http://www.meetup.com/PDX-Quantified-Self/events/136825772/ Aaron will be discussing his challenges with finding self-tracking tools that make it easy to collect data with minimum effort on his part. This is a preview of the talk that Aaron will give at the QS Global Conference in San Francisco in October.

1. Low Friction
Personal
Data Collection
@aaronpk • aaronparecki.com
Quantified Self PDX • September 2013

2. Things I track consistently
 Location: GPS (since 2008)
 Location: Checkins (since 2009)
 Sleep (since November 2011)
 Weight (since October 2011)
 Steps / Activity (since November 2011)
@aaronpk

3. Things I track consistently
 Location: GPS (since 2008) iPhone
 Location: Checkins (since 2009) Foursquare
 Sleep (since November 2011) Jawbone UP
 Weight (since October 2011) Withings Scale
 Steps / Activity (since November 2011) Jawbone
@aaronpk

4. Things I track inconsistently
 One photo every day – off and on since 2007 – various apps
 Bike Rides – Usually rides only > 1 mile – Strava
 Heart Rate – During bike rides or other activities – Strava
 Food I Eat – Aug 19 - present – text file on my phone

5. Publishing My Location
aaronparecki.com
 One decimal point of precision (about 5km)
 City name
 Local time and timezone

6. Publishing My Location
Automatic reply to an SMS
 Four decimal points of precision (within a block)
 City name
 Local time and timezone

7. Publishing My Sleep
aaronparecki.com/metrics
 Also includes the city I slept in from my GPS data

8. Publishing My Weight
aaronparecki.com/metrics

9. Location
2008 - Present
@aaronpk

10. Hardware GPS Logger (2007)
@aaronpk

11. GPS-Enabled Phone (2008)
@aaronpk

12. Geoloqi on an iPhone
@aaronpk

13. Stored in PostGIS
 Queryable by timestamp or by area

14. Timezone API
Created with github.com/esri/Terraformer
curl http://api.example.com/?lat=45.5118&lng=-122.6433
{
status: "ok",
timezone: "America/Los_Angeles"
}

15. SMS Interface
Google Voice
sends me an
email with the SMS
You send
me an SMS
Your
Phone
Google
Voice
Google Voice
sends you an SMS
from my phone
number
A Gmail filter
catches it and
forwards it to my
web server
Gmail
notification
of SMS
then sends an email
reply to the “from”
address of the SMS
notification
aaronparecki.com
My web server
retrieves my
location data
* it would also be simpler to use Twilio for this, but I like that the SMSs are to and from
my own number, hence the Google Voice round trip

16. @aaronpk

17. Weight
Oct 2011 - Present
@aaronpk

18. Withings Wireless Scale
@aaronpk

19. Weight Data Flow
IFTTT sends me
an email with
all the data
Withings API
reports to IFTTT
Withings
Scale
IFTTT
A Gmail filter catches it
and forwards it to my
web server and creates a
new post
Gmail
notification
aaronparecki.com
* the Withings API was too difficult to use directly, so I had to go through IFTTT as a proxy. I would
love to find a simple Ruby/Sinatra or PHP app that someone else has written as a template!

20. Withings Wireless Scale
@aaronpk

21. Withings Wireless Scale
Geoloqi
Acquired
@aaronpk

22. Sleep
Nov 2011 - Present
@aaronpk

23. Sleep Cycle App
 Place your phone on your bed
 Requires your phone to be
plugged in
 Can wake you up at an
appropriate time
@aaronpk

24. Original Fitbit
 Tracks steps, activity, and sleep
 To track sleep, requires you wear it
around your wrist
 I was not able to sustain this because of
the extra effort of using the wrist strap
 Long button press to put into “Sleep”
mode, gives visual feedback but no
vibration (timer starts running)
@aaronpk

25. Jawbone UP
 Always on my wrist, so I never forget about it
 Battery lasts 8-10 days
 Long button press to put into “Sleep” mode, gives
visual and tactile feedback
@aaronpk

26. Sleep Logs
 Times are localized
using location data
 Timezone is found
using Terraformer
 Using a reverse
geocoder to add
City, State, Country
@aaronpk

27. Sleep Logs by City

28. Sleep Logs by City

29. Sleep Logs
Nov 2011 – September 2013

30. Sleep Logs
Nov 2011 – September 2013

31. Private
Database
Public
aaronparecki.com

32. Some patterns are only
visible after looking at a
long-term dataset.
@aaronpk

33. Low Friction
I set up systems to passively
collect data so that I have
lots to work with later!
@aaronpk

34. Thanks
Aaron Parecki
@aaronpk
aaronparecki.com