QS#14: There are more questions than answers

Quantifying self: there are more questions than answers

Notes from QS Show&Tell #14 held in the San Francisco Bay Area Tech Museum of San Jose on June 22nd.

Quantifying Productivity

Bill Jarrold used a simple script to record his Unix activity with timestamps on the commands he typed. By quantifying the number of operations per hour he determined that he is usually on the roll at about 3pm, but is slowing down around 10am and midnight. The talk spurred discussions about other ways to analyze productivity - number of builds per time unit? keystrokes? content analysis of the commands? There also were suggestions on using GUI-based tools. For example, CoScripter Reusable History that records everything one does on the web. Or DeliciousDiscovery that analyzes Delicious bookmarks and tags. There are even commercial software tools such as SpyAgent that capture everything a computer user does: keystrokes typed, websites visited, chat conversations, applications ran, emails sent and received, files opened, and more.

One needs not only sophisticated screening and recording of performance related measures but also more sophisticated data analysis methods. There is a good discussion on HN about More-Hours-Worked not equal to More-Work-Getting-Done (it started from this post: Something Deeply Wrong With Chemistry). Dependence of productivity on hours worked is bell shaped and very individual. Some may be most productive when working 35 hours a week, others could increase workload to 60 hours. Number of keystrokes may not necessarily correlate with meaningful output either. Remember Jack Nicholson in The Shining? Besides, sometimes we need to think before turning ideas into action. And how could we measure what is going on in the brain?

Quantifying Thoughts

Mark Carranza is probably the most notable collector of thoughts among the Bay area quantifiers. His database has more than one and a quarter of a million thoughts and keeps growing, with more entries than the diary of Samuel Pepis and the collection of Lion Kimbro, the man who wrote down every though he had.
Jim, the second presenter of QS#14 is collecting thoughts too - he has 65,000 of them connected by associations and represented by colorful visualizations. He uses spreadsheets and Personal Brain software to create and display the results. TheBrain's display is organized around a central Thought, surrounded by all its Children, Siblings and Jumps - like an ontology - helping to follow a train of hought, flowing from one to the next or just wandering around. Navigation through the data is interesting although rather chaotic. Questions from QS participants addressed the usefulness of the tool. Does it really help to to leverage the power of visual thinking and understand the context of information before taking action?

Quantifying Stress

Bharat Vasan of PulseTrace Technologies gave a great impromptu talk on how he is using his watch reading real time heart rate from his wrist. Data may be uploaded via USB or wireless connection. One good application is managing stress. Bharat wants to be a good public speaker - and he certainly is, but his pulse rate always skyrockets during a presentation. Of course, some of us don't need to have a watch like this to know if pulse rate is elevated - the tendency to blush lets everybody around to take the readings. Shortness of breath, nausea and sweating may add to the picture. As Jerry Seinfeld said about delivering the eulogy, most people would rather be in the casket than speaking in public. One the other hand, some increase in pulse when talking is rather good and he trick is to use it as energy to fuel the presentation.
Pulse rate is a good measure of stress levels. Other measures would complement it and contribute to meaningful analytics. For example, recovery heart rate, a measure of how quickly ones heart could return to resting state. Standing vs sitting - normally there is 5 to 10 beats difference. Temperature in the room. Coffee or spices in food...

I have not tried the PT100 sensor-based watch, but my complaints about similar monitoring watches include their inability to measure heart rate during running at full speed, sensitivity to humidity, rain, food vapors, limited time intervals between repeated measurements. I also question reliability of measurements in 1-5% of cases.

Quantifying Motion

Indeed, quantifiers are improving their lives not only with spreadsheets and software - gadget usage continues to rise. ("Zeo's broken" was among two-word introductions of meetup participants). There were many Fitbit fans proudly showing their devices and less proudly measurements for the day - Wow, we are becoming ashamed for not stepping enough! Popular motion gadgets do not work for everyone and are generation 1.0 or rather 0.5 - some like swimming instead of running and elliptical trainers instead of treadmills, others are surprised to find that rocking baby in their arms was counted as calorie-burning steps. BodyMedia Fit (GoWear Fit), for example, measures not only acceleration, but also skin temperature and galvanic skin response reflective of physical stress, but is not water proof and can't measure emotional stress. Fitbit is less pricey but also not quite ready to do what most people want. The next talk was devoted to fitbit's corporate competitor - DirectLife.

