Exist

Auto-capturing your life and trackers for your ears and ankles: Quantified Self weekly links

This week’s Exist news: We hit the front page of Hacker News, Leo Laporte backed us and our backers campaign is now public! Check out the campaign to see what Exist can do and how to be one of our first 1,000 users.

1. What I learned by photographing my life every 30 seconds

When you want to “be present,” it turns out that capturing every moment is not very helpful.

Sarah Kessler wrote about how her Narrative Clip camera affected her life and what she got out of it at Fast Company:

I upload the photos from Narrative Clip expecting a clear diary of my day. That’s not what I get. There are few moments the camera captured clearly, and they’re not they ones I’ve thought about. There’s a photo of my subway pass, a shot of a coworker, a few subway riders, and hundreds of views of my desk.

But the yoga class and dinner, since they both took place in dim lighting situations, are both represented in exactly the same way: with a chance shot of a ceiling lamp.

In theory the Narrative Clip sounds cool, but I think Sarah’s pointed out an issue that most of us would have with it: you’ll need to wear it for a long time before you get a couple of worthy photos that you wouldn’t have captured otherwise.

(Also see the Autographer camera in the “More” section at the bottom of this post.)

2. Bellabeat

Sure, you can monitor your baby’s activity and growth once it’s born but what about when it’s still in utero? Bellabeat lets you listen to your baby’s heartbeat any time, track its movement and connect with other expectant mothers.

3. UP Coffee [iOS]

Jawbone’s new stand-alone caffeine tracking app helps you track your intake and keep an eye on how late you can drink a coffee without it affecting your sleep. If you have a Jawbone UP band you can also connect UP Coffee to your account and see how caffeine affects your sleep stats.

4. Flyfit

This fitness tracker is worn on the ankle to more accurately track swimming, cycling and running. The Kickstarter campaign has a couple of weeks to go but it’s already met the $90,000 goal.

5. trackthisforme

This dashboard (available on the web and Android) lets you track pretty much anything you want and compare different stats. It seems to be solely focused on manual tracking, but if you’re willing to put in the effort continually, this is a pretty way to view your data.

More:

• Misfit shirts and socks: clothing with pockets made to store your Misfit Shine
• NBA players have started wearing fitness trackers
• Dormi: baby monitor app [Android]
• The Dash: In-ear headphones that track your vitals
• Zippy: a to do list with insights about your productivity [iOS]
• Autographer: a smart, wearable camera

Image credits: SlashGear, iDownload Blog, TechCrunch, Flyfit, BRAGI, trackthisforme