electronics Market Assessment & Forecast: 2015-2019

Trackers:
Dog trackers: Fujitsu Wandant, Fitbark, Whistle, Tractive GPS, Pettag+ PAHW, WonderWoof
Cows: SRC cow monitoring systems, Sense-T Beef and Dairy Optimisation Project, Wandering Shepherd Wireless Rumen Bolus, Estrodetect Heat Detector
Oyster: Bio-sensor
Sharks and fish: Western Australia Dept of Fisheries Shark Alert System, overview of electronic tags
Horses: Equisense, E-Trakka
Bees: swarm sensing

(Note: this is a very small sampling of the trackers and the animals that are being tracked. If it moves, it’s probably being tracked!)

Images in talk
Earth, Chris Jupin on Flickr
Cows, pascalk on Flickr
Oysters, Justin Marx on Flickr
Horse: lunzygras on Flickr
Horse jumping, Gordon Dionne on Flickr
Sloth, Thowra_uk on Flickr
Penquins, Peterkbza on Flickr
Penquin, National Institute of Polar Research

The post Wearable Tech for all Creatures Great and Small appeared first on Kinetics.