


Thursday, June 05, 2014

Smart alarms for when awake and working














Smart alarms when you are awake.

Smart alarms when you are workuing.

Smart alarms should not just be for sleep.






Andy "Krazy" Glew said...

It looks like the Jawbone UP and UP24 have several flavors of such smart alarms:


Idle Alert (between start time and N time, buzz if inactive for N minutes"

Smart Alarm - to wake you up in a state of light sleep.

Power Nap - optimal nap duration between 25 and 45 minutes

(I had not even thought about the Power Nap)

The next thing I want is a generic smart interrupt when I am awake and/or working - e.g. for low priority texts or email.

Andy "Krazy" Glew said...

My Basis watch has been good - the pedometer has really helped, 11 thousands steps per day, N minutes running - and probably just wearing a timepiece has been good for me.

But it does seem as if the Jawbone UP and and FitBit are ahead of the Basis watch.

I bought the Basis rather than the others (a) because it was a watch, a timepiece with a LED display, bit just a bracelet, and (b) because it had more sensors and metrics - not just accelerometer, but also pulse, galvanic skin response, and skin temperature. However, I have not found anything really useful in the latter too, although I would love to find some patterns like "When am I anxious? When am I irritable?"

Moreover, the Basis software and website lag. They seem to have gotten even slower since Intel bought them. Sire there have been updates, such as being able to detect running and biking more or less reliably. But lacking an alarm, a buzzer, is a big problem.
Even decades ago, alarms on your watch were de rigeur. Not working with MyFitnessPal.com and my other QS devices is a pain. Not having an API so I can download and do my own analysis is a pain.

Considering a Jawbone UP24 for my daughter.


In my dreams:

GPS to track miles walked / run (I know, too much power for a 24hr/day activity tracker; available in fitness watches that are worn only while exercising)

How about:

Altimeter (barometer):

Years ago I loved my Avocet Vertech altimeter watch.
It was great for hiking and sking - not only to track vertical climbed or skied, but also really useful in determining location on map in pre-GPS days - and probably still in Oregon's step canyons and valleys.

Andy "Krazy" Glew said...

The Avocet Vertech altimeter watch ran days, months even, on a charge.
They say 2 years.

So probably good enough to be included in an activity tracker like my Basis watch or a Jawbone UP or a FitBit, which I typically charge every 2-4 days, if not with my morning shower.

Could correlate detection of walking or running to change in altitude. Fix the problem that my Basis thinks the calories expended are the same whether I walk on the level or climb up several thousand feet.

Mohamed Amine Bergach said...

Hi Andy,

In my opinion a simple image processing from your webcam and combined with some indications from your computer screen (what you doing) can provide you the right alarm that you want.