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Comment by xyzal | Hacker News Reader

A friend showed me AndroidAPS's automation capabilities and my jaw dropped. "If this SSID is visible, I am in a gym, so lower basal rate by 20%".

edit: docs for the interested> https://androidaps.readthedocs.io/en/latest/Usage/Automation...

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For me, those features were always very gimmicky. When you arrive at the gym, you should've set the basal rate lower at least an hour ago. So it's not going to help unless you stay for multiple hours.

The meal detection mentioned is similarly lagging behind. For people who don't manage to tell their APS when they eat carbs, yeah it helps, but the outcome is not comparable to dosing before you eat.

I also found the calibration features to be too fiddly. Between sensor noise, sensor offset, and calibration, when they try to adapt the situation already changed.

I guess these features work better with a very regular lifestyle, which I lack :-) And while I don't like having to micro-manage some aspects, like carbs, I appreciate that AndroidAPS reduces my mental load quite a bit and enables living days that are never the same regarding exercise or meals.

I'll say, one thing I really appreciate about the fad aspects of Keto as a diet, is that there are a lot more low carb options out there. Of course, ymmv with various fiber varieties and low/no calorie sweeteners in practice. Makes it a little easier to keep carb load minimal. I still do far better sticking to eggs, meat and greens, but it's hard to do.

Can relate as I lived borderline keto for a while. That was nice as my sugar was very stable. Then I decided carbs are nicer.

And sure, sweeteners are the better option for drinks. Still prefer my dessert with some sugar.

If you have a safety-critical decision maker running on Android doesn't that raise the criticality of the OS (provided there is no other fall-back)?

For the regulatory people out there, how does this align in terms of risk management in the world of IEC 62304?

Many other similar devices use all types of OSS.

You just need to make sure it fails safe. If the OS or any software hangs or crashes just make sure the thing turns off and doesn't dump all the insulin or anything.

I would want a beep or something to let me know it had disconnected. (Also a low battery alarm as well.) On the device not on the phone. And the phone should have the same thing if the device does not respond to a heartbeat signal.

But this is the mitigations I am asking in terms of risk management. Perhaps people using the app can comment if any of this is already implemented?

I have an AndroidAPS. This is how it works. If the phone loses contact for any reason the device just falls back to delivering insulin at a fixed rate as normal.

My first thought was this sounded like Tasker. From that link it looks like a similar concept with workflows focused around insulin pumps.

Neat, but GPS is harder to spoof.

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