The days of huge computers have long since sunk into oblivion. That powerful set of electronics that fit into system unit under the table, now fits easily in your pocket. The next step in the evolution of technology is the computers that we will wear on ourselves - smart watches, glasses, bracelets, pendants, clothes. While the whole world is frozen in anticipation of Google Glass and Apple Watch, the only truly affordable and common wearable computers are fitness bracelets.
ON THIS TOPIC
Using the Oregon Scientific Ssmart Dynamo PE128 smart bracelet as an example Days.Ru analyze how such gadgets can help in sports, whether they are convenient to use and whether they are worth buying.
Design
The Oregon Scientific bracelet is called the Ssmart Dynamo and is an electronic module housed inside a silicone strap. The design of the device is laconic: there is one button and an LED indicator on the bracelet. The strap color will satisfy the most demanding taste. The black one looks the most brutal, with which we tried to surprise the metro passengers by rolling up our sleeves and grasping the handrail. The bracelet really attracts attention.
application
The set includes a USB charger for connecting to a computer and an instruction manual. In addition to the bracelet itself, you need to download the OS Dynamo app for iOS or Android, which syncs with the bracelet and shows all sports activity.
First of all, the mobile application offers to create your own profile and specify standard data - gender, age, height and weight. Based on the information entered, the service will draw up a schedule - how much sports you need per day, how many kilometers to overcome, take steps and burn calories. Moreover, all tasks can be corrected manually.
The bracelet is synchronized with the application via Bluetooth and will automatically calculate all performed actions and monitor the quality of sleep, and as a result - build statistics on all indicators. The only thing that needs to be entered manually into the app is the number of calories consumed. The main thing here is perseverance and patience in the search for products. Problems are also created by the fact that the application is not Russified, so you have to search for the name of the products in English (or a dozen other popular languages of the world).
Charging
A nice addition, especially for fans of sophisticated gadgets, in which the battery needs to be charged several times a day, is the bracelet charging: it works autonomously for up to two weeks. In fact, you can put the bracelet on your wrist and forget about the need to charge it. An absolute plus.
Water resistance
Ssmart Dynamo also has an interesting relationship with water. The manual says that it can withstand immersion to a depth of ten meters, but it is recommended not to take a shower with it. Washing his hands with water getting on the bracelet did not do any harm to him, as well as a shower. We were unable to dive to a depth of ten meters, but after visiting the pool, he continued to work as usual.
Motivation
The main thing that this and similar bracelets gives is motivation. When you see on the charts that yesterday you walked seven kilometers and did sports for half an hour, and today only three kilometers and five minutes, it makes you get up and at least take a walk. As a maximum for office clerks and journalists - get yourself in order. Do you need a kick like this to play sports or go for a walk from a stuffy office? Everyone will decide for himself. More, as it seemed to us, is not required from such bracelets.
Recently, more and more companies are bringing wearable gadgets to the masses, claiming that they can help monitor health. IT giants Samsung, Apple and Microsoft have published proprietary applications for collecting medical data for a long time.
Today we will talk about why smart watches and bracelets need to monitor health, how all this is done and, most importantly, whether these indications can be trusted.
Let's make a reservation right away that we will only talk about those gadgets that make up the bulk of wearable devices - watches and fitness trackers. All kinds of portable glucometers and electrocardiographs are the topic of a separate article.
From the point of view of medicine, today wearable devices can do practically nothing. From the point of view of everyday needs, there are already measurements of heart rate, number of steps, body and ambient temperature, as well as hand position.
And now it's time to pay a little more attention to how it works. We will focus on measuring heart rate and temperature as these are the only medical indicators listed.
Pulse
In most gadgets, changes occur through photoplethysmography. A bright light is transmitted through a hand or finger, and a camera or a special sensor reads the detected vessel vibrations. If you have a smartwatch, you can look at the back and see the sensors. Most often, green LEDs are installed.
In fact, a smartphone can do the same if its camera and flash are close to each other. The error of this method is only 1-2 beats per minute, which is not critical. But the measurement method is a whole procedure: go into the epp, put your finger on, activate it, wait. In turn, wearable gadgets make readings invisibly and constantly.
By the way, in hospitals, the pulse is measured in the same way, but with a more advanced technique. Surely they saw how a “clothespin” was hooked onto a patient's finger. This thing also measures the oxygen saturation of the blood. The principle is as follows: the signal passes through the finger from the light source to the picking sensor.
It would be great to have something like this in smart walkers, but enlightening the wrist without attracting attention or harming the body is difficult.
