Not many of us like thinking about death — especially our own. But making plans for what happens after you’re gone is really important for the people you leave behind.

I concur with this statement that Google opens their blog post announcing a new tool they’ve developed called the Inactive Account Manager. This tool is designed to let you assign people to access your data or delete it after you die. The way it works is that you setup a timeout period for signing in to your account which if exceeded will send an email (which you compose yourself) to “trusted contacts” (up to 10). The email notifies them of your inactive status and grants them access to selected Google data if you choose. You also have the option of not assigning anyone and having Google delete your account and all of your data. The process begins based on a timeout period that you set for sign-ins (3-18 months). You will get an alert 1 month before the expiration date hits as a precaution as well.

Here’s the screen for adding a trusted contact and selecting which data they can access.

While having a tool such as this is good, every social service varies with regards to their policies and have different ways of providing access and what you can do with the data. Managing this across multiple services can be challenging. There are many stories of people that struggle gaining access to social services after a loved one passes. According to this story from last year there were only 5 states that had estate laws around digital assets last year. It’s definitely an issue with law catching up to technology and there will continue to be lots of issues and confusion until it matures. In lieu of this the government has even written a blog post encouraging people to create a social media will along with tips on how to do it.

I agree that taking control over your wishes around digital data is very important. I’d recommend creating a legal document that lists your wishes with regards to online accounts and data and assign a “digital executor” with access to all of your online accounts to execute your wishes after you die. There are some great password tools and services out there like Lastpass and 1Password you can use to provide a single protected way of storing all of your login information. By having a document with your wishes and a single entry point with all of your login data you are taking a great step at preserving your wishes for data.

You can learn more bout the importance of planning for your digital legacy at this dedicated section on the site for information on digital preservation.

The interview begins with them explaining the origin of QS which was born in 2007 with each of them coming at it with their own perspectives. Kevin has a blog called cool tools where he writes about stuff that betters your life and met a doctor that was conducting an experiment to only eat organic food for a year. He asked the doctor if there were any tools for him to test his own blood and they were lamenting the fact that there weren’t. So he came to the realization that it would be great to start something were people could share the tools they used to track their own bodies and health because there wasn’t a single repository of that information on the web. Gary’s take was to apply his past experience on how he approached writing for Wired by thinking about the culture and participation around how we used technology to determine what are the questions we should be asking about personal tracking to determine what it should it be called. He states that by naming something you need to determine why it matters. This concept was about the language of computing and the counting (quantification) but it’s also about bringing that all the way in so close that it’s almost indistinguishable from your own (self). This is how the naming of this concept came to be.

So they began by creating a blog to cover some of what they were discovering but decided they wanted to try something more personal and posted an announcement at Meetup where about 30 people came to Kevin’s house to talk about QS.  This ended up becoming the most amazing moment for Gary because he realized that it was much more interesting to see a person do a show and tell about how they were measuring themselves to gain insight from the human side of how people are using tools. They were able to catch the new emerging culture of how we were applying technology to ourselves in the wild by having people share their stories. To manage the meetups efficiently and gain the most from them Gary came up with 3 principles for people that attended as a guide. Each speaker at a meetup is to focus their talk on these principles which include (1) what did you do? (2) how did you do it? and (3) what did you learn? With these principles in mind the meetups are very effective at providing insights for people to share.  Since 2007 these meetups have grown to about 70 groups across 15 countries which has been a pretty amazing growth.

I’ve been able to attend a few meetups and can tell you that they are amazing ways to learn about how people are finding unique methods to track ways to help improve their lives. It’s really the culture and community that QS has fostered which makes it an amazing group to be a part of. To get an idea of what you can expect from a meetup you can read my recap of the last meetup we had in Los Angeles and you can see a full listing of meetups and should be able to find one near you.

Here’s the full video interview

Wired’s Gary Wolf & Kevin Kelly Talk the Quantified Self from WIRED on FORA.tv

BodyMedia provided my first experience with an activity tracking device two years ago. Since then we have seen many companies enter the space competing for a top spot among consumers. Jawbone struggled with their initial launch but has since come back very strong and is usually mentioned in the same breath as other top trackers. I feel Jawbone made a fantastic strategic decision here. They bring in the hardware and data experience of BodyMedia under their wings where they can bestow their design and marketing which I feel are much stronger with regards to their devices and apps and appeal better to consumers. Those are my thoughts after simultaneously testing both of the devices along with a Fitbit One and Nike Fuelband which I hope to provide my full comparison very soon.

