Tag Archives: sanfrancisco

Beau Gunderson on Quantifying Chrome Tabs

Posted on March 18, 2013 by Alexandra Carmichael

Beau Gunderson lives inside his browser and struggles with distractions, so he wrote a Chrome extension to quantify his browser usage. He learned that he visits about 500 websites a day, sometimes has up to 100 tabs open, and occasionally declares “tab bankruptcy.” Check out Beau’s revealing story in the video below. (Filmed by the San Francisco QS meetup group.)

Beau Gunderson – Quantifying Chrome Tabs from Gary Wolf on Vimeo.

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Crystal Goh: Inside My Brain

Posted on December 19, 2012 by Alexandra Carmichael

Crystal Goh looks at brains every day, as part of her work in a brain and sleep imaging lab in Berkeley. She wanted to know how her brain was different from other brains, in a quantitative way. In the video below, Crystal explains voxel-based morphometry, normalization and standard deviation calculations, and the scary, revealing things she has learned about herself by seeing her brain scan! (Filmed by the San Francisco QS meetup group.)

Crystal Goh – Inside My Brain from Gary Wolf on Vimeo.

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Brooks Kincaid: A Diabetic Experiment with Self-Quantification

Posted on December 11, 2012 by Alexandra Carmichael

Brooks Kincaid has been tracking his blood glucose continuously for the past two years, after 16 years of finger pricking and guessing. In the video below, Brooks openly shares what he has learned about the benefits and challenges of continuous blood glucose monitoring, and explains his preferred data view, the modal day snapshot. (Filmed by the San Francisco QS meetup group.)

Brooks Kincaid – A Diabetic’s Experiment with Self Quantification from Gary Wolf on Vimeo.

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Buster Benson: Why I Track

Posted on December 5, 2012 by Alexandra Carmichael

Twelve years ago, Buster Benson started tracking how different web links affected his mood (the Morale-O-Meter!), and he was surprised to find that other people were interested in his data. In this inspiring video, Buster shares some snapshots of what he has tracked over the past several years, including his famous 8:36 pm project and how he analyzes all his created web content. He argues that precision can be counterproductive, makes a clear distinction between objective and subjective data, and suggests creating your own boolean fitness function. (Filmed by the San Francisco QS meetup group.)

Buster Benson – Why I Track from Gary Wolf on Vimeo.

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Justin Fu on 15 Weeks of Self-Tracking

Posted on October 21, 2012 by Alexandra Carmichael

At the last San Francisco QS meetup group event, Justin Fu shared the story of how he lost 40 pounds in 15 weeks using the Fitbit, how tracking affected his relationships, and how he developed a slew of new habits. Check out his inspiring story in the video below.

Justin Fu – 15 Weeks of Self Tracking – 40 Pounds Lost from Gary Wolf on Vimeo.

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Kevin Kelly on The History and Future of QS

Posted on October 14, 2012 by Alexandra Carmichael

At the inaugural show&tell of the San Francisco QS meetup group, Kevin Kelly gave a perspective-broadening talk on where Quantified Self came from and where it’s going. Check it out below!

Kevin Kelly – Quantified Self Co-Founder from Gary Wolf on Vimeo.

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Nick Winter: The Lazy Man Approach to Cognitive Testing

Posted on July 30, 2012 by Alexandra Carmichael

Nick Winter has done some dedicated testing of the effect of different interventions on his cognitive function. He discovered that butter had an unexpected impact on his mental performance, while things like cutting out gluten had no effect. In the video below, Nick gives an entertaining and informative talk about his experimental design and what he has learned so far. (Filmed by the Bay Area QS Show&Tell meetup group.)

Nick Winter – A Lazy Man’s Approach to Cognitive Testing from Gary Wolf on Vimeo.

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Hugo Campos on Going Vegan in December

Posted on April 28, 2012 by Alexandra Carmichael

Hugo Campos lives with arrhythmia, and is a self-professed data nudist. He decided to do an experiment last December to improve his health and his heart – going vegan and taking beautiful pictures of every single meal he ate to post to a public Flickr set. In the video below, Hugo gives an animated talk about what inspired him, what challenges he faced, and what he learned. Find out if he’s decided to continue eating vegan! (Filmed by the Bay Area QS Show&Tell meetup group.)

Hugo Campos – Going Vegan in December from Gary Wolf on Vimeo.

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Simon Frid on Wearable Awareness

Posted on April 9, 2012 by Alexandra Carmichael

Simon Frid moved to California last year because his data told him he was smarter here than in New York. Well, not really. But this funny story begins his journey of figuring out how to track one of the simplest things that we don’t generally know about ourselves: our own posture. Simon designed a wearable sensor shirt with ten built-in accelerometers, and was able to improve his posture significantly from December to January. In the video below, he shares how he trained the shirt to recognize good posture, why he didn’t want immediate feedback, and what question he most wants to ask people. (Filmed by the Bay Area QS Show&Tell meetup group.)

Simon Frid – Wearable Awareness from Gary Wolf on Vimeo.

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Alex Grey on Tracking Muscle Data (EMG, ECG)

Posted on March 23, 2012 by Alexandra Carmichael

Alex Grey is developing a better kind of muscle sensor, to help people see their muscle activity patterns and change behaviors like typing or running to be more effective and less painful. The sensors are wireless, stick to your skin, and can measure different kinds of muscle activity including arm/leg (EMG) and heart muscles (ECG). In the video below, Alex describes how he used these sensors to find his optimal stride rate as a runner, as well as to detect when he was starting to fatigue or compensate on one side for an old injury. Fascinating talk with lots of great data! (Filmed by the Bay Area QS Show&Tell meetup group.)

Alexander Grey – Tracking Muscle Data from Gary Wolf on Vimeo.

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