首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
The Quantified Self—Counting Every Moment The idea of measuring things to chart progress towards a goal is commonplace in la
The Quantified Self—Counting Every Moment The idea of measuring things to chart progress towards a goal is commonplace in la
admin
2012-12-13
27
问题
The Quantified Self—Counting Every Moment
The idea of measuring things to chart progress towards a goal is commonplace in large organizations, governments and companies. But this quantitative method is rather less widespread among individuals, with the notable exceptions of people who are trying to lose weight or improve their fitness.
Most people do not routinely record their moods, sleeping patterns or activity levels, track how much alcohol or coffee they drink or chart how often they walk the dog.
But some people are doing just these things. What they share is a belief that gathering and analyzing data about their everyday activities can help them improve their lives—an approach known as " self-tracking" or "self-quantifying".
In some ways this is not a new idea. Athletes and their coaches commonly make detailed notes on nutrition, training sessions, sleep and other variables. Similar strategies have long been used to combat health problems like allergies (过敏). But new technologies make it simpler than ever to gather and analyze personal data. Sensors have shrunk and become cheaper. This makes it much easier to take the quantitative methods used in science and business and apply them to the personal sphere.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the notion of marrying technology with self-improvement originated in San Francisco, where Gary Wolf, a journalist and author, co-founded the "Quantified Self" blog in 2007. This led to regular meetings, which are now held in about 50 cities around the world.
"Almost everything we do generates data. " says Mr. Wolf, "Data from phones, computers and credit cards are mostly used by companies to target advertising, recommend products or spot fraud. But tapping into the stream of data they generate can give people new ways to deal with medical problems or improve their quality of life in other ways. "
Quantify this
Self-quantifying is being taken seriously by start-ups, in Silicon Valley and elsewhere, which are launching new devices and software aimed at self-trackers. It may even provide a glimpse of the future of health care, in which a greater emphasis is placed on monitoring, using a variety of devises, to prevent disease, extend lives and reduce medical costs.
To see how self-tracking rewards, consider the example of David, an investment banker in London. With his routine of early starts and 11-hour days, he found that he had trouble falling asleep, and worried that this affected his concentration at work. He started using a headband made by Zeo, a startup based in Newton, Massachusetts. It tracks sleep quantity and quality by measuring brainwave activity to determine how long the wearer spends in light, deep and rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep.
David recorded his sleep data along with information on his diet, health supplements, exercise and alcohol consumption, uploading it all onto the Zeo website. He now sleeps for an average of seven-and-a-half hours a night, up from six hours before he began his self-tracking experiment. " I feel more relaxed , sharper and more switched on," he says. " Seeing the facts on your computer screen makes them difficult to ignore. "
Some self-quantifiers can come across as a little odd. Not everyone carries out experiments to see whether wearing orange glasses or performing regular hopping exercises can improve sleep quality, or whether (as has been claimed) eating butter improves arithmetic ability. An obvious problem is that self-quantification experiments lack strict controls and clinical trials. There could also be placebo (安慰剂) effects.
"With self-tracking you never really know whether it is your experiment that is affecting the outcome, or your expectations of the experiment," says Nancy Dougherty, a self-tracking enthusiast who works as a hardware engineer at Proteus Biomedical, a medical-devices company in Redwood City, California.
She found that taking virtual pills labelled "happy" , "calm" , "focus" and "will power" had a noticeable impact, even though she knew they were placebos. But with careful design of experiments there is scope for self-tracking to produce useful data. The Zeo, for example, has already generated the largest-ever database on sleep stages, which revealed differences between men and women in REM-sleep quantity.
Keeping track
Tens of thousands of patients around the world are already sharing information about symptoms and treatments for hundreds of conditions on websites such as PatientsLikeMe and CureTogether. This has yielded valuable results. The growing number of self-tracking devices now reaching the market will increase the scope for large-scale data collection, enabling users to analyse their own readings and incorporate them with those of other people.
