Activity tracker

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
An activity tracker worn as a clip on trousers.
Samsung Galaxy Fit

An activity tracker (also fitness or health bracelet , smart band or fitness tracker ) is a portable electronic device (" wearable ") or an application for recording and sending fitness and health-related data such as running distances, energy expenditure and in some cases Cases also include heart rate or sleep quality. The term is mainly used for electronic monitoring devices that can be worn on the body, which are synchronized (in many cases wirelessly) with a computer or smartphone for data acquisition over a longer period of time. Apart from these portable devices, there are also comparable applications for smartphones.

history

Activity trackers are data loggers that can be worn on the body and specifically record and monitor a person's fitness activities. The original concept is based on the written recording of such data and their manual entry in tabular form on the computer, as was done in the USA by the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports as part of the The President's Challenge program. Improved technologies have made it possible to automate and miniaturize the monitoring and recording of fitness activities using sensors and microprocessors , so that they are possible with devices that are easy to wear on the body. Previous examples of this technology from the early 1990s included wristwatch-sized cycle computers that monitored speed, duration, distance, etc. Portable heart rate monitors for athletes already existed in 1981.

Portable devices for recording fitness activity had been available to the general consumer since the early 2000s and also made it possible to record heart rate via a wireless connection to special apparatus in gyms. Portable tracking computers with built-in fitness training and fitness plans were freely available from 2006.

Range of functions

Electronic activity trackers are upgraded pedometers that, in addition to counting steps, also have the properties of acceleration sensors and altimeters . They calculate the distance covered and the energy expenditure based on the number of steps and display the physical activities graphically. Some can also measure the heartbeat rate or nightly movements, from which phases of light and deep sleep can be derived, the quality of sleep. The heart rate can be determined with the help of a chest strap or an optical sensor that is built into the activity trackers. Some products have a quiet alarm that vibrates or reminds the wearer of something.

While earlier versions such as the original Fitbit (2009) were still attached to the waist with a clamp, the options for attachment to the body are now more diverse. Activity trackers are currently available in the form of bracelets, clips and necklaces and can therefore be worn on different parts of the body. As a rule, the actual functional unit can be detached from the bracelet or the clip and inserted into another holder. The same products can usually be worn both as a clip and as a bracelet.

Some manufacturers provide soft cuffs for wearing the activity tracker at night.

Apple and Nike have jointly developed the Nike + iPod , a shoe that is equipped with a sensor and can be connected to the iPod Nano . The Nike + system now also works without a shoe sensor via the GPS of a cell phone. There are also various applications for smartphones and Facebook that can record fitness activities. In the USA, BodyMedia has developed an activity tracker that should be worn once for a week and is aimed at health and insurance companies as well as employers to measure the fitness of their employees. Headphones are a better place for an activity tracker to measure certain data, such as body temperature. Valencell has developed sensors for newer activity trackers that collect data from the ears instead of the wrist, arm or waist.

There are also activity trackers for dogs that attach to collars.

The price of the activity tracker also depends on the brand and equipment. High-end devices sometimes cost more than 200 euros, while entry-level models are available for 20 to 40 euros.

rating

Activity trackers can be an effective tool for increasing physical fitness because they turn training into a kind of game. The underlying discipline is called gamification .

They also offer the opportunity to publish your own progress via social media and compare it with others. This creates entire online communities with which the user identifies and whose members encourage each other.

Certain movement sequences, such as doing household chores, cycling, swimming, dancing or rowing, can falsify the results obtained by fitness bracelets. In a test by Stiftung Warentest, for example, no product even came close to determining the distance of a bike tour. Furthermore, the values ​​determined for the energy conversion are incorrect. Large discrepancies between the data obtained with fitness bracelets and reality have also been found in the heart rate, and it is recommended that chest straps be used for this purpose .

Fitness bracelets can be uncomfortable to wear and inadvertently detach from your arm. In some products, mutagenic substances have been detected.

Usage and chances of success

According to a survey by Bitkom Research, activity trackers are already relatively common in Germany. According to this, 31 percent of German citizens over the age of 14 use a fitness tracker. 18 percent use fitness bracelets, 13 percent use fitness apps via smartphone and six percent use smartwatches. Nevertheless, consumers are quite critical of the devices. According to a consumer survey by YouGov, 32 percent of those questioned fear incorrect readings and 31 percent incorrect health advice. 39 percent see use by third parties as a problem. The results of a study among (half) marathon participants show that semi-professional users are nonetheless open to sharing the recorded data with third parties. This is especially true for friends (51.7 percent) or members of the family (43.4 percent); On the other hand, doctors (32.3 percent) or health insurance companies (12 percent) are less trusted.

