Health and data: can digital fitness monitors revolutionise our lives?
by Ariana Eunjung Cha for the Washington Post from on (#9AJX)
From granular microchips to voice analysis, health-tracking technology offers medical benefits but doubt persist about the quality and security of data gathered
From the instant he wakes up each morning, through his workday and into the night, the essence of Larry Smarr is captured by a series of numbers: a resting heart rate of 40 beats per minute, a blood pressure of 130/70, a stress level of 2%, weight of 87kg, 8,000 steps taken, 15 floors climbed, eight hours of sleep.
Smarr, an astrophysicist and computer scientist, could be the world's most self-measured man. For nearly 15 years, the professor at the University of California at San Diego has been obsessed with what he describes as the most complicated subject he has ever experimented on: his own body.
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