The thumb-sized Fitbit, for example, made by a company of the same name based in San Francisco , clips onto a belt to measure activity levels and sleep patterns. A readout (读出器) shows steps walked, stairs climbed and calories burned. Information is also uploaded wirelessly to a website that analyses and displays the data and lets users compare notes with their friends. Jawbone, also based in San Francisco, has released the Up, a wristband that communicates with an iPhone and can also measure physical activity and sleep patterns.
GreenGoose, yet another San Francisco start-up, has devised tiny motion sensors that can be attached to everyday items, sending a wireless signal to a base-station whenever the item is used. A sensor can be attached to a toothbrush, for example, or a watering can, or the collar of a dog, making it possible to measure and track how often you brush your teeth, water your plants or walk your dog. The company’s aim is to establish a platform for the gamification (游戏化) of everyday activities.
As populations age and health-care costs increase, there is likely to be a greater emphasis on monitoring, prevention and maintaining "wellness" in future, with patients taking a more active role—an approach sometimes called "Health 2.0".
With their sleep monitors and health dashboards, the aficionados (狂热爱好者) of self-tracking may end up being seen as pioneers of this model. " We were inspired by our knowledge of this history of personal computing. " Mr. Wolf says. " We asked ourselves what would happen if we convened (召唤) advanced users of self-tracking technologies to see what we could learn from each other. "
Self-tracking may look weird now, but the same was once true of e-mail. And what geeks do today , the rest of us often end up doing tomorrow.
GreenGoose establishes a platform for changing everyday activities into games for their sensors can be attached to______.
选项
答案
everyday items
解析
由定位句可知,GreenGoose设计了能够系在日常物品上的微型动作传感器,目的就是建立一个将日常活动游戏化的平台。定位句和题干均出现了be attached to,故答案为everyday items。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/FPw7777K
0
大学英语四级
相关试题推荐
Thepopularnotionthatolderpeopleneedlesssleepthanyoungeradultsisamyth,scientistssaidyesterday.Whileelderly
Intheearly20thcentury,ahorsenamedCleverHanswasbelievedcapableofcountingandotherimpressivementaltasks.Aftery
Intheearly20thcentury,ahorsenamedCleverHanswasbelievedcapableofcountingandotherimpressivementaltasks.Aftery
A、Theywantedtosavemoney.B、Theydecidedtoopenastore.C、Theycouldn’taffordexpensivethings.D、Theywantedtobuygifts
Averyimportantworldproblemistheincreasingnumberofpeoplewhoactuallyinhabitthisplanet.Thelimitedamountoflanda
Thecustomer______whetherthearticlesexhibitedintheshopwereforsale.
Thetownplanningcommissionsaidthattheirfinancialoutlookforthenextyearwasoptimistic.Theyexpectincreasedtax______
A、Talkingaboutsports.B、Writinguplocalnews.C、Readingnewspapers.D、Puttingupadvertisements.C推理判断题。选项表明对话内容与谈论报纸新闻有关。A是说
A、Thetreesaxebeingcutdown.B、Thetreeshelpcoolhishouse.C、Heneedsmoreair-conditioning.D、Thetreesaxeblockinghis
随机试题
A.五味子B.小茴香C.女贞子D.枸杞子E.栀子来源于木犀科,表面黑紫色或灰黑色的药材是()。
A非那雄胺B醋酸泼尼松龙C醋酸甲羟孕酮D甲睾酮E达那唑甾核2,3一与异嗯唑拼合的药物,用于治疗子宫内膜异位症
代谢蔗糖能力最强的细菌是
在现代化社会中,“处方调剂”仍然是药师实施药学服务的
因房屋不具备所有权转移登记条件而导致交易终止,买方已存入监管专用账户的资金应()。
FIDIC合同条件规定的“暂列金额”特点之一是()。
下列会计处理方法中,符合权责发生制基础的是()。
成年人杨某对5岁的小明说:“你敢砸人家的玻璃,你就是英雄。”小明听后,拿起一块石头就砸破了小刚家的玻璃。对小刚家的损失应承担赔偿责任的是()。
设随机变量X~N(μ,σ2),则P(|X一μ|<2σ)().
关于性能管理的描述中,正确的是()。
最新回复
(
0
)