Basis Peak

Just got the new Peak. so far, it is incredible. they solve all of the problems that the B1 had. It is sleek and comfortable. Best of all, the heart rate is constant and my exercise apps all pick it up just the same as a chest strap. Comparing with a chest strap, the readings are the same.

I wil be testing it out skiing and weightlifting. I am also wearing the Neuma which measures GSR and I will be running the data side by side (I have the python hack to pull the Basis data. They STILL have not opened their data nor allowed downloads. Bad form.)

I wore the B1 for a year and it was meh. so far the peak is all they promised. I’ll post again after I test drive it a bit more and can pull all of the data.

cheers

Nice. Looking forward to see some of the data.

Glad to hear it’s improved, though according to this guy, the heart rate is still not reliable enough.

Might give the Peak a look if they ever publish that API they keep promising…

Regardin the API, I find the basis retriever.py script excellent on OSX. It is as good as other API’s I have seen and easier to run. I used to be really mad at Basis about this, but now I just figure it is part of being involved in such a young industry. Besides, Basis is not strong on software. If they did give us access to the data it would likely need to be re-coded anyway.

What I really want is an agnostic platform that lets me merge the data from all of my devices.m

Basis already has an API–that’s what their own app as well as the reverse-engineered retriever script use. The problem is that they have not so far bothered to invest the small amount of effort that would be required to make the API official. Companies with a lot fewer resources than Basis are able to support APIs, so it’s just a matter of priorities.

You may now resume being mad :slight_smile:

I would like to buy one to replace my UP24, but there are a lot of bad reviews on the web.

http://www.amazon.com/Basis-Peak-Ultimate-Fitness-Tracker/product-reviews/B00GJG79LM/ref=cm_cr_dp_qt_hist_one?ie=UTF8&filterBy=addOneStar&showViewpoints=0

People say it’s unstable and uncomfortable (that it requires a wristband to be carried).
Did you experience something similar?

The Carbon Steel version was uncomfortable. I am not finding the Peak to be uncomfortable. It is dropping a few seconds of beats here and there, but still better than a chest strap which, if worn all day, routinely loses contact. The Hexoskin is the gold standard if you want continuous ECG quality heart rate.

But the basis is keeping good records when skiing and working out. I have been using it with my Digifit app in place of a chest strap and the data is solid. No problems syncing at all.

I will have to post data later, but so far the Peak is far, far better than the Carbon Steel and frankly beats most chest straps. Battery life is excellent. It pairs well with my Apple 5s and syncs well too. I read those reviews and scratch my head. Some people should not be allowed to handle anything more advanced than a calculator. The Peak is exactly what they promised. Of course, their app is still crappy when it comes to analytics. Their “charts” are pitiful and borderline useless. I am a bit biased because I pull the data directly using BasisRetriever.py and chart the csv files.

oh, and one note: their sleep analytics are pretty bad. Only an EEG is going to give you good sleep stage info. I have been collecting this along with ECG data and heart rate is a horrible indicator of sleep stage, as is motion. so ANY device that is not the Zeo or an EEG is going to suck. So just ignore the sleep metrics entirely on every wrist worn device (and the phone apps as well). either buy a Zeo or get a sleep study done.

on a positive note, the Peak has a very good GSR sensor. They don’t advertise this, but it is the best way to monitor stress. I have run this against a clinical device and it holds up well. However, if you want the best GSR, the Neuma by Neumitra is the Gold standard.

I forgot to address stability. They just released new firmware last week and there are no stability issues I can see. If you disrupt it while the firmware is syncing, it will lock up and you have to do a factory reset. But that is or should be a rare issue. Since I updated there have been no problems.

It does need to be worn on the wrist because it needs contact with your skin. ALL devices that measure your body have to be next to the skin. Things like fitbits and the old Jawbone are just pedometers. They measure being bounced around–nothing more. The iPhone measure this without having to buy any device (Withings app does this well.) But these don’t measure your calories very well. For example, on a stationary bike, I could have a heart rate at 90% of max and the fitbit would sense that I was sitting still and not record any increase in caloric burn. They are a bit better than useless, IMHO.

The wrist strap in its new incarnation is comfortable. It is soft and stretchy. It has to be worn a little tight to maintain contact, but there is no discomfort. IF you want a device that measures your heart rate, body temp, and galvanic skin response without being strapped to your body somewhere, you are going to have to wait a long time until sensors can be implanted inside your body because you can’t measure heart rate and such from a distance.

Also, I thought it was worth adding that their sleep tracking is essentially broken because it guesses when you were asleep without giving you the option to either add sleep they didn’t catch or remove a sleep activity that wasn’t really sleeping. Without those features, it’s essentially broken.

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It’s quite common for such services to not have an option to correct their guesses (because they are infallible, or users are assumed to be too lazy to bother?). I can edit the data once it’s imported into my data aggregation platform, but it’s a missed opportunity for them to learn from the corrections.

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Thank you Beaumont for additional information. But what juliep mentions is a killer. With my Jawbone I regularly have to change sleep information or enter a new one that was missed (like when there is no more battery).

My jawbone is broken since last week. I feel desperate to find a good sleep tracker. The jawbone could be perfect if it didn’t break so easily: it’s ok to wear it all the time because it’s stylish and light. But it’s the second one I break in one year. I’m not sure I want to buy another one. If anyone has a good recommendation, I would be glad to read it.

here is the heart rate data of the basis peak (red) vs. the hexoskin (green) smart shirt. the basis misses the highest heart rates, but overall, it is pretty spot on. I have been using it for my workouts. I can now get data either from the basis app or from the basis retriever.py. I am pretty impressed with the accuracy of the peak. Basis’s software is crap, but the hardware is awesome.

well, i can’t upload the file and I can’t paste it.

Convert it to ASCII art? :slight_smile:

Or upload it elsewhere, and link/embed here?

I am really interested in the sleep function. It supposedly comes the closest to a real polysomnography compared with other movement only trackers. Still would like the Sleep hat to collect brain wave data. Used Zeo’s seem too costly.
It is reasonably accurate as a heart rate monitor. And it can transmit heart rate to iOS apps like Polar Beat, runkeeper, etc.
For swimming I still use my Polar strap and watch.

Alan

Hi Beaumont,

May I ask what apps or software tools you use to merge the data from your various devices ? I am also seeking for some tools which can integrate datas from different self-tracking applications. It seems that there are quite a lot of device producers and they cooperate with different analytical tools and it force users to analyze their data separately.

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A year later, the Basis Peak still has this problem - there’s no ability to correct sleep events.

As a fellow software entrepreneur, I just can’t find any justification for Basis constantly ignoring the repeated requests that the community has made for this feature. This is the main reason I have returned my Peak - not that the software is lacking (this feature could be added in a week by an intern, unless their architecture is really broken), but that their attitude is so oblivious to consumer requests.

Is anyone found a way to extract the beat-to-beat HR data from the Peak (not every minute, but every second)?