OT: Measuring your activity

As this forum is full of people that take their health very seriously and will monitor a number of vital stats, I thought that I would ask if anyone has an opinion on this device: http://www.fitbit.com/. I didn't know that it existed until today when my son sent me the link as something he might get my wife for Christmas.

My wife has a number of very serious health issues, some of which are treated with some heavy painkillers. For over two years, she has been tracking her steps with a pedometer and turns in the numbers weekly to her physical therapist. The therapist is in her neurologists' office so they collaborate on my wifes treatment. The step chart helps them to modify her therapy and, incidentally, continue to document her progress to the insurance company.

This device goes further than just counting steps, it seems to assess all activity around the clock. I'm not sure exactly what actionable information that this will provide but it is certainly a very cute use of the technology (geek that I am).

What do you think? Useful or bogus?

Thanks!
Clark

The device itself seems to be an Accelerometer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accelerometer which can be found in the controls of a Wii game console.

There must be some way of telling it the activity you are doing in order for the algorithms to give any kind of accurate results.

Per uncle_bob,

The device itself seems to be an Accelerometer...

Yeah, that was the first thing that thought of. Love the Wii - have you tried Wii fit? Talk about gathering statistics - that thing makes puts a Six Sigma blackbelt to shame!

But I like the "walk-by" data download on the fitbit. I wish my CPAP could send the data over to my PC via WiFi. After doing all of that exercise, it is just so much work to walk the card over to download

Snorebert wrote:Per uncle_bob,

The device itself seems to be an Accelerometer...

Yeah, that was the first thing that thought of. Love the Wii - have you tried Wii fit? Talk about gathering statistics - that thing makes puts a Six Sigma blackbelt to shame!

But I like the "walk-by" data download on the fitbit. I wish my CPAP could send the data over to my PC via WiFi. After doing all of that exercise, it is just so much work to walk the card over to download

I have not tried the Wii, but the wife has mentioned getting our kids one as a gift at Christmas.

As I blew much of the 80's vegged out in front of commodore 64 computer while all the other kids were out and about gaining social skills I'm a bit hesitant to get one

I can certainly understand that. While the Wii (and the accelerometer) seems to encourage physical activity, the social part could still be a problem. As for me and the wife, we are empty-nesters and it was the kids that got the Wii for us.

So if you are off on a ride south of South Mountain and see some old guy in his living room trying to do the Yoga Tree pose, that might be me. (And stop looking in my window )