Wearable Smart Garments Driving The Quantified Self
Wearable Technology is great and with so many new wearable gadgets out there, the possibilities and benefits that wearable technology can bring are endless. However, while effective, it can also look and feel awkward to wear. (Can you think of any wearable gadgets out there you would absolutely not wear? ) As such, there is a need for companies to integrate the importance of looks into functionality, to increase the level of acceptance for consumers. Which is why we think that technology-infused garments are brilliant. Imagine being able to track your vital signs wirelessly and consequently improving your health, while keeping the tracking device completely hidden. However, this being said, there are still a lot of issues that have to be resolved before wearable smart garments can be accepted in the mass market. For e.g. producing and selling it cheap enough to succeed with the ordinary customers and optimizing energy / power consumption. Here are some of the textile sensors out in the market. What do you think of kit? Would you wear one?
Read more: Textile Sensors: Wearable Smart Garments Are Driving The Quantified Self
Garmin Forerunner Watches Bring Predictive Capability to Wearable Tech
On the same note, when it comes to wearable technology in the athletic market, there are plenty of devices that have demonstrated time and again the sheer versatility and range of functions that can be brought to play. However, amongst the many devices available, few have shown the ability to help the wearer make sense of all the data, much less predict the future. Which is why we were really excited when we heard about the new Garmin Forerunner series. Dubbed the next best thing to a personal running coach, with advanced features like recovery advisor and race predictor, this series of watches aims to help serious runners train smarter, achieve new race goals and become a better overall runner. The combined system of the Forerunner 620 and the HRM-Run can even go so far as to track heart rate history and suggest days off to match. We think this might be the future of wearable technology where information gathering and prediction making integrate. This series of watches will likely prove to be a combination that’s tough to resist for serious runners, especially those who want to track progress in most every detail. What do you think? Will you be willing to pay for this watch?
Read more: There’s a coach in every watch, Garmin Forerunner Watches Bring Predictive Capability to Wearable Tech
Dream Capture
How many of you have ever woken up from a dream with the intense urge to record down every single detail? Yet, how many of you can actually remember exactly what you dream about? Probably little. Research have found out that 95% of dreams are completely forgotten if not recorded within five minutes of waking up. And, chances are that the dreams that filled your mind for the past few hours have slipped completely away from memory. Finding that there were no apps dedicated to dream recording, Soik and co-founder Jason Carvalho began building SHADOW this year. Shadow is an app that makes recording and remembering your dreams extremely simple. Positioned as an alarm clock, SHADOW helps you record and remember your dreams. Basically, SHADOW uses an escalated alarm clock to gradually wake the user up, to prevent the user from being torn apart from his dream. Once the alarm is deactivated, users are then prompted to record their dreams either via voice or typing text. The app then transcribes your dreams and stores them in an ever-growing digital dream journal that keeps track of your long-term dream and sleep patterns. The more you use the app, the better it gets at visualizing patterns and making connections between your sleep patterns, daily life, and what you dream about. This information then presents a bigger picture of yourself and help you to understand yourself better. So what do you think? Will you be recording that weird dream of yours? Check the video out and let us know what you think!
Read more: Shadow: A Beautiful App That Tracks Your Dreams
7 Tricks To Improve Your Memory
How many of you have wished for a better memory, in order to remember things better? Be it names, birthdays, past events or simply to work better or study better? We all do. Fortunately, there are many research out there done to help us in this area. Even better, it does not require us to undergo any brain surgery. Rather, it is just about making slight changes to our lifestyle. While there are no way around the fact that memory erodes as we get older, this research have shown that with a little effort, anyone can boost their power of recollection. So what are some of the simplest ways to improve our memory? Firstly, it involves us making slight changes to our lifestyle habits – which is eating well, sleeping well and exercising. If we do not eat properly, rest enough or lead an active lifestyle, there is no way that our brain will be in tip-top condition to perform. Our brains will not be able to regenerate and get enough nutrients. Secondly, playing mind games and quitting multi-tasking will also help us to stimulate our brains and help us to focus. Studies have shown that it takes eight seconds to fully commit a piece of information to memory, so concentrating on the task at hand is crucial. Do you have other ideas on how to increase your memory? Check the full list out here!
Read more: 7 Tricks To Improve Your Memory
Auxiliary Memory | Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman
Lastly, to round this week of lifelogging off, check out this great video on auxiliary memory! This short video basically discuss about how memory defines us and how we can utilize information to recreate that person’s personality in the digital memory.
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