Here is something that has really got my attention.
http://www.wired.com/2014/12/next-level-smartwatch-predicts-seizures
Matteo Lai is certain he could build one of the best fitness trackers on the market. It’s just that he has no interest in making the next Fitbit. “The wearable space is so noisy,” says the CEO of Empatica, a company in Cambridge, Mass., focused on measuring human data. Technically, Lai is in the wearables business. Only instead of measuring steps and reps, the company’s newest gadget, the Embrace, gathers medical-quality data that can help its wearers predict unexpected seizures.
Before you get too excited, I’m not prone to having seizures, so why would I be interested in this wearable?
Like fitness-focused wearables, the device tells time and keeps tabs on metrics like physical activity and sleep. But the Embrace goes one step further, measuring its wearer’s stress levels by tracking something called electrodermal activity (EDA). EDA is essentially a measurement of the skin’s conductance; as humans get excited or stressed, the amount of sweat on their skin fluctuates. The Embrace’s sensors are able to track little changes in skin conductance and communicate via vibrations when the wearer is experiencing higher than normal levels of stress.
Stress. Activity. Sleep. The three things that I am super interested in tracking in the quantified self.
This is one of the few wearables that can do all three.
The Kickstarter wearable that I have coming in April will do activity and I have another Kickstarter coming in March that does sleep, so I think I have those two covered, so its primarily the stress level that I am interested in.
Being able to quantify the amount of stress I encounter each day would be really valuable to me. Watching for patterns and thus hopefully coming up with a strategy to better manage it would be fantastic.
One of the hard things to do when you are stressed is to put a value on the stress level. Am I more stressed this time than last? How long am I stressed for? Putting a number on it would be very helpful (I suspect).
Am I 200 bucks interested? We will take a few days to look at the budget and think about it.
Oddly enough one thing I want to know is can I wear it on my upper arm or ankle? I am running out of wrist space – Yeah, you guys can stop right there!