Temperature
There is nothing laborious about such a measurement, but few manufacturers integrate such sensors into their products. So, the pioneers were Jawbone with bracelet Up 3. In order not to overload the case with sensors, engineers have placed additional tools on the inside of the tracker. Thus, information comes from both sides of the wrist.
also in Up 3 there is a galvanic skin sensor. It is unlikely that it will be possible to describe its purpose in a few words, so we will tell you as much as possible.
It sounds like heresy, but the skin has an electrical activity that demonstrates the calmness or tension of the body. Of course, the concept itself contains many variables, such as the reaction of skin resistance or the level of skin potential. By collecting all these indicators, the sensor reports on the level of arousal at various moments - in a dream, at work, after a workout. By the way, the same sensor is installed in the same “lie detector”.
Credibility
For those who seriously thought about trusting analytics from wearable devices, we can definitely say that in this moment of technical progress, watches and bracelets do not pretend to be “professional diagnosticians”. Human health is still the concern of qualified doctors. If you come across a description of "mobile healers", then this is either a marketing ploy or a category of specialized medical gadgets.
Nevertheless, the data from the artillery sensors on the gadgets is reliable, but nothing more. After all, a disease is a complex process that can occur in people with different symptoms. For example, a sick person has a cough, a runny nose, an incomprehensible rash and has no strength to get out of bed, but there is no temperature. In this case, the smart device will only detect small fluctuations from activities such as sneezing or wrapping yourself in a blanket. That is, only 1 indicator, even the pulse, cannot be diagnosed.
Today even devices from companies Sony, Samsung, Jawbone and a newbie in the form Apple can only tell about how active they are and how soundly they sleep. Although doctors can analyze the health of the lifestyle and with these meager parameters. For example, an asthmatic person with a normal heart rate who has walked from 6,000 to 10,000 steps per day will be recognized as a “person in excellent physical shape” as a native gadget. And if the owner eats right, then the electronics equate him to almost "athletes".
Benefit
Despite our skepticism, you can get some important information with the help of smart accessories. It is important to remember that 60 to 100 beats per minute is normal for an adult at rest. For athletes, these numbers range from 40 to 50 beats per minute. The maximum that a heart can develop is calculated using the formula 220 beats per minute minus age. The resulting number is your personal maximum, which is worth starting from when you decide to go for a run.
Simply put, 200 hits is a maximum of 20 years. Then you need to figure out what you want to get out of your run. So, the standard for fitness is 65-85% of the maximum. So we get that for an easy run, the heart must beat in the range from 130 to 160 beats per minute. If the actual indicators are significantly higher or lower, then we advise you not to postpone the visit to the therapist. In turn, in athletes with heavy loads, the heart rate reaches 80-90% of the maximum.
Practice
In conclusion, I would like to reflect on the topic of when it is worth waiting for a truly full-fledged diagnostic device to appear. Obviously, in Russia the process will take longer than in Europe, where the term “mobile medicine” is already being widely used. Domestic doctors still interpret the phrase as a special squad on wheels.
But American investors who are looking for medical startups are already promoting and licensing miracle gadgets with might and main. Or a recent Google patent that is supposed to fight cancer cells.
There are many examples, but the caveat is that they are concepts, patents or startups. Although from such steps a new round of progress may start very soon. Naturally, a strong push from the engines of the industry and huge data centers that will accumulate the collected information are needed.
We hope that the development will not be long in coming. And we are even ready to bet that really useful medical gadgets will appear in 5 years.
P.S. If there are medical professionals among those who have read the article, then we will be glad to hear the opinions and forecasts of professionals.
People who, even with a busy life, strive to find ways to monitor their health, have long known about the existence of such smart accessories as fitness bracelets. If you belong to this category of citizens and have already begun to ask the price of potential inhabitants of your wrist, then we advise you not to rush. If you already own an iPhone 5s, iPhone 6, or iPhone 6 Plus, then you may not need to worry about the additional costs.
If you are not aware, your smartphones have motion coprocessors installed, that is, in fact, the same chips used in popular pedometer models. And if you open in iOS 8, you will find that the system has been tracking your movements for a long time and keeps statistics on your steps every day. Thus, we can already say that if you have one of the aforementioned iPhone models, then you already carry the pedometer in your pocket. And if you install good app to record movements, the question arises: is it necessary to buy a special accessory for this?
