Fitbit Firmware Modifications and Data Extraction [video] | Hacker News Reader

Fitbit Firmware Modifications and Data Extraction [video]

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Fitbit's software makes it very hard to get logs of heart-rate and step count data at smaller than a full-day granularity. I think this is because they know that if people looked at that data, they'd realize it was horribly inaccurate and complain. That's certainly been my experience when I've tried to spot check data from my Fitbit Blaze.

I think there's probably something to this. Plenty of people complain about the HRM, myself among them. Weird things like spikes of 170+ bpm while doing nothing but walking, while at the same time recording 100 bpm while doing sprints? Pretty normal on the Fitbit, in my experience.

The step counts are completely inaccurate. I have the flu and haven't left the house all day. My Charge 2 HR tells me I've done 4,044 steps. Not likely.

What I've always wondered is if it is consistently inaccurate. I really don't care if it thinks I've done 4,044 steps today, when maybe I've done 200 if I'm lucky. However, when I do go and do 4,000 steps, does the cumulative total then show 8,044, or some other figure?

The biggest problem with fitbit is the DRM. If there is a means to prevent the firmware from encrypting the data it collects from the wearer that would be fantastic, otherwise we're really just accepting fitbits analytics without independent verification of the data.

It's worse than just having to trust their metrics. Last time I looked, you can't access your own realtime heart rate no matter what - it was only available to 'registered partners' or some shit. When I was looking, their partners page had a demo video of a crowd watching a football match, and had that overlaid with the heart rates of the fans. So basically, next level sentiment monitoring and advertising capabilities.

So actually, Fitbit is in the business of collecting high resolution fitness data which they onsell to 'partners', and they've managed to convince the public to PAY to have this data collected about them in exchange for really coarse aggregated statistics which are an order of magnitude less useful than what Fitbit extracts from the raw data and keeps for themselves.

Fitbit's marketing strategy is the work of evil geniuses.

I just got a fitbit for my birthday and I would like to program apps for it. I'd like it to know when I meditate, for example. I find it a pity that it's so locked up as it is. If people know a good alternative instead of fitbit (i.e. Something more programmable and on your wrist), I'm happy to take suggestions.

Garmin. https://developer.garmin.com/connect-iq/

I have experince coding on all three platforms (Pebble, FitBit Ionic, and Garmin). If you’re serious about developing fitness apps, then Garmin is a great option. The language is easy to pick up, and the SDK and ecosystem make it simple to access, stream, and record sensor data.

There once was Pebble.

You could write dev apps in a straightforward easy to program no lock-in no review workflow.

And then guess who buys them out and flushes all that dev goodness in the toilet?

Yes, fitbit.

There was once Pebble.

They went out of business and their assets went up for sale.

Then guess who buys some of their assets and keeps some of that dev goodness alive?

Yes, Fitbit.

"Principal Software Engineer, Fitbit, Inc."

Common practice here is to disclose that when making comments...

You can find many examples in my comment history where I mention that I work for but don't speak for Fitbit. I don't feel it's necessary to mention it for extremely basic fact correction as in this case. The details of what was and wasn't acquired are public and widely known.

The Fitbit SDK is a direct continuation of a lot of the awesome work Pebble did, much of it by the same people. The Ionic may be aimed at a slightly different market, but we’re still working hard at trying to keep that dev goodness alive.

There still is pebble. I recently found my pebble time at the back of a desk after not using it for over a year. I was sure it'd be a crippled mess without cloud services and I'd have to jump through hoops to make it do anything useful. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the community is still strong and the watch works even better now without any cloud requirements. Features like voice to text which I recall being clunky and error prone work like a charm. I was worried I'd have to write my own watchface but there are literally hundreds available to choose from. The benefit of fostering an open ecosystem from day one is paying off even a year after the company's "demise." I suggest picking one up on eBay.

The Fitbit Ionic has a pretty open JavaScript SDK that we’re still working hard on to improve. You have access to a lot of the device public API, and can share your apps via links without getting it approved for the gallery.

https://dev.fitbit.com/

@mettamage, maybe Aidlab will fit in your needs (https://www.aidlab.com -> check Aidlab for Developers part) - it's an open health tracker (open to communicate with and create apps full of body information for anything that supports Bluetooth 4). SDK supports Python, Unity, iOS and Android bindings.

Awesome. All I want is a hackable Fitbit HR.

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