As if the Bodymedia acquisition wasn’t enough news, Jawbone used the stage to also announce a bi-directional API in the form of the “Up Platform” and initial integration with a slew of services that included Withings, RunKeeper, IFTTT and others. They’ve already updated the iOS app with support and hopefully the Android version will be updated in the near future. This is another huge win as being able to have portable data that can be integrated into aggregation services is becoming extremely important and a major distinguishing factor as we move on from data tracking to data insights that are drawn across multiple data points. Any device that plans on surviving in the future will need an API…period.

“The reality is that you’re never going to have one app, or one thing, that’s the only way you look at [health and wellness],” says Travis Bogard, Jawbone’s VP of product management.

This quote is taken from Fast Company which illustrates the importance of having this mentality in which Jawbone recognizes that “openness is the gateway to a strategic advantage in this space.” They also wrote another great piece with thoughts on the announcement here. This has just been some great news and I can’t wait to see what Jawbone and Bodymedia has up their sleeves over the coming year based on this partnership.

Coincidentally Danny Sullivan began testing all of the same devices as well and today he wrote a post detailing the beginning of his journey. He will be writing posts summarizing his experiences with each of the devices so be sure to check those out. Interestingly enough he has come to the same conclusion as quickly as  I have, noting that each of these devices has their own set of pros and cons and no single device is perfect. Choosing one is more about the guidance it provide in having a positive impact changing your behaviors than it is about the accuracy of data.

One more thing. Martin Sona who is a member of the quantified self group in Aachen Germany reached out to me. He told me of someone doing a similar test (link is to english translated post) to what Danny and I are doing but shames us because he’s testing 6 devices at the same time! He’s added the Basis Smartwatch and the Lumoback sensor. Martin provided the data analysis and graphing for that test and offered to do the same for my testing after I’m done. So I  look forward to adding that to my summary post as well.

On to the numbers and reporting!

Note: this was a day with lots of walking and a 2 hour racquetball session. Also, I provided the web services reporting for all devices except Jawbone which doesn’t offer reporting outside of their apps. Also, I didn’t include any of the social / friend leaderboard reporting aspects, just the activity and sleep reporting. Speaking of which, feel free to friend me on any of these services by sending an email request to

Bodymedia

Note the vigorous activity tracked. This was done passively by the sensors monitoring my body temperature and sweat. These sensors aren’t available in any of the other devices being tested.

Fitbit One

Even without the additional sensors you can see the increased activity in this report where I was playing racquetball. You can also see my movement while sleeping.

Jawbone UP

Here are 4 screencaps from the app available on iOS and Android. Jawbone is the only device without web reporting. I also initiated my racquetball activity time from the wristband which is tracked on a separate report. The calories burned are also supplemented based on this. In the summary you can see a smiley face with arms pumped up. Daily you are asked “How do you feel” which is then answered with a setting for this.

Nike Fuelband

(click for full size)

Nike shows when in the day I hit my activity goal. It’s data was also the most conservative by far. I’ve seen this in other comparisons as well which I’ll share later. Just like Jawbone you can provide your daily energy level in the form of this smiley face icon and add any comments based on the day’s activities.

So I’m one week in on my simultaneous testing of the Bodymedia armband, Nike Fuelband, Jawbone Up, and Fitbit One. I’m learning quite a bit about all the nuances in these 4 devices and can safely say that selecting the one that’s right for you isn’t a simple process. There are many different factors to consider. From the device aesthetics, to the functionality, to the syncing, to the web and mobile reporting, to gamification aspects and much more. Stay tuned for a full review that will cover all of this after I complete my testing in a few weeks. In the meantime below is my activity from yesterday that included 2 hours of playing racquetball to show you the variance in the data tracking.