Recently, a study by scientists from the University of Pennsylvania was published, in which the accuracy of the readings of pedometer sensors of popular fitness bracelets, as well as several models of smartphones with installed applications to track steps. The comparison was attended by: Samsung Galaxy S4 with Moves App, Moves App, Health Mate and Fitbit, and Wristbands, Fitbit Flex, Fitbit One, Fitbit Zip and Digi-Walker SW-200.
Participants in the experiment were asked to walk 500 and 1500 steps on a treadmill at a speed of 5 km / h. To obtain the most accurate results, the process was repeated 28 times. As a result, the readings of smartphones' sensors deviated from real data in the range from -6.7 to 6.2 percent. The bracelets, on the other hand, showed much less impressive accuracy, with a deviation range of -22.7 to 1.5 percent.
First of all, I would like to sympathize with those who purchased the Fuelband bracelet: the miracle of technology from Nike as a pedometer is significantly inferior not only to bracelets, but also to phones. In the graph below, you can see how far the recorded metrics deviate from the actual number of steps taken.
The Fitbit One and Fitbit Zip bracelets showed almost perfect results, but if you look at the indicators demonstrated by the iPhone 5s, it becomes obvious that the M7 coprocessor is not so much mistaken to go to the store for a fitness accessory.
The results of this test indicate one thing: if sports bracelets can interest the owners of iPhone models of the last two years, then perhaps the function of an alarm clock and a notifier. As for their main purpose, here their presence seems to be completely superfluous. All that remains is to wait for April and see what performance will be demonstrated by the long-awaited Apple Watch, which is designed to revolutionize sports and healthcare.
Based on materials from JamaNetwork.com
Probably everyone who considers himself a supporter of a healthy lifestyle knows (and some are the owner of this fashionable gadget) what a modern fitness bracelet is.
The peak of popularity of this device, which is useful in many respects, has already passed, however, even today there are many who consider the bracelet necessary in the daily control of their body and to get the most out of their workouts.
It is quite possible that you, having succumbed to a newfangled hobby at one time, acquired a similar fitness bracelet, but in recent months it has been peacefully living out its life in a distant drawer of a table or chest of drawers. So, was it worth the candle, does such a gadget really help in training and self-control, or is its functionality, to put it mildly, embellished?
Perhaps this is a conspiracy of marketing companies and manufacturers who have earned tens and hundreds of millions of dollars from bracelets? Is it worth taking out your old fitness bracelet to the white light again, or is it better to leave it as it is? Let's figure it out together.
The main functions of fitness bracelets. What is it needed for?
What is any fitness bracelet, what is it for and how is it used in various sports? You should not attribute supernatural and miraculous properties to this gadget, believing that as soon as you wear it constantly, your well-being and health will improve and reach a new level by themselves.
By the way, this is exactly what numerous scammers and unscrupulous sellers advocated at one time, advertising inexpensive bracelets with minimal functionality as a panacea for almost any ailment.
In fact, a fitness bracelet is a rather complex and multifunctional technical device used as a control sensor, as an alarm clock, and as an organizer for your daily routine. It is used to measure heart rate (some models can even measure blood pressure), to track different phases of sleep, to monitor your daily activity.
The standard functionality of a high-quality fitness bracelet, regardless of cost and manufacturer, includes such features as:
- measuring the total number of steps (per day, per hour, per minute);
- measuring the distance traveled;
- pulse control;
- smart alarm clock;
- counting calories burned during exercise;
- tracking sleep phases.
What is the difference between fitness bracelets for different sports and how to choose the right device for your needs? It is important to understand what goal you set for yourself when buying such a gadget.
If you are just trying to lead an active lifestyle and control calories, you can choose models of the middle price category with step counters, heart rate monitor and calorie counting.
Often such bracelets are practically indistinguishable from wristwatches and are perfect for any wardrobe. They are compatible with your mobile gadgets, which allows you to control the situation on the screen of smartphones on Android base or iOS.
Which fitness bracelet to choose
If you are a professional athlete, you should consider more advanced options that allow you to not only keep track of steps, calories, heart rate and other parameters, but also analyze your workouts for better results.
A professional running fitness tracker, for example, can help keep your body at the best pace.
For those visiting the pools, waterproof swim bracelets are suitable, which can function even at serious depths. If you are looking for a weight loss assistant, you can choose a model that calculates calories consumed and burned. Their only drawback is the need for the constant manual introduction of the calorie intake of food. It takes a lot of time, however, and results in good results.
How to choose a brand or manufacturer? In this area, today there are several brands that deserve attention. First of all, these are bracelets from Xiaomi of the MiBand line, which are among the best in terms of price and quality. Workouts are monitored using your smartphone.