Alex Bangs, co-founder of Entelos now working on a spinoff - DigitalSelf, likes this little white plastic box and DirectLife program. The device has accelerometers to quantify how much you move. The program starts with a one week assessment to get a good idea of individual's current activity and create a baseline. The plan has daily activity goals that increase slowly week by week (hopefully not as in The Red Shoes by Andersen!). Alex showed how his device was flashing congratulating him with good activity levels for the day. It could be even better, he said, the little box can almost sing a tribute to you if you walked more than your goal. The device fits in the pocket, but can be forgotten at home - which makes every wearer sad as the accomplishments of the day will not be logged and recognized. We love to be tapped on the back and told well done, are not we all?

Devices To Keep you Healthy

An armband device that can be worn all day - during workouts, at the office and at home - will calculate all calories you burn. You can connect it to a computer to tabulate your calorie intake versus what you're burning off. The Exerspy interactive system will pump up your workouts, and could make you healthy - but only if you make healthy choices by yourself.
Another gadget from Philips, DirectLife, will track calories you burn and display your daily progress by green lights - each one makes you 15% closer to your daily 100% activity target. Your overall progress can be monitored on your PC, daily or hourly - after you upload data from Activity Monitor to your PC. Exercise could be fun. Ubisoft's Just Dance game for Wii teaches you dance moves, lets you to compete with up to four players and have a dance party. It monitors your arm movements increasing your heart rate. The miCoach not only measures your hou eart rate, but gives you real time audio coaching and asks to speed up when you start slacking off. Using a small foot pod you tie into your sneaker, it tracks your speed and distance too, letting to manage the numbers on the Adidas website. You could also keep track of your mileage with the a solar powered odometere, if you like. Another device - Sensewear, an arm band from Bodymedia, enables automated monitoring of calories burned, dietary intake, duration of physical activity and sleep. A USB port allows the patient to periodically upload data from the armband to a website loaded with charts, graphs, and other data that allows both patient and physician to make informed decisions. Device by Toumaz, called Sensium, provides ultra low power monitoring of ECG, temperature, blood glucose and oxygen levels. It can also interface to 3 axis accelerometers, pressure sensors and includes a temperature sensor on chip. Sensium Life Pebble streams the data using a wireless datalink over a short range ( ~5m) to a Sensium USB adapter or data logger. Mio Watch (left) measures your heart rate, while other "smart" watches such as Garmin can wirelessly communicate with your scales and body composition monitor. Withing Wifi Scale will even automatically update your weight on Twitter, sending your stats to your computer and your iPhone. A personal calorie management device called Bodybugg measures calorie expenditure. Another pocket-sized piece of technology - Fitbit (also called a pedometer on steroids) - promises to tell you the number of calories burned, steps taken, miles walked, and quality of sleep in addition to the intensity of exercise you’ve had all day.
It also records and stores detailed daily data for a week and summarized daily data for a month. Using the same 3D motion sensing technology as the Nintendo Wii, the creators of the Fitbit hope to turn everyday activities into a fitness game. The gadget uploads your activity stats, including calories burned, wirelessly to the web. You can wear it in your pocket, clipped to your pants, bra or your wrist.

Can it be any easier? Sure, it can. PhiloMetron is creating a bandage-sized smart patch that will also do the usual counting of calories. Besides, at the end of the day it could tell you what to do to make the next day even more successful. It also suggests taking a quick walk when it’s needed, to help things on their way. The patch sends all information collected during the day to your cell phone, by a Bluetooth connection.
Of course, not everyone can make the best food choices. It’d be far easier for most people if you ha d a diet itian to follow you around and tell you what to do. It's such a hassle to have to manually en ter every food... One of possibl e solution is is to use FoodScanner, a new app that scans package bar codes for quick and easy calorie logging.

Device by Toumaz, called Sensium, provides ultra low power monitoring of ECG, temperature, blood glucose and oxygen levels. It can also interface to 3 axis accelerometers, pressure sensors and includes a temperature sensor on chip. Sensium Life Pebble streams the data using a wireless datalink over a short range ( ~5m) to a Sensium USB adapter or data logger. Cardionet system monitors every heartbeat during normal daily activities, for up to 21 days, and detects, records, and transmits event data automatically to the prescribing physician via wireless phone. In a not so far away future, many other bodily functions and environmental influences will be monitored 24x7 - examples are the daily fluctuations in hormone levels and medications taken - Proteus ingestible event markers (IEMs, shown on the right) could send ultra-low-power digital signals through the body to a microelectronic receiver that may look like a small bandage style skin patch. The receiver date- and time-stamps, decodes, and records information such as the type of drug, the dose, and the place of manufacturing.

