Exist

A magic tracking cup, research into fitness tracker accuracy and more: Quantified Self weekly links

Hardware

Vessyl

Supposedly, the $99 Vessyl cup can track what you're drinking, automatically. I've read a few write-ups of this on various tech blogs and it seems like the company is being very tight-lipped about how exactly it works, so I'm not so sure I'd pay $99 for it without seeing some proof first. But hey, maybe I've just been burned by too many scam crowdfunding campaigns.

• Smash: tennis-tracking wristband (Kickstarter)
• PetPace: smart collar for your pet
• Wello: an iPhone cover that tracks your vitals
• Butterfleye: smart home camera
• Embue: Automated temperature settings for your home or office
• Drop: iPad-connected scale and digital baking assistant
• Myo: gesture control armband

Apps

Siestapp [iOS]

If you're not a fan of naps because you often wake up groggy, this app claims it can monitor your nap and wake you up before you sleep for too long. Another iOS app simply named nap aims to do the same thing.

• Loggr: custom, manual tracking [iOS]
• Spendbook: finance tracking [iOS]
• Temple: monitor food, fluids and fitness [iOS]
• Strong: workout tracker [iOS]
• ZenFriend: meditation timer [iOS]
• CartoDB: make maps from your data [web]
• Sometime: time tracking [iOS]
• Timesheet: time tracking [iOS]
• Prime: aggregate your health records [iOS]
• PopWeight: weight tracking [iOS]
• How are you?: online health records [web]
• BitMashup: automatically update Fitbit with Strava, Runkeeper and MapMyRun stats [iOS]
• My Asics: run tracking [iOS, Android]
• Expereal: rate and visualise your life [iOS]

News

A study on the validity of fitness tracker data

Sixty (26.4 +/- 5.7 years) healthy males (n = 30) and females (n = 30) wore eight different types of activity monitors simultaneously, while completing a 69-minute protocol. The monitors included the BodyMedia FIT armband worn on the left arm, DirectLife monitor around the neck, Fitbit One, Fitbit Zip, and ActiGraph worn on the belt, as well as the Jawbone Up and Basis B1 band monitor on the wrist.

Graph from POPSUGAR

Conclusions: The indicators of the agreement clearly favored the BodyMedia FIT armband but promising preliminary findings were also observed with the Fibit Zip.

I was surprised to see the Basis B1 came in last, and second-last was the Nike+ Fuelband.

• Salesforce.com announces the Salesforce Wear Developer Kit
• Strava begins selling your data points

Articles

New Samsung Fitness Tracker Paves Way for Wearable Health

The fitness tracker, called Simband, is not a commercial product, so consumers won't be able to buy it. Rather, it is a blueprint of sorts, intended to serve as a reference for the design of future wearables. Designed in sections, or modules, it lets other companies integrate their own sensors. The open platform will allow for the inclusion of sensors that no one has even imagined yet, said Ram Fish, vice president of digital health at Samsung.

• Inside HealthKit: Apple’s Answer to the Quantified You
• Three things Apple’s Health app must do to make us healthier
• Finally, fitness trackers measure up
• How to Save a Wet Fitness Tracker
• How activity trackers remove our rights to our most intimate data

Image credits: Gizmodo, Live Science