Wearable Fitness Devices Let Others Monitor Your Sex Life | Hacker News Reader

Wearable Fitness Devices Let Others Monitor Your Sex Life

animalnewyork.com

39 pointsClaudus37 comments

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Problem - device monitors your activity while being worn.

Solution - take it off.

And everybody will wonder why you took it off for this time, when you usually wear it 24/7.

So, adapted solution: Don't wear it at all.

And pay a higher premium as punishment for failing to provide the data to your health insurance

Or chaff the signal by taking it off every diceroll hours for diceroll minutes.

Or, you know, don't share the data with people you don't trust.

I have a Basis B1 band that I've been using on and off since launch. The one thing it is really poor at is capturing heart rate information and other metrics during periods of heavy activity. If you are working out or performing an intense activity, the device frequently dismisses the activity as noise for one and stops capturing the data. e.g. when my heart's pounding after a heavy lift or a sprint and is ready to pop out, the Basis band either stops recording or shows my heart rate that's no where close to true. I've exchanged emails with them in the past about their algorithms dismissing such activity as noise but they've maintained that they cannot discuss the algorithms they use to calculate the metrics and it's not a device to be used for such purposes; it's more about giving you a rough estimate as you carry on your day to day life.

As far as sudden heart rate increases during the night, you could possibly co-relate it to your dreaming; I woke up sweaty once after having a nightmare and my skin temperature & heart rate #s were definitely skewed by a good margin as compared to a normal night of sleep.

Judging from the LED they have on the underside they are using optical oximetry: basically you can see the blood flow dynamic based solely on the levels of oxygen under the skin.

That explains why it's not accurate when you move: once you move your arm your blood flow becomes so unstable that it's practically impossible to "see" the pulse there. This is a known problem.

True. They do use other sensors to gauge the skin temperature and such. Coupling the data from that plus the accelerometer, you would at least be able to improve upon the metrics calculated. From my understanding, it's not so much of the "seeing" of the pulse being the issue as the algorithms they use to cut off the data collection, identifying it as "noise". As a result, there is errant or missing data collection during rest periods (when optical oximetry wouldn't suffer due to the movement). If there's a sustained movement, using data such as skin temp and accelerometer makes it easier to identify what's noise and what not. Their calorie tracking really suffers due to the errant tracking of heart rate and the intense activity periods; comparing my off-days with workout days, the difference in calories burnt is a meagre 100-150 calories. A moderately brisk walk alone burns about 200 calories an hour.

I suppose I was expecting some basic learning algorithms that adjust the data collection according to your day to day activities; but then this is the first iteration of the product, so there's hope. At this point of time, for me, it is just a sleep tracker + pedometer + a basic overview of the day.

How does an accelerometer tell someone looking at the data whether or not the wearer had an orgasm? This piece seems more designed to cause outrage than to actually inform anyone of the risks of sharing data.

Also, unless the device is capturing all the CO2 you exhale (or you live inside a calorimeter), it doesn't know how many calories you burned.

Basis has a heart rate monitor built in... that would give more information (not sure it could tell orgasm or not, unless there is some unique heart signature after orgasm...)

It might not be unique, but I imagine the timing of sudden heart-rate increases/decreases could be quite telling. It is probably unlikely that most people would go for a run at 2am for example.

well yeah, its the press :|

as if they ever wanted to inform people.

Stop the press. Device designed to record all of your behavior reveals what you are doing all the time.

The solution of course is you buy it, you own it, you control it.

I made one of those my own, they are very simple to make, with an microarduino to store data.

It is very useful to me, but I won't give the data to any external person-entity.

PS:I can't understand connecting it to the cloud like some people do.

have you posted details of your project anywhere? its not something I'd be likely to do myself but given the popularity of the devices and likely ease of construction/coding it could be a very good intermediate project for a lot of budding hardware hackers

This is an old problem.

Cameras also let others monitor your sex life.

Of course, that's only true if you take pictures while you are having sex and then share those pictures with others... just like with wearable fitness devices.

I suppose pimps are a target customer. To keep an eye on the workforce and all.

Fake enthusiasm… for the sensors?

24/7 real-time monitoring is the very definition of distrust...

Do people actually wear these things while sleeping, though? How do you charge the battery, then?

The fitbit, at least, only needs a recharge once a week or so, and it charges fairly fast. One could imagine just plugging it into their laptop for an hour or so while sitting on the couch, and that's all it really needs.

The Jawbone UP runs 10 (!) days on a single charge. I charge mine while driving in the car so as not to lose any steps.

BodyMedia monitors your sleep, shows (approximately) when you're asleep and when you're awake, and shows your total sleep time. So does FitBit and others.

Why would anyone share his health data with other people?

The same people who think myfitnesspal should be a social network? The kind of people who think a fitbit is a competition to see who walks the most? Without putting my tin foil hat on, there is a reason this shit operates the way it does.

The solution is to have all your sex in the shower.

Some of these devices are wore (almost) all the time. The Jawbone UP is water-resistant for example. I wear it while showering.

do you wear anything else? or is that it? I am shopping around for these things to see what all the fuss is about.

Only the UP. I swim regularly. Note that you can't wear it while swimming, and while you can log exercise manually, it's less than perfect.

I'd recommend getting the UP. It's great. I wrote a bit about it at http://hboon.com/jawbone-up

My girlfriend and I (who each have Fitbits) have joked around several times about the potential for Fitbit to be able to track sex. And now, someone's doing just that.

Wasn't Fitbit hit by this issue shortly after the launch few year ago? You'd think others would've learned from that unfortunate incident.

> Wearable Fitness Devices Let Others Monitor your lack of sex life.

FTFY

Maybe they'll start building these into our mandatory Malthusian belts.

Or you could... just take it off at night / whenever is convenient?

Your jealous lover might insist you wear it 24/7 when away

And you should walk away from any such relationship.

there is nothing like "Monitor Your Sex Life" its another health monitoring device.

I don't think that is going to be much of a problem for THIS audience :D

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