Does anyone know an alternative to BodyMedia’s FIT armband that has an API for real time data? I’m also interested in a heart rate monitor with the same functionality.
Thanks
Does anyone know how to get in contact with either BodyMedia or Zephyr? I have emailed both of them about their higher end products - sensewear and bioharness 3 respectively - and haven’t received a reply after 5 days. Very frustrating.
Hello Asher,
What data are you looking to collect/evaluate?
Would you be interested in using BodyMedia if they had a real time app?
Let me know,
John
Asher,
I just saw this one - what are you looking to do with Sensewear? Let’s chat to figure out what you want to do and then I can point you in the proper direction (I have contacts at BM & have colleagues who have contacts at Zephyr.
John
John, I like all the sensors that BodyMedia had, but I like having access to the data too. I am not interested in a device that uploads my data to a silo where it is irretrievable, or retrievable only in summary form. A real time app would be good, but better would be having access to the real time data directly.
The issue for me is that these types of devices do certain things quite well but do not do everything, and so when using multiple devices I want to have all my data in one place, as much of the value comes from the connections between the data sets. The same goes for real time data; if I need a different app to see data from each device, it becomes far less useful.
I am willing to pay for the SenseWear models from BodyMedia, but I’d really like to know what they are capable of, and unfortunately my email hasn’t been responded to.
[quote=“Asher_Nevins, post:4, topic:332”]
John, I like all the sensors that BodyMedia had, but I like having access to the data too. I am not interested in a device that uploads my data to a silo where it is irretrievable, or retrievable only in summary form. A real time app would be good, but better would be having access to the real time data directly.
The issue for me is that these types of devices do certain things quite well but do not do everything, and so when using multiple devices I want to have all my data in one place, as much of the value comes from the connections between the data sets. The same goes for real time data; if I need a different app to see data from each device, it becomes far less useful.[/quote]
You should definitely keep abreast of Singly & the Locker Project if you want a platform that gathers your data from different devices and services and exposes it via a simple API (I just added Zeo and Withings to the already existing BodyMedia support).
For data like contacts, photos, and links there are currently ‘collections’ that take data from different sources, normalize that data, and expose the data via a simple API–soon there will also be a ‘body’ collection that takes your Zeo, Withings, BodyMedia, FitBit, etc. data and exposes that via a simple API.
Jeremie Miller, one of the Singly founders, wears a BodyMedia and wrote the Locker connector for it. 
For more information:
The Locker Project: http://www.lockerproject.org/
Singly: http://www.singly.com/ (sponsoring development of the opensource Locker Project and providing Locker as a service; free to sign up with a GitHub account)
The BodyMedia connector: https://github.com/LockerProject/Locker/tree/master/Connectors/BodyMedia (useful even if you don’t use Locker because it’s good example code for accessing their API)
Thanks Beau,
Do you know if you can get raw data from the BodyMedia API or just summary data? Since I’m not getting any email replies from them I’ve found it hard to work out.
Asher,
Sorry it took me so long to reply, I’ve been on the road…
The Sensewear gives you raw data on the three axis accelerometer, GSR, and both temp sensors; it may give more, but I don’t have the SW in front of me to verify it for you - I’ll ping the BM team and see what I can verify.
One point of information about simply collecting the raw data - it is hard to interpret. I have a subscription so I can leverage their algorithms to tell me what is happening right now.
Can you more clearly define your desire for a ‘real time’ data? Are you looking for updates every 1 minute, 5 minute or streaming?
Chat soon!
Thanks for your reply JxA,
For real-time data, it depends on what type of data it is of course. For things like GSR and temperature I think I’d like to be able to get pretty short intervals between samples, so essentially streaming. In practice this might be once a second or something like that, but I definitely wan’t intervals that allow you to monitor change in real time rather than 1 or 5 minute updates. I haven’t yet looked closely at the research to see what kind of temporal resolution is ‘enough’, but I’m assuming things like GSR can change pretty frequently.
Asher,
I know you can change the sample rate on the SenseWear; however, I don’t recall what the maximum rate for each individual sensor is.
This doesn’t give you the streaming you desire, yet it may help prove your concept.
Please send me your email & I’ll make an intro so you can get a quote!
John
I see at http://sensewear.bodymedia.com/site/sensewear/img/Custom_Channel_Configuration.jpg there is a picture of the configuration screen to select sample rate for GSR, among other readings. Can anyone confirm that the sample rate goes up to 15 samples per minute?
edit: it seems that the SenseWear version which is sold to medical professionals and researchers (~$200?), has a 32hz sample rate according to BodyMedia’s brochure. The consumer GoWear FIT (< $100), I still haven’t found any info about whether its sample rate goes above 1 sample per minute.
You need to be a BodyMedia fit Activity Manager to get the full data download. It costs ~$2,500!!
From a Sensewear email:
You might be interested in :
They provide full data access including raw sensor data.
Not real-time but they are working on a Bluetooth api which is a couple of months away.
Hi Asher,
I’m working on a new wristband device which will be able to provide raw data for optical, acoustical, acceleration and temperature channels. Here’s my QS post with more data:
https://forum.quantifiedself.com/thread-...lth-sensor
I’m proud to say real-time data is one of our most important innovations. As a QS guy myself and a developer, I’m pretty much excited about what will happen when we ship.
Please take into consideration, the device is not out yet, but your feedback would be appreciated. We’re also crowdfunding to be able to manufacture: http://igg.me/at/angel.
Be well,
Eugene Jorov
Of course I’m satisfied! How could I not be, it’s my own product 
Eugene