Quantified Self - Toolmaker Talks show

Quantified Self - Toolmaker Talks

Summary: Have you ever wondereed who is behind the devices, tools, and services you use for self-tracking? Here's your chance to get to know the developers, founders, and toolmakers who are building the things we use to understand ourselves.

Podcasts:

 Toolmaker Talk: Sampo Karjalainen (Moves) | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 22:12

Today we are happy to bring you another interview in our Toolmaker Talk series. We had the great pleasure of speaking with Sampo Karjalainen, the designer and founder of Moves. Over fifty percent of U.S. adults have a smartphone. That's a lot of people walking around with a multi-sensored computer in their pockets. Moves is another example of how developers and designers are focusing on the smartphone as a Quantified Self tracking and experience tool. This is an exciting space, and one we intend to keep a close eyes on moving forward. Watch our conversation or listen to the audio (iTunes podcast link coming soon!) then read below to learn more about Sampo and the Moves app. How do you describe Moves? What is it? Moves is an effortless activity tracker. It's a bit like Fitbit or Jawbone UP, but in your smartphone. There’s no need to buy, charge and carry one more device. In addition to steps and active minutes, the app also automatically recognizes activity type: walking, running, cycling or driving. It also shows routes and places and builds 'a storyline' of your day. It helps you remember your days and see which parts of your day contribute to your physical activity. It's a simple, beautiful app that hasn't existed before. What’s the backstory? What led to it? We started Moves to motivate us to move more. Aapo Kyrola was doing his Ph.D at Carnegie Mellon University, working hard, gaining weight and lacking the motivation to exercise. We began discussing how to motivate people like Aapo to move more. The first prototype used game motivations: we had badges, leaderboards and virtual pet to motivate people. The problem was that they still had to remember to start and stop tracking. We quickly learnt that people didn't remember to use it for everyday walks. That made us think that maybe we could make it work continuously in the background. It took plenty of R&D to find a way to minimize battery use while still collect enough data to recognize activity types and places correctly. What impact has it had? What have you heard from users? We're seeing that when you make activity visible, people start to think about it. And when they think about it, they start to do small changes in their lives. They may park their car a bit further or consider biking instead of car. They may choose to walk just to get some steps and take a break from everyday hurries. It also helps people see how long it takes to travel between places and how much they actually use time in different places. What makes it different, sets it apart? Other phone-based trackers are good for tracking one run or one biking event. Moves is made to track all-day activity. Compared to activity gadgets, Moves recognizes activities by type, recognizes places and shows routes. It's collecting a new type of a dataset that hasn't been available before. And best of all, we now have a public API, so you can use your data as you like! What are you doing next? How do you see Moves evolving? Currently we're busy with the Android version of Moves and adding some features to the iPhone version. Over time we see that Moves will become a tool to understand not only your physical activity, but also your use of time, travels – your life in general. Anything else you’d like to say? Moves is collecting your location in time and space. It's a great 'backbone' for connecting all kinds of other data. We're excited to see what type of visualizations and mashups people create! Product: Moves Website: moves-app.com Price: Free This is the 20th post in the “Toolmaker Talks” series. The QS blog features intrepid self-quantifiers and their stories: what did they do? how did they do it? and what have they learned?  In Toolmaker Talks we hear from QS enablers, those observing this QS activity and developing self-quantifying tools: what needs have they observed? what tools have they developed in response? and what have they learned from users’ experiences?

 Toolmaker Talk: Charles Wang (LUMOback) | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 22:12

Stand up. Sit down. Walk. Run. Sleep. We engage in these activities everyday (well, maybe not running), but how much do we know about ourselves and our bodies while we're in the midst of them? Are you standing up straight? Are you slouching at your desk while you read this sentence? In this Toolmaker Talk we're going to hear from Charles Wang, one of the founders of LUMOback - a posture sensor and mobile application designed to support back health and improve body awareness. Watch (or listen to) our conversation with Charles below then make sure to read our short interview to learn more about the story behind LUMOback. Q: How do you describe Lumoback? What is it? LUMOback is a posture and movement sensor that you wear around your waist.  It gives you real time feedback in the form of a vibration when you are slouching, both when you are standing and sitting.  It also connects wirelessly to a mobile application, where it tracks whether you have been straight or slouching, in addition to sitting, standing, walking, running, and sleep positions. One key feature of our mobile application is LUMO, the real time avatar.  LUMO mimics what you are doing in real time, and gives you real time visual feedback so that you can understand and be aware of what position your body is in. Q: What's the backstory? What led to it? Andrew Chang, Monisha Perkash, and myself were funded by Eric Schmidt’s Innovation Endeavors to find a big problem to solve, and build a growth business around it.  We didn’t have to look very far to find the right opportunity. Andrew, one of the cofounders, has had chronic lower back pain for the past 11 years, and nothing really seemed to help him.  He went to physicians, physical therapists, chiropractors, and tried acupuncture and other minor procedures.  It wasn’t until he learned about postural correction by taking a set of posture classes where he started to understand how critical posture was in alleviating his back pain.  In fact, once he began paying attention to his posture, his back pain significantly improved. We as humans were designed through evolution to move, but now we spend most of our time sitting, and in most cases, sitting poorly.  This means that improving posture and encouraging more activity can have significant impact on people’s health and wellbeing.  Studies show that back health and posture are correlated, as is posture and confidence / attractiveness.  It’s no wonder that physical therapists, chiropractors, and spine physicians stress the importance of posture. The challenge of improving posture is twofold:  1) Most people have very little body awareness, let alone understanding their sitting and standing postures, and 2) Most people don’t have the resources or the time to take posture classes.  This is where we realized that we could use technology to solve this problem, so we started prototyping and iterating, and this is what led us to create LUMOback. Q: What impact has it had? What have you heard from users? Users tell us that LUMOback has changed their lives, and either that their back pain has gone away through using the product or has significantly been reduced.  People also frequently tell us that they are now very aware of their slouchy posture, which leads to posture correction, and again, awareness is the key element involved in making postural changes. Q: What makes it different, sets it apart? In addition to telling people whether their posture is straight or slouched, we can tell them whether they are sitting, standing, walking, running, and their sleep positions.  The ability to differentiate between sitting and other activities is a clear differentiator for what we do. Q: What are you doing next? How do you see Lumoback evolving? We are constantly making improvements to LUMOback, from the application experience to the accuracy of our ability to detect different biomechanical states.

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