Stats from each device:

Fitbit One 13,299 steps 3,548 calories burned
Nike Fuelband 5,979 steps 1,573 calories burned
Jawbone Up 11,938 steps 2,672 calories burned
Bodymedia 11,401 steps 3,480 calories burned

Photo from the meetup taken by Eric Blue

The first speaker was Brent Bushnell who is the Circus ring leader. He walked us through a project his team worked on for the Extreme Makeover Home Edition where they built a relaxation chair for a veteran that suffered from PTSD. They used sensors to track his biometrics to help identify when he may be susceptible to trauma. When certain thresholds were met based on his heart rate the soldier would sit in the chair which would then play soothing sounds and had an aroma therapy device.

This was a great story but earlier I had noticed that he was wearing a Basis watch which was the first time I had seen one and I asked him about it. He had been monitoring the progress and one night he visited the website to find out it was taking orders and was able to place one. Turns out that the ordering process launched prematurely and he got in very early. He told an amusing story about how he walked into the Basis booth at CES and had several people oggle at his wrist wondering how on earth he already had one. I will try to follow up with Brent to see if I can get some details about the device reporting which is what I was really interested in.

The next speaker was Jeff Fajans who gave us a crash course in Positive Psychology which focuses on optimal functioning and well-being by studying people at their best. He showed us his personal experiment in self-tracking character strengths. He described what these strengths are in the context of positive psychology and shared two methods for identifying them. The first method was by using the Gallup Strengthsfinder which is a book that also has an online survey component for $9.99. The other  was a system called Values in Action which has an online survey component that is free. Jeff explained that you would want to identify your character strengths so that you could get a better understanding of how you operate and then optimize to enhance mood, energy and predict activities that were either positive or negative for you.

He used an Android mobile app called Paco which was setup to ping him 6 times a day to fill out a short survey that captured the activity he was currently doing, who he may be with, what his mood and energy level was, what strengths he was currently using, and other items. He then showed the results and insights he gained after using Paco which included when he felt energized, creative, in a positive mood, as well as negative aspects such as low energy and mood. I found Jeff’s presentation extremely interesting and I look forward to learning more about positive psychology, taking a self assessment survey and using Paco to track my strengths. You can also get much more detail by viewing Jeff’s presentation here.

Amanda Tasse, a PhD candidate at USC, followed and she focused her talk on the design, UI/UX and data visualizations around QS. She covered several interesting ways that environment data can provide interesting visualizations. One example was to create a visualization around the temperature and CO2 levels making students aware of the everyday life of a building. Another example she showed was of a Bio/Emotion map. A San Francisco Emotion Map was an art project by Christian Nold that took 98 participants exploring San Francisco’s Mission District using a Bio Mapping device he invented. These people used the devices to go for a walk and it would record their physiological response to their surroundings. The results were then presented on a map using colored dots and the participant’s personal annotations. The end result is an emotional portrait of the neighborhood that allowed people to share and interpret their own bio data. She also discussed the data visualizations of tools such as TicTrac, Rescuetime, and others. You can see her full presentation here.

Slide from Amanda Tasse’s presentation

Marina Zdobnova was up next and she gave an updated talk on more than a year of insight gained from using Inside Tracker which is a blood analysis service that provides a way to visualize the data, address deficiencies and dietary recommendations. I personally have been interested in trying out Inside Tracker or WellnessFX which is another similar service and this helped illustrate some of the great benefits of using such a service that offers so much more than the standard blood data you get from your doctor after getting a physical. Another project that Marina is involved in that she touched upon was the Ultimate Answer which aims to allow people to create their personal happiness formula. This touched similar areas to Jeff’s talk on positive psychology whereby you fill out a survey by providing data to help calculate what makes you happy. Then the system uses a formula to track the data and provides a happiness index.

I’m all wired up and ready to make music

The last speaker of the night was Aaron Thomen who created a project called MindMIDI that uses an EEG to convert brain waves into music using an algorithm. The music can is also controlled in real-time by the person through biofeedback. Aaron offered to let anyone in the group test the system and of course I raised my hand to be the first guinea pig. The system used a mixing board in which you can specify from your choice of many different individual instruments mapped by categories across 3 different channels. You have the ability to then mix your music by choosing instruments and controlling its volume. After I got wired up it was time to find out whether my temporal lobes had any signs of being a virtuoso. I have to say that testing this myself was very impressive. It seems like he takes the brain activity and applies some logic and quantization so that the music doesn’t sound like a crazy Aphex Twin track. Some folks asked how you could control the music and Aaron stated that it takes practice and that people who meditate seem to be able to master it quicker. Then he told me to cover my eyes and sure enough the tempo went down and the music softened. I then opened my eyes and it regained the original speed. It clearly showed how visual stimulation affected my brainwaves and thus the music. It really was pretty cool. Below is a video demo done by Aaron.