Samsung Model Gear Fit Is a full-fledged smart watch with a color display that displays all the necessary information. Professional athletes often choose the Garmin brand and the popular Vivofit range. The gadgets of this line are distinguished by their minimum size, maximum functionality, and the measurement error is no more than 3-4%.
Fitness bracelets - good or bad?
Do you need or do not need a personal fitness bracelet? Everyone should answer this question independently. In this matter, as elsewhere, motivation is very important. Buying a fancy and multifunctional gadget and wearing it instead of a wristwatch is like using a modern smartphone exclusively for calls and text messages.
The bracelet won't make you lead healthy image life and will not work a miracle by evaporating your extra pounds during sleep. It is very important to understand that only your desire to change yourself for the better and achieve a certain sports form is a guarantee of success.
In this case, the bracelet acts as a kind of trainer and motivator. It can help make your workouts in the gym, jogging, or in the pool even more productive.
Its only disadvantage for many is that expectations are unjustified - we believe that the mere possession of such a gadget is evidence of the correctness of the chosen path, sometimes without making any effort to personally contribute to the improvement of your body.
So, the bracelet is a bracelet, and no one canceled proper nutrition and constant fitness classes! And if you still want to look great, then take out your fitness tracker and go to: it will make your workouts even more productive!
While the fashion for wearable electronics is actively taking over the world, more and more people are wondering why fitness bracelets and fitness trackers are needed? On the Internet, controversies flare up every now and then: is there any use of smart bracelets, or is it a tribute to fashion and another trinket for geeks. Let's think it over.
Know yourself
The first opportunity that "electronic clever people" open to us is to learn more about their body. As a rule, it is difficult to objectively assess the daily regimen, nutrition and rest without exact figures. If the commute to work takes two hours and takes a lot of energy, it seems to us that we are active. At the same time, we often do not think that we are sitting in transport for these two hours, and we walk for 5-10 minutes. It seems to us that not eating breakfast in the morning or not having dinner after 18 hours, we will lose weight and feel good, although in fact the absence of breakfast slows down the metabolism, and 18 hours is a figure taken from the ceiling, and by eating in this way, you can strongly yourself harm.
And wrist gadgets, recording daily activity and storing it in the form of graphs and statistics, help to look at your lifestyle from a different angle: based on accurate data, evaluate not only daily results, but also trends, and deduce patterns.
Motivation and discipline
“Those who start a new life on Monday” are probably familiar with the situation: that same Monday has come, training and diet have begun, a couple of weeks pass, or maybe a month, but outwardly the results are still not visible. It seems that the efforts are down the drain, and soon training and diet are abandoned. It's really hard to force yourself to continue if you don't see what you've achieved.
How can you see it? With a smart bracelet, achievements are visible from day one. And the fruits of each hour of training, daily results and their dynamics, presented clearly, is the best motivation to move on. By analyzing their statistics, comparing the results with the norm and the goals set, everyone will be able to adjust the mode of activity, nutrition and rest.
Another rather pleasant "pros" plus "wrist assistants": no need to spend time keeping a sports diary and counting calories, the data is recorded automatically.
No less motivating is the opportunity to compete with family, friends and colleagues by adding them as friends in the application. Does anyone want to be the worst? I'm sure not.
Dieting
For those who follow a diet, top smart bracelets offer a convenient power analytics system. Gone are the days of inconvenient calorie counters in which you need to enter ingredients and then write down the amounts. Now you just need to select a dish from the catalog or scan its barcode, and your food diary will be filled with data on the calorie content and nutritional value of the food eaten, and the application will show how much the daily requirement has been fulfilled.
Although it can be useful for those who are not dieting. Do you know the calorie content of your favorite treat? It always seemed to me that snacking on "Snickers" is a trifle that will not affect the figure. But when you add what you eat to the application, rather curious things become clear: it turned out that the above-mentioned bar in terms of calorie content is practically equal to a third of my daily value. In other words, more than one meal. It is disappointing, even if we consider only the energy value and do not go into its nutritional composition. In this way, empirically, an understanding comes from where the extra pounds came from, and how to avoid them.
Changing or maintaining weight
By the way, about the kilograms. For many, fitness trackers become assistants in losing weight or, conversely, in gaining mass. How? Firstly, they help to monitor activity, and secondly, they help to monitor nutrition. These data should be considered not separately, but in conjunction. Most often, the gadget itself counts steps and calorie consumption in motion, but two numbers are not enough to control weight, so if you want to lose or gain weight, carefully study the capabilities of the supplied software.
