On the integration of self-tracking data amongst quantified self members

Self-tracking, the process of recording one's own behaviours, thoughts and feelings, is a popular approach to enhance one's self-knowledge. While dedicated self-tracking apps and devices support data collection, previous research highlights that the integration of data constitutes a barrier for users. In this study we investigated how members of the Quantified Self movement---early adopters of self-tracking tools---overcome these barriers. We conducted a qualitative analysis of 51 videos of Quantified Self presentations to explore intentions for collecting data, methods for integrating and representing data, and how intentions and methods shaped reflection. The findings highlight two different intentions---striving for self-improvement and curiosity in personal data---which shaped how these users integrated data, i.e. the effort required. Furthermore, we identified three methods for representing data---binary, structured and abstract---which influenced reflection. Binary representations supported reflection-in-action, whereas structured and abstract representations supported iterative processes of data collection, integration and reflection. For people tracking out of curiosity, this iterative engagement with personal data often became an end in itself, rather than a means to achieve a goal. We discuss how these findings contribute to our current understanding of self-tracking amongst Quantified Self members and beyond, and we conclude with directions for future work to support self-trackers with their aspirations.

PLL with secondary loop control for self tracking antennas

This paper shows a simple, yet highly effective, tracking phase locked loop circuit which has applications for self steered antenna arrays. The tracking PLL has been demonstrated to accurately phase track signal levels as low as -120 dBm, making it suitable for applications such as SATCOM ground terminals. The implementation is simple requiring a low Q voltage controlled oscillator, a downconverting mixer and a PLL circuit.

In bed with technology: Challenges and opportunities for sleep tracking

In recent years a variety of mobile apps, wearable technologies and embedded systems have emerged that allow individuals to track the amount and the quality of their sleep in their own beds. Despite the widespread adoption of these technologies, little is known about the challenges that current users face in tracking and analysing their sleep. Hence we conducted a qualitative study to examine the practices of current users of sleep tracking technologies and to identify challenges in current practice. Based on data collected from 5 online forums for users of sleep-tracking technologies, we identified 22 different challenges under the following 4 themes: tracking continuity, trust, data manipulation, and data interpretation. Based on these results, we propose 6 design opportunities to assist researchers and practitioners in designing sleep-tracking technologies.

The law and ethics of ‘self-quantified’ health information: An Australian perspective

This exploratory article examines the phenomenon of the ‘Quantified Self’—until recently, a subculture of enthusiasts who aim to discover knowledge about themselves and their bodies through self-tracking, usually using wearable devices to do so—and its implications for laws concerned with regulating and protecting health information. Quantified Self techniques and the ‘wearable devices’ and software that facilitate them—in which large transnational technology corporations are now involved—often involve the gathering of what would be considered ‘health information’ according to legal definitions, yet may occur outside the provision of traditional health services (including ‘e-health’) and the regulatory frameworks that govern them. This article explores the legal and regulatory framework for self-quantified health information and wearable devices in Australia and determines the extent to which this framework addresses privacy and other concerns that these techniques engender, along with suggestions for reform.

Self-aligning wireless link using modulated backscatter

A self-tracking (aligning) radio communications system based on the principle of modulated backscatter detection is presented here. Using amplitude-modulated backscatter from a co-operating target, a modified IQ demodulation scheme is used to reproduce automatically and in real time both the received and conjugate of the received phase of an incoming signal. The phase conjugated demodulated IF signal can have incoming backscattered data removed and new data are inserted before being up-converted using IQ single side-band generation so that retro-directive re-transmission can be made to occur. In the absence of the backscattered modulation signal, no phase conjugation and hence no retro-directed re-transmission can occur. The system reported is therefore inherently self-authenticating a facility not readily available from previously reported retro-directive self-tracking systems. © 2010 © The Institution of Engineering and Technology.

