

Wearable Fitness Devices Let Others Monitor Your Sex Life - Claudus
http://www.animalnewyork.com/2013/wearable-fitness-devices-let-others-monitor-your-sex-life/

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deathcakes
Problem - device monitors your activity while being worn.

Solution - take it off.

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perlgeek
And everybody will wonder why you took it off for this time, when you usually
wear it 24/7.

So, adapted solution: Don't wear it at all.

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harryf
And pay a higher premium as punishment for failing to provide the data to your
health insurance

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desigooner
I have a Basis B1 band that I've been using on and off since launch. The one
thing it is really poor at is capturing heart rate information and other
metrics during periods of heavy activity. If you are working out or performing
an intense activity, the device frequently dismisses the activity as noise for
one and stops capturing the data. e.g. when my heart's pounding after a heavy
lift or a sprint and is ready to pop out, the Basis band either stops
recording or shows my heart rate that's no where close to true. I've exchanged
emails with them in the past about their algorithms dismissing such activity
as noise but they've maintained that they cannot discuss the algorithms they
use to calculate the metrics and it's not a device to be used for such
purposes; it's more about giving you a rough estimate as you carry on your day
to day life.

As far as sudden heart rate increases during the night, you could possibly co-
relate it to your dreaming; I woke up sweaty once after having a nightmare and
my skin temperature & heart rate #s were definitely skewed by a good margin as
compared to a normal night of sleep.

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mojuba
Judging from the LED they have on the underside they are using optical
oximetry: basically you can see the blood flow dynamic based solely on the
levels of oxygen under the skin.

That explains why it's not accurate when you move: once you move your arm your
blood flow becomes so unstable that it's practically impossible to "see" the
pulse there. This is a known problem.

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desigooner
True. They do use other sensors to gauge the skin temperature and such.
Coupling the data from that plus the accelerometer, you would at least be able
to improve upon the metrics calculated. From my understanding, it's not so
much of the "seeing" of the pulse being the issue as the algorithms they use
to cut off the data collection, identifying it as "noise". As a result, there
is errant or missing data collection during rest periods (when optical
oximetry wouldn't suffer due to the movement). If there's a sustained
movement, using data such as skin temp and accelerometer makes it easier to
identify what's noise and what not. Their calorie tracking really suffers due
to the errant tracking of heart rate and the intense activity periods;
comparing my off-days with workout days, the difference in calories burnt is a
meagre 100-150 calories. A moderately brisk walk alone burns about 200
calories an hour.

I suppose I was expecting some basic learning algorithms that adjust the data
collection according to your day to day activities; but then this is the first
iteration of the product, so there's hope. At this point of time, for me, it
is just a sleep tracker + pedometer + a basic overview of the day.

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jrockway
How does an accelerometer tell someone looking at the data whether or not the
wearer had an orgasm? This piece seems more designed to cause outrage than to
actually inform anyone of the risks of sharing data.

Also, unless the device is capturing all the CO2 you exhale (or you live
inside a calorimeter), it doesn't know how many calories you burned.

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Volpe
Basis has a heart rate monitor built in... that would give more information
(not sure it could tell orgasm or not, unless there is some unique heart
signature after orgasm...)

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eertami
It might not be unique, but I imagine the timing of sudden heart-rate
increases/decreases could be quite telling. It is probably unlikely that most
people would go for a run at 2am for example.

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aneth4
Stop the press. Device designed to record all of your behavior reveals what
you are doing all the time.

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forgottenpaswrd
The solution of course is you buy it, you own it, you control it.

I made one of those my own, they are very simple to make, with an microarduino
to store data.

It is very useful to me, but I won't give the data to any external person-
entity.

PS:I can't understand connecting it to the cloud like some people do.

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dpeck
have you posted details of your project anywhere? its not something I'd be
likely to do myself but given the popularity of the devices and likely ease of
construction/coding it could be a very good intermediate project for a lot of
budding hardware hackers

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dbecker
This is an old problem.

Cameras also let others monitor your sex life.

Of course, that's only true if you take pictures while you are having sex and
then share those pictures with others... just like with wearable fitness
devices.

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g8oz
I suppose pimps are a target customer. To keep an eye on the workforce and
all.

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skore
Fake enthusiasm… for the sensors?

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cbhl
24/7 real-time monitoring is the very definition of distrust...

Do people actually wear these things while sleeping, though? How do you charge
the battery, then?

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gallamine
The Jawbone UP runs 10 (!) days on a single charge. I charge mine while
driving in the car so as not to lose any steps.

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Lusake
Why would anyone share his health data with other people?

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eshvk
The same people who think myfitnesspal should be a social network? The kind of
people who think a fitbit is a competition to see who walks the most? Without
putting my tin foil hat on, there is a reason this shit operates the way it
does.

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bruceboughton
The solution is to have all your sex in the shower.

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hboon
Some of these devices are wore (almost) all the time. The Jawbone UP is water-
resistant for example. I wear it while showering.

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dominotw
do you wear anything else? or is that it? I am shopping around for these
things to see what all the fuss is about.

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hboon
Only the UP. I swim regularly. Note that you can't wear it while swimming, and
while you can log exercise manually, it's less than perfect.

I'd recommend getting the UP. It's great. I wrote a bit about it at
[http://hboon.com/jawbone-up](http://hboon.com/jawbone-up)

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tibbon
My girlfriend and I (who each have Fitbits) have joked around several times
about the potential for Fitbit to be able to track sex. And now, someone's
doing just that.

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eps
Wasn't Fitbit hit by this issue shortly after the launch few year ago? You'd
think others would've learned from that unfortunate incident.

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huherto
> Wearable Fitness Devices Let Others Monitor your lack of sex life.

FTFY

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sr-ix
Maybe they'll start building these into our mandatory Malthusian belts.

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aeze
Or you could... just take it off at night / whenever is convenient?

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EGreg
Your jealous lover might insist you wear it 24/7 when away

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a3n
And you should walk away from any such relationship.

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mushfiq
there is nothing like "Monitor Your Sex Life" its another health monitoring
device.

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ioquatix
I don't think that is going to be much of a problem for THIS audience :D

