Ann Turner, co-author of the best book on DNA-based genealogy: Trace Your Roots With DNA, wrote me to say that she too has been comparing results from the two big genetic test companies, 23andMe and deCode. She wrote in response to my earlier posting comparing results between the two vendors. The big news is that…
I’ve had my DNA sequenced by 2 of the 3 companies now offering this service to the paying public. I purchased the tests for 23andMe and Iceland-based deCode. I am still plodding my way through the results — it’s sort of an education. One question I had was how well do the two results matched? …
In the annals of self-monitoring tools, here is one that monitors your computer time. It’s a fancy version of time management software. You assign certain tags for various functions and websites — say “surfing” for Digg, Reddit, or Popurls, or “research” for Wikipedia. After you label your activities once, then RescueTime will gather the stats…
I’m fascinated by the BodyBugg. Not convinced, but fascinated. This is the most complete self-monitoring system I’ve yet seen. With an accelerometer, a skin-temperature sensor, a sensor to measure the electrical conductivity of the skin (known as GSR, for Galvanic Skin Response), and a sensor to measure “heat flux” (the rate of heat transfer from…
How do you feel in different places? The precise correlation of location and emotional arousal is the topic of Christan Nold‘s long running biomapping project. The project used a simple galvanic skin response meter, which gives a reading of how excited you are. A GSR device is simple. Here’s the Lego version. These GSR readings…
Earlier this week I had a chance to drop in on Nathan Eagle‘s presentation at ETech about using the Bluetooth feature on mobile phones to keep track, not only of where people are, but who happens to be nearby. This research is part of the larger Human Dynamics Group at MIT run by Sandy Pentland….
Review of the LENA Baby Monitor: a voice recorder that tucks into a child’s clothing and evaluates their “language environment” throughout the day.
I am taking a crash course in genetic literacy by having some of my genes sequenced by the two major genetic sequencing services, 23andMe and deCode. I am still in the process of comparing the two sets of results to see which vendor is better, but while coming up to speed in this new realm,…
Inspired by a French sociologist from the last century, a fellow tracked his family’s movements in their TV room for hone hour. He turned his pattern of their locations into a striking info-graphic of the result which he posted on his Flickr account. He says: I got the idea from a French Sociologist [de Lauwe]…
The heart rate is among the earliest biometrics used by humans to take stock of themselves. Before mechanical clocks were invented, this was hard. The first doctor credited with making objective measurements of the pulse was an Alexandrian physician named Herophilos, from the 3rd century, B.C., who used a water clock as his chronometer. Using…
All of kinds of monitoring technology that may be undesirable when used by others can be useful when turned on ourselves for ourselves. Here is a prototype device currently being developed at Stanford that can be used to monitor behavior types. The researchers are using them for science projects, and as an aid for those…
I’ve been researching how to quantify the level of exotic, synthetic chemicals which all our bodies pick up while living in a manufactured world. All modern citizens carry around traces of chemicals we are exposed to and were not born with. A few years ago, this internal pollution was given the name Human Body Burden….
Like other early 23andme customers, I’ve been struggling to find something interesting to do with my genetic results. After quickly learning [what kind of earwax](http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/29/science/29cnd-ear.html) I’m predisposed to have, the path fades out amidst a tangle of SNPs. Here’s an example of a typical quest, and its results. It is well known that particular variants…
In April, 2005, the National Institutes of Health and Department of Energy launched a [task force](http://www.genome.gov/10001808) on genetic testing. The task force, which had broad academic and industry representation, tried to outline the issues, and recommend possible guidelines, for the coming age of consumer genetics. It was already obvious that cheap and ubiquitous genetic testing…
A lifelog, or lifeblog, is an attempt to fully document every second, every action, every interaction, every keystroke, every conversation of one’s life. In this sense it is quantitative as it accumulates data about a person’s daily activities. But among lifeloggers there is a subgroup of photo lifeloggers who are merely content to photographicly record…
Smack in the middle of the arena of self-surveillence is this tiny flash-stick-sized location tracker, the Trackstick. It is tiny. Gets lost in your coat pocket, or backpack. You carry it around wherever you go. Once a month you download its records from its built in USB port and plot your course on an online…
The Stress Eraser has been around for more than a year now, garnering positive feedback attracting heavyweights to the advisory board [PDF] of its parent company, and advertising heavily. . In one sense, the Stress Eraser is a classic QS device, a geeky quantitative aid to self-improvement. I almost want one. But the very thing…
If you extend the mode of self-measurement to its extreme you get a state that approaches what Hasan Elahi calls “self-surveillence.” A few years ago Elahi, a new media artist, was stopped by the FBI in an airport after 9/11 and interviewed as a suspect. Of what he was never told. But the interrogation bugged…
Sometimes the future shows up in odd places. In the infancy of the public Internet, if you were poking around various gopher sites to see what they might contain, you picked up an accidental education in the mental health issues faced by American college students. [Gopher](http://www.codeghost.com/gopher_history.html), an early document-sharing protocol, happened to be embraced by…
As the Gene Sherpa rightly points out, a significant step in knowing yourself healthwise is to create a family health history. In most cases currently organizing the state of your ancestors health will be more informative than getting your genes sequenced. There’s even a federal initiative of the US Department of Health & Human Services…