Of course, it's not just food, medications and calories. There is more to health than measurements of outcomes. Device shown on the right uses ultrasonic sensors to detect how close you are to the screen and remind you to sit up straight - by showing flashing LED lights or chime once when you’re leaning too close to your monitor. To keep it running just plug it into your USB port. You can purchase it for $21.99 from Sourcing Map. (See also PC Gadgets, USB Gadgets, iPosture, UberGizmo; USB Posture Alert Reminder).
You can wear another gudget (shown on the top left) around your neck, and when you start to slouch, it’ll correct you with an audible alarm. Designed in Japan, it sells for $8.43 by DealExtreme.

But what about viruses, bacteria, fungi infections and nasty little mosquitos? Some startups are working on that too. We will only mention the simplest device already on the market - a $5 USB Ultrasonic Mosquito Pest Repeller.
This little device could eliminate the use of pesticides and other harmful bug sprays, although it is still unclear if it actually works.
And what about accidents? What if you can't keep you hands off your cell phone while driving? Driving while distracted (DWD) due to texting would make accidents 23 times more likely, while talking on a cell phone while driving, even hands-free, makes drivers as likely to cause a crash as someone considered legally drunk. A new blocking device can help you to avoid accidents. CellControl plugs into the car computer terminals, links to cell phones via Bluetooth and a downloadable application. When the vehicle is in motion (more than 1mph), the device blocks all incoming and outgoing calls, plus texts and e-mails. You can still call emergency numbers though. Passenger cell phones are not affected.

Aurametrix is developing decision support systems and noninvasive personal monitoring devices to help you evaluate health risks, decide on preventative measures, estimate cost/benefits of performing diagnostic tests. Better tools for a healthier world.

Telemedicine, Part II

Read Part I

Telehealth Monitoring Wristwatches

The first reported person to actually wear a watch on the wrist was the French mathematician and philosopher, Blaise Pascal (1623-1662). With a piece of string, he attached his pocket watch to his wrist. In the late 1800s, the wrist watch was officially invented by the Swiss watch maker, Patek Phillippe. The first wristwatch for men was designed by Louis Cartier in the early 1900s. Ranging in price from less than $30 to $400 and more, a variety of real heart rate monitors are available in the market. Suunto, for example, can calculate metrics like oxygen consumption, respiratory rate and training effect. On the lower end, the Omron HR-100C is easy to use and doesn't have a lot of fancy functions to confuse novices, measuring heart rate with a chest strap and… transmitting data to the wrist-mounted display. If you want more features than the basics, reviewers recommend the Polar F11 heart rate monitor. The Garmin 305 (image on the right) has an integrated GPS antenna, so unlike most heart rate monitors, it can tell how far and how fast you're going.

An iPhone Blood Pressure WebApp by Bit&Becker will monitor your blood pressure over several periods of time. It will also show your Max/Min and Average Systolic, Diastolic Bloodpressure, as well as your Pulse. You can export your data in CSV (Excel) Format. Current version of Blood pressure monitoring devices has now support for extreme high and low blood pressure values. And no more google ads, to keep your blood pressure low.

Animas Corporation, which is now a Johnson & Johnson company, is no longer
longer selling the current model GlucoWatch G2 Biographer System, shown on the right. Cygnus Inc. (Redwood City, California) is already working on second and third generation products that will overcome some of limitations of this watch which include skin irritation and calibration, meaning additional finger-stick tests redone about 20% of the time.

TeleMedIS System combining the TeleMed HC Platform developed by Karolinska and Telehealth Monitoring Wristwatch (TMW) developed by Tadiran LifeCare, connected over the Wireless Network (provided by TeliaSonera Sweden), is able to measure user vital signs by using integrated biosensors. This includes 1-lead ECG, Blood oxygen saturation level (SpO2), Pulse (heart rate)

Victorian researchers have developed a wristwatch that continuously monitors the health status of people with Parkinson’s disease to help doctors manage their treatment, Victorian Minister for Innovation Gavin Jennings said in May 19th press release. The wristwatch, which is still at the prototype stage, was introduced onto the world market by Mr Jennings at BIO2009 in Atlanta, USA.

