Continuous Body Monitoring - Ambient Intelligence for Scientific Discovery - page 220

the process of discovering new information in a SenseWear data set of 64,000
multi-sensor samples. Topics included discovering if the wearer was watching
television and identifying the gender of the wearer [8].
SenseWear is mostly worn as an everyday health and fitness diagnostic tool.
However, SenseWear has also been used in out-of-the-ordinary situations and
by extraordinary people. Armbands have been used while training guards in a
mock prison riot and by airport fire fighters. SenseWear has gone up Mt. Everest,
traveled to both the North and South Poles, and has been around the world on a
yacht - all to better understand human physiology in extreme environments and
situations. In the field of sports, the armband helps athletes better understand
their bodies. Armbands have been worn by marathon runners, a super welter-
weight boxing champion, a Wimbledon tennis champion, and a basketball Hall
of Famer. SenseWear wearers include three gold medal Olympians.
SenseWear has been described as “a dashboard for your body.” Wearing the
armband has high value because it tells you objective information about your-
self, at a very low personal cost. Measures such as hydration and fatigue can
be indicated when they are dicult to impartially self observe. The fuel e-
ciency notion of miles-per-gallon can be transferred into human terms of caloric
eciency. With unobtrusive, noninvasive, continuous body monitoring, other
ambient intelligent devices have the opportunity to know you better.
Sensing silently
Data doesn't know its worth
My ubiquity
Acknowledgements
Particular thanks for material and support from Chris Kasabach, Dave Andre,
Scott Boehmke, Suresh Vishnubhatla, Chris Pacione, Ivo Stivoric, Astro Teller;
and all the BodyMedia team past and present. Thanks also to John Beck at Gist
Design. Good work chaps. Carry on.
References
1. Bodine, K. and Gemperle, F.: “Effects of Functionality on Perceived Comfort of
Wearables.” In Proceedings of the Seventh IEEE International Symposium on
Wearable Computers, White Plains, NY. IEEE. (2003)
2. BodyMedia (2004)
Armband specification. http://www.bodymedia.com/pdf/SW Armband.pdf
Sensors specification. http://www.bodymedia.com/pdf/Sensors.pdf
3. Cole, P.J., LeMura, L.M., Klinger, T.A., Strohecker, K., McConnel, T.R.: “Measure
Energy Expenditure In Cardiac Patients Using The BodyMedia(tm) Armband
Versus Indirect Calorimetry. A Validation Study.” Journal of Sports Medicine and
Physical Fitness. (September 2004)