So that’s the recap of what was an incredibly awesome quantified self meetup we had here in Los Angeles. I highly recommend that you try to attend a meetup in your city. There are plenty of them available all over the world and you can find one near you by visiting the official quantified self website.

It would appear that another ho hum mobile app wasn’t going to gain traction and buzz. I believe people have relegated those as utilities and aren’t willing to give them buzzworthy recognition. It’s become clear that QS has become one of the breakout hits of this year’s conference. Well to be fair, nothing could actually trump Grumpy Cat but I digress. In doing a quick search I also found 10 panels specifically targeted at QS and I’m sure many others touched on the subject as well. The signals I got after reviewing device announcements at CES as well as what’s coming out of Austin are clearly in line with QS continuing its push into the mainstream. The other great thing is that these devices and sensors aren’t just being focused on workout activity tracking. We’re starting to see a big push in the diagnosis and improvement of healthcare as well as new devices that will begin to also monitor our environment in addition to the hugely popular Nest.

It’s unfortunate that after going to SXSW for the last few years I had to miss it this year when lifelogging, wearable devices, and other quantified self areas are having a break out year. Well at least that’s afforded me the ability to monitor quite a bit from afar. Actually that’s just the silver lining I’m mumbling to myself in spite of being there. This is truly becoming an amazing year for the movement in devices and software to make our lives better.

Enjoy Google’s video of their talking shoe.

I run this site on WordPress and initially was considering using the Press This feature to create posts for a single category and then create a page to just display posts from that category. But then I also had a challenge as to how to display these newsbites on my home page and incorporate them into my RSS feed without burying my long form posts. In the end I kept it simple and just continued to use Delicious to bookmark the pages and use an RSS widget to display them in my sidebar. The bummer being that I don’t have a dedicated page and these posts don’t make their way into the blog database / archive.

Last year I reviewed Rebelmouse which is a great service that can be used as a Lifestreaming aggregator. The services continues to evolve quickly and they are continually adding features. I’ve continued to use it and like many of the new features they’ve been adding. I’ve decided to use Rebelmouse to power my new curated news page. Here are some of the reasons I chose why to use Rebelmouse.

New curated news page

Integrates well with my current workflow

I was able to create a separate dedicated page for Lifestream Blog in addition to my personal page. I then was able to uniquely define what content would power this page. I provided my existing RSS feed from Delicious (Yes I still use it & they’ve updated it recently) that I use to save these stories with and they create the entries for my page. As a huge added bonus it parses the title, my comments, and tags into the entries it imports. I can then tie logic to the tags to populate separate tabs on my page.

Simple way to import my Delicious saves to Rebelmouse via RSS

Some other nice features

You have the ability to share your posts to a Rebelmouse page that prominently displays the item which can then be reshared or have the post closed to display your full page. In addition to that you can edit your commentary which also allows you to add links and formatting. You can view both of those examples on this post of mine. Posts can also be manually re-arranged on the page and even frozen to a location. I can supplement the feed items by easily adding items manually by pasting a link or using their interface to create posts of my own on their service.

Another key reason why I chose Rebelmouse is that it offers a very clean embed of my home page which I can then integrate into my website. You can see what I’ve done on my curated news page. Unfortunately the embed doesn’t offer my additional site tabs and there’s no way to remove the widget for other user pages but hopefully they will offer more options for embedding in the future. They also offer a WordPress module but I didn’t find it flexible enough.

Rebelmouse has many other features beyond these that I’m detailing for my curated news page. I read this recent interview with their CEO and they have some great plans for updates ahead. If you haven’t checked out the service you really should.

What they’ve created is an added value service to their existing headstones. They add QR codes to them that take users to memorial websites they create. The archive websites contains “information you and friends add about your loved one, such as: an obituary, family heritage and history, photos, comments by friends and relatives and even links to share content on popular social sites such as Facebook or Twitter.” The cost for this service is $75 in addition to the headstone.

