Exist

Hackable brain waves and liberating your data: Quantified Self weekly links

First up, exciting news for Exist this week: we announced our plan to open up Exist to 1,000 users and we started rolling out invites to our earliest supporters. If you're not already on our waiting list, sign up here to get an invite before we roll out to the public.

Onto this week's links:

1. Hackable brain waves

This recently (well-and-truly) funded Kickstarter campaign aims to make an open-source brain-computer interface:

It is the goal of our Kickstarter to make an open-source, affordable, high-quality EEG amplifier available to everyone

The amplifier is the middle of a chain of parts that make up an EEG brain scan:

An EEG system has three basic parts to measure these signals: electrodes which are placed on the scalp; an electronic amplifier that can sense and relay the tiny electrical changes that your brain makes; and a signal processing computer used to make sense of the data and map it to some type of output.

With more brain-connected sensors and trackers being created, this could make it even easier for hackers to find new ways of using our brain waves.

2. Fitness trackers still need work

A call for putting fitness tracker data to use. You know how we love these…

But what none of the players, including those yet to launch, has figured out is how to make that data available to users in a way they can interpret and put to use.

The author makes a fair call:

Right now, you can view the data and see that you take fewer steps than normal every Monday, but the apps do nothing in terms of trying to help you discover why.

But we do!

3. Quantified Self in physical therapy

It’s always interesting to explore how Quantified Self could impact different industries. This is an interesting post that looks at QS through a physical therapy lens:

Physiotherapy profession is in an excellent position to utilise these technologies to positively affect many areas of treatment, in particular the encouragement of healthier lifestyles with increased levels of appropriate exercise.

4. Liberate your Basis B1 data

I’ve heard whispers that an API is in the works for the Basis B1, so hopefully soon you won’t need to go to such lengths to get your data out of the service. For now, though, here’s a workaround for those of you who really want that data.

5. The value of personal data

A look at why privacy is important and how valuable our personal data is (to us and the companies who store it) from the team at Saga:

Even though we’re really still in the early days of the internet, we’ve already reached a point where our privacy is far better protected than in the early days of the telephone.

More:

• Jaybird Reign: fitness tracker that tells you when to work out
• Kiwi Move: multi-use tracker/sensor

Image credits: OpenBCI, Digital Trends