TRAQS.me

Tools for Reporting & Analysisof the Quantified Self

May 27th, 2011

Eric BlueBlog: http://eric-blue.comWebsite: http://traqs.meTwitter: @ericblue

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What is the Quantified Self?◦ A brief definition

Personal history of self-tracking My gadgets

◦ FitBit, Withings, Zeo◦ GPS (Qstarz)

TRAQS.me◦ My personal project to help “Track Me”◦ Early days – data scraping (Fitbit “Hacks”)◦ Technology overview◦ Current features◦ Future plans

Overview

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Multiple Terms◦ The Quantified Self◦ Personal Informatics◦ Life Logging

Self-Knowledge through numbers◦ Analyze trends and set goals to improve yourself

Recording of daily activities (fitness, sleep, geolocation)◦ Monitoring and display of information from various

devices, services, and applications You could also call it Mathematics of Personal

Development

What is the Quantified Self?

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[1999-2007] I started “tracking” like many average people◦ Recording workouts and weight

Started with writing down on paper Gradually evolved to spreadsheets Experimented with multiple software applications for

fitness tracking (e.g. CrossTrainer.ca)

Personal History of Self-Tracking [1]

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[2004-2010] A new aspect of tracking emerged with knowledge management◦ Spent many years researching and ultimately building

my own homegrown personal, semantic wiki (My Personal Memex Project) Tracking journal entries, travel logs/trips, books I’ve read,

research notes, dream journals, workouts, etc. Very sophisticated, but can be high maintenance (data

entry) Discovered the amazing work of Gordon Bell (“Total

Recall”) and his own Memex/Tracking project – MyLifeBits This led to my discovery of the “Quantified Self” trend and

a new tracking passion evolved

Personal History of Self-Tracking [2]

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[2010-Present] Quantifying “Me”◦ Jan 2010 – WiThings wireless scale for weight

tracking◦ Apr 2010 – Started using my FitBit for activity

tracking◦ Aug 2010 – Started using MyZeo for sleep tracking◦ Oct 2010 – Started using DailyBurn for calorie

counting

◦ All this data! Now what to do with it??

Personal History of Self-Tracking [3]

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Fitbit – http://www.fitbit.com Used for overall fitness tracking

◦ Total steps, distance, calories burned◦ Logging ‘activities’ / workouts◦ Occasional sleep tracking◦ Use premium analytics for goal setting

My Gadgets - FitBit

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WiThings – http://withings.com Used for weight management

◦ Wireless “Wi-Fi” enabled scale◦ Tracks weight (lbs)◦ Tracks body composition (fat %, BMI)◦ Frequently use iPhone app to monitor progress and trends

My Gadgets – WiThings Scale

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My Zeo – http://myzeo.com Used for sleep tracking

◦ Tracking overall sleep health ZQ score

◦ Tracks total time spent sleeping Breaks down normal/deep/REM sleep

My Gadgets - Zeo

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Qstarz - http://www.qstarz.com/ Used for location tracking

◦ Stores GPS coordinates every 5 secs Gets precise latitude, longitude Speed and elevation data

◦ Saves waypoints and track data◦ Tracking since 9/2010 – 700K coordinates!

My Gadgets – Qstarz GPS

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My personal project to help “Track Me” Tools for Reporting & Analysis of the

Quantified Self (me)◦ Consolidates data from various devices and

services◦ Performs analysis on data and provides

visualizations and reports

TRAQS.me – Overview

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I have all these gadgets, now how do I get the data?! Having a copy of my own data is key.◦ Wrote “scripts” and API wrappers to download

FitBit◦ In April 2010 there was no API and I created my own (“Fitbit

Hacks”) project – Perl API (GitHub + CPAN). ◦ Created an unofficial CSV export feature◦ Fitbit now has an official API.

Zeo◦ Open/Documented API◦ Wrote Perl MyZeo API (GitHub)

Withings◦ Open/Documented API◦ Wrote perl script to download (not published yet)

TRAQS.me – Early Days

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OK, I have data, now what to do with it?! Woke up, jumped out of bed and had my

“epiphany” of my own Fitness Tracking program

TRAQS.me – Technology Overview [1]

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Data collection scripts◦ Primarily written in Perl using API wrappers I’ve

created Data storage

◦ Store all data in MySQL; Easy to write SQL and generate reports

Web Interface / Presentation◦ Java-based: Spring 3.X, Tomcat◦ Google for Visualization and Maps

TRAQS.me – Technology Overview [2]

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Dashboard◦ Historical stats

Activity score, calories burned, distance, sleep, etc. Chart and bar graph visualizations

◦ Daily Snapshot of the day

◦ Geolocation GPS track stats and track log using Google Maps

◦ Intraday stats Hourly charts for activity and sleep data

TRAQS.me – Feature [Dashboard]

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TRAQS.me – Feature [Dashboard] 1

Historical stats◦ Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly views◦ Score, Hours Active, Distance, Calories, Weight

and Sleep

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TRAQS.me – Feature [Dashboard] 2

Daily stats◦ Activity Score, Steps, Distance, Calories Burned,

Sleep Time, Times Awoken

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TRAQS.me – Feature [Dashboard] 3

Geo stats◦ Track log stats (distance, speed, elevation)◦ Google maps visualization

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TRAQS.me – Feature [Dashboard] 4

Intraday stats◦ Hourly breakdown for activity and sleep

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TRAQS.me – Feature [Reports]

Reports◦ Table data (Google Visualization) for SQL

generated reports◦ Activity reports

Breakdown by year/month/day Fitness records

◦ Geolocation reports Geo analysis to find “top places” and tally total visits

and last visited Reverse geocoding to lookup addresses

◦ Weight reports

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TRAQS.me – Feature [Reports] 1

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TRAQS.me – Feature [Reports] 2

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TRAQS.me – Feature [Maps]

Maps◦ Query “Top Places” and filter based on

latitude/longitude or GeoHash precision Can find places that I stay at for more than x minutes

◦ Proximity searching for Top Places and tracks Click on a point on the map or input a name, select

the RADIUS, and dates last visited will be marked◦ View tracklog for a given date

Plot as a polyline or as individual markers with date/time, speed, elevation and address info

Ability to specify density of points and other filtering options

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TRAQS.me – Feature [Maps] 1

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TRAQS.me – Feature [Maps] 2

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TRAQS.me – Future Plans Goal #1: Build the Tool for myself Features

◦ Integration with other devices Garmin heart rate monitor Import MyZeo sleep data Import workout data from iFitness application and my

previous workout software◦ Many more visualization options and reports◦ Goal setting, motivation and behavior

Releasing to the public Release certain features and code as open source Considering social website/service Considering future market needs and solutions

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TRAQS.me – Additional Info Blog

◦ My blog is a mixture of posts on technology, personal development, knowledge management, philosophy, mind mapping, and self tracking

◦ Visit http://eric-blue.com Twitter

◦ @ericblue Website

◦ Contains this presentation and links to a demo (coming soon)

◦ Check back often for updates: http://traqs.me