Take a look at this video which provides more information on the service they provide:

This is just one implementation and I’m sure we will see many more methods and services using technology to create memorials in the coming years. I’ve written quite a bit about how I feel Lifestream data will eventually become the journals of our lives for future generations. In 2008 I wrote this post giving 4 reasons why you should be Lifestreaming. Here’s what I wrote for reason #4 - Create a personal digital archive of your life:

Lifestreams are becoming interactive digital diaries of our lives. While we still have a ways to go for this to become a reality, I see it coming. I can envision a future where I’m reminiscing about my past, going through my Lifestream and re-living old memories. You could locate notable dates in history to see what you were doing & what was on your mind. After we have passed, our great great grandchildren could get a much better understanding of who we were by navigating our historical Lifestream. I can see amazing future applications where you navigate a digital family tree and can drill down on individuals and then start navigating through their Lifestream.

This still holds true to me and I see memorial services being created around the data we generate. I recently wrote two posts for The Next Web around this area. Social data covers the more public aspects of our lives. One way to supplement that data is by using a Smart Journal. Several services are starting to also be created or add features with fun ways to review our old data which I wrote about as well.

Earlier today I saw this Gizmodo post asking users whether they backup their social media accounts. Some comments clearly show how I believe many people consider what they post on social sites to be disposable data. I don’t think most people are taking into consideration how they can use tools available to them to create digital journals for future generations. Hopefully this will change and I’ve dedicated a section on this site to provide information on tools and methods to do this.

Interestingly enough, today I also saw a post by Kevin Kelly about how he created a memorial book for his father Joe Kelly last year. All of the children and grandchildren contributed old photos and remembrances from his life. They then used Blurb to print out copies to pass out at the memorial as the perfect memento. I’m sure we will continue to see new and creative ways to create memorials using today’s technology.

Investors funneled 46 percent more money and made 56 percent more deals in health care in 2012 than in 2011, with the cumulative funding totaling $1.4 billion last year…The most common theme for investment was health consumer engagement, which represented $237 million in funding…About $150 million in venture funding went toward personal health tools and tracking last year. The quantified self movement is taking off as people are scoop up devices like the Nike FuelBand, Jawbone, and FitBit.

You can also view the presentation Rock Health created on Slideshare.

So with this report it’s clearly evident why there were so many existing companies with new announcements along with new companies entering the digital health space at CES. Here are a few of the highlights that I saw reported from the show.

Wristband Activity Trackers Rule the Market

Last year’s release of the Jawbone Up and Nike Fuelband took the existing model of drab devices to track activity and disguised them as a fashion statement. Those devices garnered lots of attention and helped propel activity tracking to become more mainstream. Existing competing products and companies that weren’t even in the sector took notice and came to CES to join the party.

FitBit Announces a Wristband Called Flex

Fitbit Flex Wristband

Fitbit was one of the first activity tracking devices released for consumers. Their original tracker is a small device that used a belt clip to attach to a pocket. They announced new evolved versions of their original tracker last year and they’ve also added a scale to their product mix. At CES though they finally announced a wristband tracker to compete with the Nike Fuelband and Jawbone Up.  The Flex will be released in the spring at an aggressive price point of $99 which is cheaper than the competition. Based on the lower price point and Fitbit’s strength on the service side to display tracking data, I think it will be a hit.

Product page | Fitbit Flex Video Demo

LG Enters the Wristband Market

LG Activity Tracker

It felt a little bit out of left field to hear that LG was entering the activity tracking market with their announcement at CES but after viewing details and a demo of the product it looks strong. First off this device is much more similar aesthetically and functionally to the Nike Fuelband than the Fitbit Flex. It looks great and has a similar LED display but whereas the Nike interacts via button, the LG has a touchscreen. The tracking app for iOS and Android looks very polished and feature rich. It also has the ability to sync with your phone via bluetooth both for gps tracking as well as having the ability to display incoming calls and text messages. LG also discussed that their still working on trying to add heart rate monitoring to this device which would be killer. All of these features together make it very versatile and could place this unit on top if it can deliver. It’s planned to be released in the summer and pricing is yet to be announced.

