Quantified Self Tools
Amiigo Fitness Bracelet
A new fitness tracking device on the crowd funding site Indiegogo that goes beyond just tracking walking and running. “What makes Amiigo different is an almost unbelievable amount of accuracy. The company claims that Amiigo won’t only distinguish walking, running, biking, or an elliptical; it can discern five different methods of bicep curls.”
Read more: Kickstarting: A Fuelband That Could Name Your Exercises
MilestonePod
Not sure when you should replace your running shoes? Now there’s a tracking device that will tell when to do it. Currently on Indiegogo as well, the MilestonePod attaches to your laces and it counts the miles your shoes have traveled for you. “No more cumbersome training logs, no more guessing and no more math. Simple, easy to read digital display shows how many miles your shoes have gone.”
Find out more on MilestondPod’s Indiegogo page
More Quantified Self News
Interview on NPR
Holly Finn, a columnist for the Wall Street Journal, discusses her experience with self-tracking. “And as we’ve all learned, in the last few years, we need to be slightly more careful than perhaps we have been. We get so excited about all – the potential of stuff like this that we need to understand – for instance, insurance companies. I’m sure they’d be particularly interested in how many steps we take, the asthma…or, you know heart rate information, blood glucose levels.” What are your thoughts on QS and the data it creates? Exciting or scary?
Listen here: Self-Tracking: Becoming Your Own Big Brother & Read more: Know Thyself—Via Gadgets and Apps
Big Data and Your Privacy
What is Big Data?
Rick Smolan, the author of “The Human Face of Big Data” talks with Brian Sirgutz of the Huffington Post about Big Data. “When we began this project, I was skeptical of the many claims I heard — like the idea that big data might one day turn out to be more transformative than the Internet.”
Read more: Rick Smolan Of ‘The Human Face Of Big Data’ Talks About Transformative Tech
Obscurity vs Privacy in the Big Data Debate
(tajai/Flickr)
Should we be thinking about our personal data floating around out there in a different way? It’s there, sometimes even when we don’t know about it or want it to be, so how can we mitigate the risks? “While many debates over technology and privacy concern obscurity, the term rarely gets used. This is unfortunate, as “privacy” is an over-extended concept. It grabs our attention easily, but is hard to pin down.”
Read more: Obscurity: A Better Way to Think About Your Data Than ‘Privacy’ & The Dark Side of Today’s ‘Big Data’ Revolution & Invasion of the Data Snatchers
Check out some of our previous posts on privacy here: Privacy and the City & Recording your life and Privacy
Big Data Broken Down
Have a great weekend!