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Comment by haswell | Hacker News Reader

I could see this being a useful tool when trying to form good habits. Brush teeth? push the button. Get a fresh glass of water from the fridge? push the button.

When analyzing other aspects of my life such as spending, I have tools to show me what I've done in the past, and those tools can help me improve (e.g. spending reports). This is admittedly reactionary, but I find it useful nonetheless. Track enough other "stuff about stuff", and I think the data could become interesting over time, providing similar "hindsight" that in turn can be used to improve oneself.

Of course, this means it will be necessary to have button things all over the place...

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That's exactly what I plan on using mine for. It makes logging actions so much faster. I would love to just have a smartwatch with a set of about 12 or so buttons that correspond to a specific action, but that will take time to happen, if at all.

A Pebble with Tasker could get you there (HTTP POST) or one of the integrations. Even IFTTT or DO. You could probably also even go with the Magic Form app described in the OP's article.

Making it context aware is possible too (e.g. in the bathroom or at work) with some thinking of Wifi routers or if you wanted NFC tags, iBeacons.

No need for Tasker: http://apps.getpebble.com/en_US/application/55123f98e28a6598...

If you don't mind pulling your phone out, IFTTT launched a new app called Do that just lets you push a button to "do" something on one of their channels. They have pre-made recipes for putting the current time into Google Spreadsheets etc. https://ifttt.com/recipes/227069-track-your-work-hours

I think IFTTT is working on a Pebble app as well, but it hasn't launched.

That would work best as a watch "complication". Pulling phone out, turning on, finding app, tapping activity button takes too long; much easier/suitable to turn wrist, tap icon (adjacent to clock), tap activity. Good idea, if implemented with zero friction.

That's a cool idea. Pebble doesn't have a touchscreen, though. You could program one of the shortcuts (long-press one of the 3 right-side buttons) to open the list or even activate a specific activity directly. Assuming such an app ever launches!

Quite doable on Apple Watch. Enjoying my timer, exercise monitor, and calendar "complications" on the Watch face - very little UI friction.

Fortunately IFTTT Do has a widget you can stick to your homescreen and even your lock screen.

Now if only it was a bit faster :( I use it to turn on the lights of a belkin wemo and it takes ~9 seconds for the light to respond, and frankly often doesn't work (in which case you get a helpful email stating it didn't work). But it's certainly much, much faster than using the Wemo app.

There was a 3rd party app(pushbutton) that got pulled (upon request by IFTTT).

You can still implement this yourself using http://apps.getpebble.com/en_US/application/55123f98e28a6598... and the IFTTT Maker Channel ;)

so far I've found the Do button app to be totally unreliable... especially when trying to log things google spreadsheet, I often get the "recipe failed" type emails maybe 1 in 4 times...

You can also automate the process with GPS tracking: https://ifttt.com/recipes/133495-log-how-much-time-you-spend...

Check out Nuimo[1]. It's a small programmable device featuring a simple LED matrix style display while supporting multiple types of interactions. I could even see this in use at factories for ordering supplies for a specific machine or calling service technicians to it.

[1] http://senic.com

looks really cool, wondering if its worth an upgrade from using a 5$ webcam and a raspberry pi that i use for gesture control now, since the webcam lets me do audio commands as well.

Are there any other cheap wifi buttons without the bootup delay? Looking for something to talk to my raspberry py to turn off/on lights or switch spotify songs, would be annoying to have to wait for it.

Not with wifi, no. You'd probably be best off picking up an RF keyfob and matching receiver from somewhere; adafruit has a few, can probably find a bunch on ebay as well. The problem with Wifi is that because of everything involved down the chain, you can either have a really long battery life, or a really short bootup delay. For instant, with decent battery life, you're going to need a much simpler protocol.

Just a note, Misfit Flash now allows you to program button presses (single or double) to IFTTT, and from there you can go anywhere: https://ifttt.com/misfit

It's also fairly cheap at $19 (though not as cheap as these Amazon buttons, of course).

Edit: Misfit Flash is an activity / fitness tracker: http://misfit.com/products/flash

Screw pressing the buttons. Can I train an Amazon Echo to listen for me brushing my teeth?

Just put a webcam in your bathroom, you can track how long you brush, floss, even shower (save water if you're in CA!) with just one device.

No, seriously, the bathroom is the last place I want the quantified self.

I assume you're concerned about privacy; the bathroom is probably the second best place (after the fridge) for tracking your health stuff.

I would 100% buy a digital medi-toilet that analyzes my wastes and warns me if something is off.

Then they might start putting traceable additives to foods to better track you.... eg: you eat at restaurant X.... or shared food with person Y (by analyzing combinations of additives)... or used too much of drug Z...

Now that's an interesting thought.

Especially coupled with another reply, about my insurance company buying me one. They buy me one tomorrow, and raise my premiums the next year because I drink more than their actuarial table allows.

Ask your insurance company. In sure they'd be happy to buy you one.

I heard a VC complaining about a pitch he had for an internet connected toothbrush for kids once. It would notify parents if it wasn't used.

I thought it was quite a good idea!

Or you could buy a device to bounce photons off the kid which deflect into your retina, and leverage a wetware neural network implanted in your brain to check if they have brushed their teeth.

Keeping track and sticking buttons all over the place is going to be an "early adopter" feature. Once we get to an overwhelming number of "buttons" it will make sense just to put up a couple cameras similar to the Microsoft Kinect and use hot zone + gestures to do the same thing. RFID in boxed products might help out but the buttons will end up being a mess right quick.

It is cheaper to put microphone and ask for food, similar to regular shop: "Hey, Amazon", "Order, please", "Bottle of milk and bread", "Bottle of milk «Foo» $2,50. Bread «Bar» $1,75. Total: $4,25. Confirm?", "Yes", "Order accepted, wait for delivery.". Something like Siri, but activated by push of hardware button on the fridge.

Isn't that what Amazon echo does?

Yep. But it's a closed-source always-on cloud-connected microphone that lives in the middle of your house, which creeps the hell out of a lot of people (including myself and most of my housemates).

Amazon released the Alexa Voice Service recently: https://developer.amazon.com/public/solutions/alexa/alexa-vo.... It takes advantage of the cloud functionality that powers Alexa but can be used on any device.

Interestingly enough, when I signed up for Amazon Fresh, I got a version of the Dash that is multipurpose. Instead of having buttons everywhere, mine has a barcode scanner, and voice recognition. When I am out of eggs, I just pick it up, push the "Mic" button, say "Eggs," and it appears on my "Dash" list when I log in to Amazon Fresh.

This is a different solution, and less manual - but OralB has a bluetooth enabled toothbrush that will auto-record your tooth brushing in their app (as well as metrics like 'time used too much pressure' and 'total brush time'). You need to manually record flossing and tongue brushing via the app though (using a button on your smartphone like others have described). It's not bad, it's not good, but it's a start.

Take your PRN medication, press button.

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