Modulation Insensitive PLL for Tracking Antenna Applications

This article shows practical results of a self-tracking receiving antenna array using a new phase locked loop (PLL) tracking configuration. The PLL configuration differs from other architectures, as it has the new feature of being able to directly track phase modulated signals without requiring an additional unmodulated pilot carrier to be present. The PLLs are used within the antenna array to produce a constant phase intermediate frequency (IF) for each antenna element. These IF's can then be combined in phase, regardless of the angle of arrival of the signal, thus utilizing the antennas array factor. The article's main focus is on the phase jitter performance of the modulation insensitive PLL carrier recovery when tracking phase modulated signals of low signal to noise ratio. From this analysis, it is concluded that the new architecture, when optimally designed, can produce phase jitter performance close to that of a conventional tracking PLL.

Exploring physical activities in an employer-sponsored health program

This work brings a perspective from an employer-sponsored health and wellness program called Global Corporate Challenge (GCC) to the 'quantified self' research. We present preliminary findings from a study with 17 university employees who participated in the GCC. We aimed to explore how participants derived meaningfulness from their self-tracking experiences. Our findings echo the growing body of work that advocates for conceptualizing activity tracking beyond the rationalistic, data-oriented perspectives and supporting more social and lived experiences.

Adaptive intervention design in mobile health: Intervention design and development in the Cell Phone Intervention for You trial.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: The obesity epidemic has spread to young adults, and obesity is a significant risk factor for cardiovascular disease. The prominence and increasing functionality of mobile phones may provide an opportunity to deliver longitudinal and scalable weight management interventions in young adults. The aim of this article is to describe the design and development of the intervention tested in the Cell Phone Intervention for You study and to highlight the importance of adaptive intervention design that made it possible. The Cell Phone Intervention for You study was a National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute-sponsored, controlled, 24-month randomized clinical trial comparing two active interventions to a usual-care control group. Participants were 365 overweight or obese (body mass index≥25 kg/m2) young adults. METHODS: Both active interventions were designed based on social cognitive theory and incorporated techniques for behavioral self-management and motivational enhancement. Initial intervention development occurred during a 1-year formative phase utilizing focus groups and iterative, participatory design. During the intervention testing, adaptive intervention design, where an intervention is updated or extended throughout a trial while assuring the delivery of exactly the same intervention to each cohort, was employed. The adaptive intervention design strategy distributed technical work and allowed introduction of novel components in phases intended to help promote and sustain participant engagement. Adaptive intervention design was made possible by exploiting the mobile phone's remote data capabilities so that adoption of particular application components could be continuously monitored and components subsequently added or updated remotely. RESULTS: The cell phone intervention was delivered almost entirely via cell phone and was always-present, proactive, and interactive-providing passive and active reminders, frequent opportunities for knowledge dissemination, and multiple tools for self-tracking and receiving tailored feedback. The intervention changed over 2 years to promote and sustain engagement. The personal coaching intervention, alternatively, was primarily personal coaching with trained coaches based on a proven intervention, enhanced with a mobile application, but where all interactions with the technology were participant-initiated. CONCLUSION: The complexity and length of the technology-based randomized clinical trial created challenges in engagement and technology adaptation, which were generally discovered using novel remote monitoring technology and addressed using the adaptive intervention design. Investigators should plan to develop tools and procedures that explicitly support continuous remote monitoring of interventions to support adaptive intervention design in long-term, technology-based studies, as well as developing the interventions themselves.

Retro-transceiver array using monopole antennas

In this paper, we show how a self-tracking antenna array constructed using gimel /4 monopoles can be constructed, which is capable of receiving with gain over an entire 360 degrees azimuthal cut. It is also shown how the self-tacking receive unit can be used in conjunction with a self-phased transmitter so that self-steered spatially selective receive and transmit functions ran be formed simultaneously. The resulting array is capable of maintaining spatially selective receive and transmit functions to a roaming target without prior knowledge of its physical location.

Dual-mode retrodirective/phased array

A method for producing a retrodirective (self-tracking) antenna, which can also be operated as a phased (selectively pointed) array through the addition of a simple switching circuit and DC bias offset adjustment, is presented. Phase adjustment to individual antenna elements is shown to be readily carried out by a simple frequency pushing technique, applied to a PLL circuit, thus replacing the requirement for additional phase shifters. Practical results when applied to a ten-element array operating at 2.4 GHz are shown for both modes of operation.