Make: Technology on Your Time Volume 34

WEARABLE TECH

Tracking Our Bodies

By Syuzi Pakhchyan

Fashion Technologist

Last year, I attended my first Quantified Self meetup in Los Angeles. I was vaguely familiar with the movement — whose motto, “Self Knowledge Through Numbers,” naturally converged with my interests in big data, biosensing, and wearable technology. I had recently leaped onto the self-tracking bandwagon, logging everything from how many glasses of water I drank to how many steps I took a day.

Thanks to the recent explosion of devices such as the Nike FuelBand, Jawbone Up, and Fitbit, the ability to ubiquitously track everything from our heart rates and activity levels to sleeping patterns is becoming remarkably simple. For self-improvement, there are apps to help you track ...