Several studies attempted to determine whether the use of electronic aids helped increase the chances of success in patients who wanted to change their diet and lifestyle in order to reduce excess weight or obesity and to live healthier lives. A 2015 study by the University of Jerusalem attempted to determine whether web and technology-based tools over traditional counseling would increase the success of encouraging and maintaining people to lead a healthy and balanced lifestyle with exercise and proper nutrition . The success was clearly visible. The subjects who were equipped with the aids lost an average of 1.44 kg in 14 weeks, while the members of the control group only lost 0.124 kg. The quality of the diet and the knowledge about it was also significantly better thanks to the aids .

A more detailed study in 2016 (data from 2010–2012) by the University of Pittsburgh , however, came to a different conclusion. Only the effect of additional fitness trackers was compared here. Both control and intervention groups had access to fitness and nutrition web content. The intervention group was also provided with a fitness bracelet and an associated app. After 24 months, hardly any differences in healthy diet and fitness were found, but the control group lost an average of 5.4 kg, while the intervention group was only 3.5 kg lighter on average. The researchers therefore concluded that this additional tool offered no longer-term benefit. Studies with young people also came to mixed results.

Activity trackers require discipline from their wearers if they are to lead to long-term success. According to Nielsen market research, 50 percent of all fitness trackers are no longer used after a few months.

privacy

Some users are critical of the technology and emphasize that the data is a “mirror” that can misrepresent one's identity . All forms of personal data collection would have an impact on privacy. Social networks connected to Activity Tracker would lead to an invasion of privacy such as B. involuntary publication of sexual activities.

In addition to the voluntary data such as weight, height, age, gender or resting heart rate , automatically determined data such as heart rate , micro-movements in the apartment or sleeping habits can also be transmitted through the general terms and conditions. The apps on some fitness bracelets not only transfer personal data, but also private address data to servers on the Internet without being asked .

Beginning in December 2016 warned the data protection authorities of several German federal states and the German Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information , that none of 16 tested Wearables the questions of data protection law have met regulations.

In 2018, Soma Analytics received the negative BigBrotherAward in the working world category for its efforts to place the health app “Kelaa” with employees and the associated Kelaa dashboard in the HR departments of companies , said laudator Prof. Dr. Peter Wedde.

Forecasts for sales and turnover in Germany

In September 2015, the digital association Bitkom published forecasts for the German market, according to which activity trackers are expected to generate total sales of 240 million euros for 2015 as a whole. The sales figure is estimated at around 1.72 million devices. According to Bitkom, the average price for an activity tracker in 2015 was 66 euros.

Manufacturers and products (selection)