Dreamate Sleep Inducer is a non-invasive sleeping aid wristband. This watch-sized device on a strap uses acupressure techniques to “retune the biological clock and train your body to relax and sleep by massaging key acupoints on your inner wrist". The Taiwanese gadget provides a double-frequency micro-massage (via a vibration motor) to specific pulse points—termed the “Sleeping Golden Triangle” points in traditional Chinese medicine. The company says it helps in relieving stress, inducing sleep and is especially beneficial for people suffering from jet lag.

Health equipment manufacturers such as Omron Healthcare Co Ltd, Nipro Corp, and Matsushita Electric Works Ltd, all of Japan, have been announcing terminals to measure physical activity. These "life recorders" are specifically designed to make it possible to accurately measure the amount of physical activity, pulse, skin temperature and motion. They also measure external factors such as atmospheric pressure.

If you wear the GoWear fit armband during the course of your day, then log onto your personalized GoWear fit online activity manager, you’ll get information about the calories you’ve burned, plus a calorie consumption calculator and tips for how to best reach your fitness and lifestyle goals. GoWear fit also measures sleep duration and efficiency – so that you can begin to understand the influence your bedtime has on your overall health
And if you do not want the world to know what exactly you are measuring, consider design suggested by Hironao Tsuboi for an LED watch. It looks like just a metal band. Push a button, and you get the time or what you'd like to get. Don't push the button: no numbers, no curves, no pie charts. Very simple.

---

See also Devices To Keep you Healthy

Aurametrix is working on tools to help you evaluate your personal health risks and benefits and make the right choices.

Telemedicine 2.0, part 1

by Aurametrix

The term telemedicine was coined in the 1970s by Thomas Bird. The origins of this technology date back to smoke signals in ancient times. Earliest electroni devices included STARPAHC - a van staffed by two paramedics with a variety of medical instruments including electrocardiograph and x-ray. ATS-1, the first Applied Technology Satellite was in use in 1971-1975 to provide rural health care in Alaska. Minimal television system for remote diagnosis was developed in early 70s. Applications of telemedicine in early 2000s included remote consultation and diagnosis, specialty clinical care (anesthesia, dermatology, dentistry, cardiology, psychiatry, radiology, critical care, oncology, etc), patient education, home monitoring, and continuing education.
The health care cost is rising each year, it's already 16%-17% of the GDP. Wide utilization of wireless communications can reduce the health care cost by billions of dollars on an annual basis. Here are some examples of new developments.
Cisco HealthPresence combines state-of-the-art video, audio, and medical information to create an environment similar to what most people experience when they visit their doctor or health specialist. First Cisco HealthPresence booth was installed in January 2008.

Another California company, CardioNet provides the next-generation ambulatory cardiac monitoring service with beat-to-beat, real time analysis, automatic arrhythmia detection and wireless ECG transmission.

A startup in Redwood city, CA, works on
ingestible technology: microchip-enabled medications that provide patients with valuable information to customize their therapy. Proteus’s implantable ChipSkin™ technology adds tiny active electronics to devices that use electrical energy to deliver therapy inside the body. Similar technologies are being proposed (like a medication reminder watch by a UCLA student and the MedTracker device) or developed.

If you experience unpleasant gastrointestinal symptoms, such as abdominal pain, diarrhea, bleeding, anemia or GERD, you may be tested by capsule endoscopy with PillCam® family of products from Given Imaging. Vitamin-sized capsules with miniature video cameras inside will send pictures of your GI tract to a computer for your doctor to review. For GERD diagnosis, BRAVO pH monitoring system could be most useful.
Swallowable devices such Radio pill tocan monitor players temperature . Researchers are planning larger volunteer testing events this year.

This gadget is displaying your identification card, if you need it, , but is also a Bluetooth headset device and has the features of other wireless headsets. With up to 40 hours of talk time on a full charge, the Smart Badge by Iqua is easy to carry and use, is stylish and smart. Its standby time is up to 600 hours, it vibrates to alert incoming calls silently during meetings and allows 3-way conference calls.
It also has LED lights displaying Bluetooth connection, call status, and low battery indication. With supporting cell phones, this badge also allows for voice activated dialing. For full features and specification, you may find the Pdf of the product brochure here.

To be continued.

Aurametrix is working on tools to help you evaluate your personal health risks and benefits and make the right choices.