Yesterday Pebble announced it’s move into the health and wellness space with Pebble Health and a new firmware update.
Now Pebble watches will have a built-in activity and sleep tracking function. Read more here. This is an exciting development for wearables, health and open source. “To create the most accessible wearable health platform, Pebble has partnered with the Stanford Wearable Health lab to bring our technology to researchers interested in a transparent health and medical standard for wearable data collection and study.”
Pebble Health
Pebble Health understands that every user is different, and has developed a level of personalization into their functions. Similar to the personalized aspect of Vivametrica’s health analytics, Pebble creates a unique experience for each individual. “Pebble Health focuses on personal success. Instead of striving for an arbitrary step count, your daily progress is measured against your own personal average.”
Vivametrica co-founder and Stanford Wearable Health Lab member Dr. Christy Lane weighs in on wearable health data:
Transparency at the algorithmic level is an essential missing piece in the progress toward making wearables valid for use in health applications. By making the right data available, Pebble Health allows us to perform proper validation studies on activity tracking for the first time. This eliminates questions about the validity of data collected using these devices, and removes barriers for researchers and clinicians. Now, methods for collection of wearable health data will be transparent, allowing health professionals to apply previous insights to new data. We’re excited to collaborate with Pebble on this approach and further our mission to lead the way for wearable health and medicine applications.
Early in 2016 Pebble plans to release it’s Health API. This will open up health and activity data for Developers to continue to create new and innovative user experiences. Vivametrica and Pebble also are in the planning stages of future potential collaborations. Stay tuned for details!