For example, a graph of calorie consumption by time of day will allow you to understand when and on what you spend the most energy, how the load is distributed throughout the day and week. It is important to be able to estimate how many calories are spent on a particular activity. Indeed, by changing the ratio between different types of activity, it is easy to regulate the number of calories burned and control weight.
It must be remembered that calories are consumed both at rest and in sleep. It is convenient when the wrist device counts this, the main thing is that personal data (gender, height, weight, age) are taken into account in the calculation. And, of course, do not forget that balance is important in everything, weight also depends on the calories consumed. Their counting has already been mentioned above, not all smart bracelets can boast of them.
The "smartest" of such devices will calculate not only the calorie content, but also the nutritional value of the diet - the ratio of fats, proteins and carbohydrates, and the balance between consumed and burned calories. This greatly simplifies life: if you want to maintain weight - bring the balance to zero, if you want to lose extra pounds or gain the missing ones - achieve a difference of 10-15% percent between the calories received and consumed.
Deep sleep and good morning
Sleep is the most important component of the body's recovery and the regulation of biological rhythms. According to world statistics, more than 40% of residents of large cities suffer from sleep disorders. Insomnia often provokes an exacerbation of chronic or ongoing diseases and is fraught with serious health consequences, so you should think about your sleep. And here are the models with the sleep monitoring function to help.
A smart bracelet will help you assess the duration and effectiveness of sleep. But the main plus is that thanks to such a gadget it is possible to analyze which loads and food interfere with sound and sound sleep, and which contribute to good rest (after all, data on activity and nutrition are also recorded); monitor the effect of medications; plan the length of your rest and determine the best time to sleep.
The next plus is the hotly discussed and available on most trackers "smart alarm clock", which from the time interval you set will choose the sleep phase that is most suitable for waking up so that you wake up on time and in a good mood. Sound sleep, easy awakening and an alarm clock that does not disturb loved ones - isn't it good?
Outcomes
Main functions:
Activity monitoring
Sleep monitoring
Smart alarm clock
Nutrition monitoring
Calorie Balance Calculation
Calculation of the nutritional value of the diet
Distance calculation
Summing up the reflections on the topic "what is a fitness bracelet for", I would like to briefly note a few more useful things:
Many bracelets have watches
Ability to set vibration reminders
Setting goals and monitoring their achievement
Control of medication intake
Water balance
Remote control over the health of loved ones
Ability to send data to the attending physician or trainer
In general, we get a rather weighty list of functions designed to motivate us to lead an active lifestyle and monitor our health without spending a lot of time. But many will say that they do not need an expensive bracelet (although there are many inexpensive, but functional models) because similar functions are available in ordinary mobile applications. What is the fundamental difference?
1. If you have a smart bracelet - all your data in one application. You do not need to download 100 applications, register and enter data in each, synchronize them with each other and clog up the smartphone's memory.
2. For the accuracy of the results in steps, distance and activity in the application, because of the reminders, you need to constantly carry your smartphone with you. On a run, in the gym, or on the playing field, it will clearly get in the way. And in the office, he will often remain on the table while you go to lunch or a meeting. Needless to say, at home while cleaning, you are also unlikely to hold a smartphone in your hands or in your pocket. In the meantime, calories will be spent, but will not be counted. With a bracelet, this problem will not arise - it is always on the arm or on a special fastener for clothes.
3. Many applications work only when they are turned on or require that some functions be enabled on the phone (location determination, etc.). This inevitably speeds up the discharge. mobile device... Fitness bracelets do not require constant pairing with a smartphone, you can sync once a day or less - depending on the model. This will not greatly affect the charge of the smartphone, and you will be able to stay “in touch” much longer.
4. In applications, many functions are not available without the Internet, and with the bracelet you can see the activity directly on its display or in more detail in the smartphone, and the Internet is not needed (for example, this is how ONETRAK bracelets are arranged).
5. For global conclusions, statistics are needed for a long period of time, and the guaranteed period of data storage can be strikingly shorter for different applications in comparison with smart bracelets.
6. Mobile applications you cannot open it from a computer or laptop, many are not even adapted for a tablet. And manufacturers of fitness trackers make desktop versions to make it more comfortable to study charts.
Conclusions: smart bracelets and fitness trackers are not "expensive pedometers", not a "useless toy", not a panacea for all diseases, but they are convenient and functional devices that will save you time and help you stay in good shape, monitor your health and improve your physical shape. The main thing is to find the functionality you need and start moving towards your goals.