Sensors + Social + Gamification

Some interesting trends,  highlighted also by Chris Andersons in the recent Silicon Valley Tedx are:

  1. ubiquity of cheap sensors
  2. data are shared socially
  3. gamification

The first trend is already big, every smartphone has accelerometer, GPS.  And with Bluetooth, WiFi or ANT+ is possible to extend the list of sensors. Some of these sensors or data input are heart rate monitors, blood pressure monitors, glucose meters, sleep monitors,  gym equipment, scales.

Examples:

  • ANT+ can give an overview on some of the interconnected elements that are possible with this protocol.
  • Wahoo Fitness provides some of the sensors for fitness
  • Zeo can monitor your sleep and give immediate feedback
  • Fitbit tracks your activity during the day
  • sports tracker or endomondo, track your sport activities
  • Withings helps you track your weight and blood pressure
  • GreenGoose attaches sensors to your tools and monitors your activities
  • Arduino makes possible to create your own peripherals and add sensors (Google has embraced Arduino and that means more synergies with Android)

And these data are more and more shared in social networks, Facebook and Twitter, adding the social element. Gamification is now an essential element in any application or service to engage people, see previous blog post.

Example:

The (Withings) WiFi scale transmits your weight automatically to the server. You can share your weight (and yes, people do it, see a Twitter Withings search). The social element pushes you to improve your wellness and gamification, with rewards, badges etc, is another lever for a more effective weight management and fun. Overall, this is the present and we should expect more and more of these kind of experiences in the near future.

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