The
quantified self movement – the idea that tracking metrics about yourself can
lead to self-improvement – appears to be gathering steam. With products such as
the FitBit One, Jawbone Up and Nike+ FuelBand boasting impressive sales numbers
(the FuelBand reportedly sold out within four hours of its launch), it seems
that self-tracking is finding traction and on the way to becoming an ubiquitous
feature of daily life.
But how
exactly can it break into the mainstream, and where does the future of the
movement lie? Here are the five key areas where I see the quantified self going
next.
App
collaboration
If you
self-track multiple different metrics about yourself, chances are you're using
a different device or app to track each one. I currently use the ElectricSleep
app (Android-only) to track my sleep, a Withings scale to track my weight, a
Nike+ FuelBand to track my steps and football sessions, Runkeeper to track the
runs I go for, and MyFitnessPal to track my food consumption, as well as a few
others.
This isn't
ideal for a number of reasons. Firstly, it's difficult to view and evaluate all
of the different tracked stats, as each service has a separate dashboard. It's
difficult for me to find correlations between the different metrics – if I
wanted to see the effect that my food consumption had on my weight over a
period of time, I'd have to bring two different dashboards up and compare them
manually.
There are a
couple of trends that will help with these problems. The first of these is
multipurpose devices. Two of the leading step-tracking manufacturers, FitBit
and Jawbone, both recently announced new products that allow you to track food
consumption and sleep besides their traditional step-tracking functionality.
Tracking additional metrics does not necessarily require the devices to require
additional sensors (in fact, a huge variety of metrics can be tracked from the
sensors in your smartphone – you just need the software to hook into them and do
the tracking), so this is likely something we will see much more of in the
future.
Another
trend that is starting to emerge is centralised QS [quantified self]
dashboards. Over recent months there have been a number of entrants into this
market, including TicTrac, whose value lies in solving the exact kinds of
problems I mentioned above. By pulling in the data from a variety of external
sources, TicTrac lets you view, compare and visualise your data in one place.
It's early days for these products, but they'll undoubtedly provide huge
benefits for the self-tracker.
Real-time
health tracking
There are a
number of recently established services offer consumers comprehensive health
diagnoses, allowing for extremely personalised recommendations. In the US, a
service called WellnessFX can provide more than 20 actionable metrics about
your current state of health, including cholesterol and inflammation levels,
from a single blood sample.
Another,
23andme, offers a "Personal Genome Service", which provides a
detailed overview of your genetic profile, including what your global origins
and ancestral lineages are, and specific disease risks and drug sensitivities.
[Editor's note: the amount and precision of the detail that can be inferred
from a genetic profile such as 23andme's is still the subject of a lot of
debate. As scientists say, genes aren't destiny.]
This is a
fast-growing trend, as this previously advanced and expensive technology can
now be offered in a convenient manner at consumer prices.
However,
the issue with this kind of service is that it only provides a snapshot in
time. To track improvements over time, you would have to take multiple tests,
typically months apart. Imagine making a change to your website and having to
wait six months for the analytics data to show you what effect it had – the
situation is inherently inefficient.
This
particular sector of the quantified self will see solutions to this problem:
people will be able to track health metrics in something closer to real time.
Evolution
of game mechanics
Perhaps the
most effective aspect of the quantified self movement thus far has been the way
that game mechanics have been integrated into fitness tracking. We are all
inherently competitive and this has been played upon superbly well by most of
the leading fitness apps, where competing with friends encourages us to stick to
a diet, or keep going to the gym beyond January. FitBit claims that its users
average 43% more steps each day.
Given this,
apps and devices will expand upon that success by harnessing our competitive
nature in new and interesting ways. Recently there have been a number of
interesting innovations, including "Zombies, Run!", a smartphone app
that turns your morning run into a zombie chase scenario. This type of
gamification brings out two additional motivators – fun and addiction – and
when coupled with the end result (users become fitter and healthier) is very
attractive.
The success
of Zombies, Run!, originally a Kickstarter project which is now nearing the
release of its second version, won't have gone unnoticed. Expect game mechanics
within fitness tracking apps to become increasingly sophisticated.
Fix the
food problem
Arguably
the most important metric to self-track of them all is food consumption, but
this is currently fraught with problems. You can't passively track your food
consumption, accuracy is inherently difficult, and there are large gaps in the
nutritional information available – for example, few independent restaurants
provide calorific information alongside their menu.
You get
your food at a variety of sources – including groceries, restaurants and event
catering – which makes it difficult to imagine a single solution to the
problem. The QS movement is unlikely to reach its full potential until it is
able to reduce these barriers to accurate food tracking.
However,
improvements are being made in this area, and we should see this trend continue
and even gather pace. In the US, Obamacare now requires all restaurants with 20
or more locations to publish detailed nutritional information, and the EU is
beginning to catch up after recently agreeing to new nutritional labelling
legislation.
These,
coupled with a growing general demand from people for more nutritional
information, should enable a more passive food tracking solution in the
not-too-distant future; something the QS movement desperately needs.
Google
Glass
It's early
days for Google Glass, the wearable computer that is scheduled to launch later
this year, but the signs are there that it will have a major impact on the
future of technology – some are already arguing that it may even usher in the
start of a new post-smartphone era. What is certainly true is that it has the
potential to be a game changer for the quantified self.
Two things
are particularly interesting about its potential impact. It hugely increases
the possibilities around what can be tracked. Imagine if it were able to track
your social interactions, who you spend time with and how that affects your
productivity and mood.
There are
obvious and important privacy concerns in terms of the data that could be
collected, but app developers will have a platform that does not restrict them
to the limitations of the smartphone; they will be building on top of
real-time, real-world information, and the possibilities there seem endless.
It also has
the potential to make tracking significantly easier and more accurate. For
those tracking their food consumption, instead of having to manually enter the
ingredients for a homemade recipe, imagine being able to log the ingredients by
voice whilst you were actually cooking. And imagine being able to take a photo
of your dish at a restaurant, say the name of the dish, and have that look up
relevant nutritional information (adjusted for the portion size) found in the
photo.
We don't
know exactly what the future will look like with Google Glass, and it is
unclear whether it will ever become mainstream itself, but it certainly has the
potential to make a huge positive impact in terms of the quantified self.
Chris
Hollindale is the co-founder & CTO of Hasty, a seed-funded startup with a
mission to improve the health of humanity.
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