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Governor Rell's Committee on Physical Fitness calls on residents to join President's Challenge to get more active . Press release, Stamford Plus , April 2, 2008.
  2. ↑ a b Olympic Medical Institute Validates Polar RS800 Running Computer And Training System . Polar, November 7, 2006, accessed February 25, 2014.
  3. ↑ Dave Phillips: Polar RS800 not just another heart rate monitor . CNET , October 3, 2007, accessed February 25, 2014.
  4. ↑ a b Jeff Beckham, "Fitness Trackers Use Psychology to Motivate Couch Potatoes" , Wired , April 19, 2012 found.
  5. ↑ a b Jill Duffy, "The Best activity tracker for Fitness" , PC Magazine , May 22, 2013.
  6. ↑ a b Caroline McCarthy, "Work out, get on scale ... tell your friends?" , CNET, July 21, 2010.
  7. ↑ a b Rheana Murray, "smart phones become fitness coaches with new wearable activity trackers" , New York Daily News , August 16, 2013.
  8. ^ Danny Sullivan, "The test begins: My life with four activity trackers, fitness bands," CNET, March 28, 2013.
  9. ↑ "CES: Track your activity level, get cheaper health insurance?" , Stream, Consumer Electronics Show , MarketWatch, The Wall Street Journal , Jan 10, 2013.
  10. ↑ David Z. Morris, "Forget the iWatch. Headphones are the original wearable tech" , Fortune , June 24, 2014.
  11. ↑ "Whistle wearable technology for dogs lets owners monitor pet activity" , De Zeen , May 14, 2014.
  12. ↑ Jill Duffy, "Whistle Dog Activity Tracker Adds GPS Location Finder" , PC Magazine , May 21, 2014.
  13. ↑ a b c d e f Fitness bracelets: Only two out of twelve are good . test.de , December 27, 2015, accessed January 5, 2016.
  14. ↑ Bitkom, February 9, 2016: "Almost a third use fitness trackers"
  15. ↑ Martin Wiesner, Richard Zowalla, Julian Suleder, Maximilian Westers, Monika Pobiruchin. Technology Adoption, Motivational Aspects, and Privacy Concerns of Wearables in the German Running Community: Field Study. In: JMIR Mhealth Uhealth. Volume 6, No. 12, December 14, 2018, e201. doi: 10.2196 / mhealth.9623 , PMID 30552085 - (English): "In the case of voluntary sharing, runners preferred to exchange tracked data with friends (51.7%, 319/617), family members (43.4%, 268/617) , or a physician (32.3%, 199/617). "
  16. ↑ Gunther Eysenbach: The Impact of a Web-Based App (eBalance) in Promoting Healthy Lifestyles. Randomized Controlled Trial . In: Journal of Medical Internet Research . tape 17 , no. 3 , 2015, ISSN  1439-4456 , doi : 10.2196 / jmir.3682 , PMID 25732936 , PMC 4376125 (free full text) - (English): “We showed a positive impact of a newly developed Web-based app on lifestyle indicators during an intervention of 14 weeks. These results are promising in the app's potential to promote a healthy lifestyle, although larger and longer duration studies are needed to achieve more definitive conclusions. "
  17. ↑ JM Jakicic, KK Davis, RJ Rogers, WC King, MD Marcus, D. Helsel, AD Rickman, AS Wahed, SH Belle: Effect of Wearable Technology Combined With a Lifestyle Intervention on Long-term Weight Loss: The IDEA Randomized Clinical Trial . In: JAMA . tape 316 , no. 11 , September 20, 2016, ISSN  1538-3598 , p. 1161–1171 , doi : 10.1001 / jama.2016.12858 , PMID 27654602 , PMC 5480209 (free full text) - (English): “Among young adults with a BMI between 25 and less than 40, the addition of a wearable technology device to a standard behavioral intervention resulted in less weight loss over 24 months. Devices that monitor and provide feedback on physical activity may not offer an advantage over standard behavioral weight loss approaches. "
  18. ↑ ND Ridgers, MA McNarry, KA Mackintosh: Feasibility and Effectiveness of Using wearable activity tracker in Youth: A Systematic Review . In: JMIR Mhealth Uhealth . tape 4 , no. 4 , 23 November 2016, ISSN  2291-5222 , p. e129 , doi : 10.2196 / mhealth.6540 , PMID 27881359 , PMC 5143467 (free full text) - (English): “There is a paucity of research concerning the effectiveness and feasibility of wearable activity trackers as a tool for increasing children's and adolescents' physical activity levels. While there are some preliminary data to suggest these devices may have the potential to increase activity levels through self-monitoring and goal setting in the short term, more research is needed to establish longer-term effects on behavior. "
  19. ↑ https://de.linkedin.com/pulse/fitness-tracker-die-6-wichtsten-tipps-bevor-sie-einen-reiner-kafitz
  20. ↑ Seattle Times blogs, January 28, 2013, Mónica Guzmán, blogs.seattletimes.com: “Using tech to change your habits? Lessons from a behavior change fanatic "
  21. ^ Anita L. Allen, "Dredging up the Past: Lifelogging, Memory, and Surveillance" ( Memento December 13, 2013 in the Internet Archive ), The University of Chicago Law Review 75 (2008) 47-74 (pdf)
  22. ↑ Jack Loftus, "Dear Fitbit Users, Kudos On the 30 Minutes of 'Vigorous Sexual Activity' Last Night" , Gizmodo , July 3, 2011. The company has changed privacy settings to avoid this: "Updates to your profile page" ( Memento July 9, 2011 in the Internet Archive ), Fitbit blog, July 4, 2011.
  23. ↑ deutschlandfunk.de , news from December 5th, 2016 : Data protection authorities warn against digital fitness tapes ( Memento from December 5th, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) (December 5th, 2016)
  24. ↑ https://bigbrotherawards.de/2018/arbeitswelt-soma-analytics
  25. ↑ Smartphones, tablets and wearables get entertainment electronics going . Bitkom press release of September 1, 2015, accessed on September 30, 2015.
  26. ↑ Smartphones, fitness trackers, smartwatches: mobile devices push consumer electronics . Wirtschaftswoche Online, September 1, 2015, accessed on September 30, 2015.
  27. ↑ Caspar Hohrenk, "The large activity tracker comparison" , July 30, 2014, accessed: September 24, 2014
  28. ^ Richard Lai, "Huawei's first smartband has a pop-out earpiece for voice calls" , Engadget , February 23, 2014, accessed: September 14, 2014
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  30. ↑ Catherine Shu, "Nudge is a dashboard for all your fitness wearables and apps" , TechCrunch , August 17, 2014.
  31. ↑ Ali Vahid Roodsari, "The New Runtastic Orbit Can Do That" , Focus , August 9, 2014, accessed: September 24, 2014
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  33. ↑ Anurag Kumar, "Sony SmartBand Talk SWR30 launched with 1.4" e-paper display at IFA 2014 " , Gizmo Bolt September 3, 2014, accessed: September 14, 2014.