LG Activity Tracker Video Demo

Basis Watch Demonstrates their Data Collection Dashboard

Basis Smart Watch

The Basis which was announced last year has been a highly anticipated new player to the wristband market. Its distinction to other devices is that it not only has an accelerometer, but also has a heart rate monitor, body temperature and galvanic skin response sensors. This allows it to track your body temperature and sweat along with heart rate. These are in addition to tracking standard activity level and sleep. It’s the galvanic skin response and body temperature sensors in the BodyMedia armband I use that adds much more value for me than the Fitbit, Jawbone Up or Nike Fuelband. Those devices track steps (or in the case of Nike a metric the created called fuel) but can’t tell you more details about how vigorous your workouts are. This is something my BodyMedia armband and the Basis can. The Basis which is priced at $199 is the first consumer device I’ve seen to now offer this as well. Beyond creating an attractive device, Basis has focused their efforts on creating value around the data it collects. This will be done by a free web service along with Android and iOS apps which are in the works.This is extremely important as these devices are useless if they don’t provide insight from the data to help you improve your health.

Product Page | Basis Dashboard Video Demo

BodyMedia Announces New Armband and Shows Disposable Patch

BodyMedia Core 2 Armbands

BodyMedia is a great activity tracker that has more sensors than competing products as I mentioned above. They announced a new armband called the Core 2. It’s smaller and is more fashion conscious than their previous models. The new one makes the armband which contains the heart rate monitor optional and several different faceplate styles will be available. The unit contains 4 sensors that track body temperature, heart rate, sleep, and other biometric data by capturing 5,000 data points per minute. The new armband will be released in August and doesn’t have an official price but it should be around the current one which is $119. BodyMedia also showed their upcoming Vue patch. This will be a similar tracking device to their Core 2 which you wear for ~7 days and is disposable and will upload data via bluetooth. It’s slated to be released in the second half of 2013 but no pricing information is yet available.

Product Page | BodyMedia Core 2Video Demo

Withings Announces an Activity Tracker

Withings Activity Tracker

Withings was the first company to release a wifi scale that collected your weight data over time to their cloud service. They also later released a blood pressure monitor. At CES they’ve decided to join the activity tracking sector with the announcement of a new device. Their device has some interesting features which include a pulse monitor and an OLED touchscreen display. Beyond pulse it also tracks activity and sleep. It uploads data over bluetooth to its own app. No details were provided around its release date or price. I find it interesting that this device is similar in size and functionality to compete with the Fitbit Ultra. Ironically Fitbit added a wifi scale to their product line last year to compliment their activity tracker.

Withings also announced a new scale which it deems a “smart body analyzer” as its new high end model with more features. The new model has added sensors to track heart rate and air quality oxygen levels in the room in addition to weight, BMI and body fat. The scale uploads data to its app and web service over wifi. It will be released in Q1 and will be priced at $150.

Withings Activity Tracker Product Page | Withings Smart Body Analyzer Product Page | Activity Tracker Demo Video | Smart Body Scale Demo Video

Other Announcements at CES for Activity and Health Tracking

Those were the top announcements of interest to me in the activity and health tracking sector. There were however some other announcements:

• The Pebble smart watch which was a top kickstarter product announced Runkeeper support to come in March
• The Hapifork is a “smart fork” which is surely not the first smart utensil to be headed our way. It has a sensor and bluetooth to track the speed at which you shovel food into your mouth and vibrates if you’re going too quickly
• The Scanadu device can track your vitals by holding a device to your head and then displaying them on a mobile phone app. It should be released in the 4th quarter of 2013 for $150. You can learn more here (Disclosure: Scanadu is competing for the Qualcomm Tricorder X PRIZE and I work for the X PRIZE Foundation)
• The Quantified Self website covered some of the same devices I did as well as some other. They did it in two parts with the first post here and the second one here.

The increasing number of entrants to the digital health sector is a great thing to see. We are seeing new sensors being used in many different ways along with great apps and services to take advantage of the data. I’m sure 2013 will continue to push these devices more into the mainstream. There will no doubt be a shake-up to see which activity trackers are the ones to survive over time. I feel that beyond the aesthetics of the wristbands, it will be the apps and services built around them that will ultimately distinguish which ones break out. A nice looking device isn’t enough. These companies need to provide a nice visual interface to access the data as well as provide insights to help people improve their lives. For the geekier at hearth they also need to have API’s to allow their data to be imported into other health tracking aggregation services like Runkeeper or MyFitnessPal. 2013 is going to be a great year for this sector and I can’t wait to watch it play out.