Summary version of Fordcastle report from November 2011 QS Conference, Amsterdam.

1. F
Highlights from
Quantified Self Europe Conference
Amsterdam
26 – 27 November2011
@fordcastle fordcastle.com

2. 2
(C)
(B)
(F)
(A) (E)
(D)
http://rainycatz.wordpress.com/
Rain Ashford
presented some fascinating examples of wearable computers. McLaren (Formula 1) has developed “human telemetry” (C)
that provides remote monitoring of cardiovascular performance that they are now using for driver monitoring. Other
innovations presented by Rain Ashford included electronic tattoos (B) and flexible solar panels (A). Electronics
components have been integrated into yarns (D), dresses that light up in response to sound (E) and knitted
accelerometers.

3. 3
http://www.lauriefrick.com/
Laurie Frick
combines self tracking with art. The above installation represents a display of her moods, and she‟s done similar works
showing off her sleep patterns. She described the Zeo sleep monitor as her „mechanical mom‟ – a device that‟s always
there, and is genuinely interested in how you sleep.

4. 4
http://butterfleyeproject.com
Butterfleye
is a project developed by Hind Hobeika from Beirut, who talked about her prototype goggles that track heart rate and
display a light that is green if the swimmer is in their optimal target zone, yellow if they need to speed up or red to slow
down. The project has a US patent pending and should be in the market in 2012.

5. 5
http://www.smartsecondskin.com
Jenny Tillotson
presented „scentsory design‟ which uses the sense of smell. As the only one of the five senses that is connected directly to
the limbic system, it has direct access to the individual‟s feelings. The project combines analytical chemistry (what causes
smells) with nanotechnology, engineering, fragrance science and „aromachology‟. The idea is that the clothing can both
sense emotion and help you change your mood, for example emitting fragrances proven to have a calming influence if
you‟re stressed.

6. 6
(A)
(B)
(C)
http://theengineeress.com/mindfulness
Nancy Dougherty
wanted to leverage the power of placebos. She created pills with different „magical‟ properties, such as energy, focus, will
power and calm (A). Each of these had a smart chip inside them, which gave a signal to a wearable body monitor (B); she
works for a company that does this. This in turn was able to capture what pill she‟d taken, and if necessary, automatically
post a message to her Facebook friends so they could rally round (C) and provide social support.

7. 7
http://g51studio.com
Steve Dean
reported on the work he‟d done on refining the design and user experience with Asthmapolis, a location-based diabetes
tracking service. It started with a story about how Barcelona had only been able to find out what caused regular outbreaks
of city-wide asthma after studying the outbreaks on a map, seeing they were near the port, and realizing the outbreaks
were being caused by boats unloading their shipments of soybeans.

8. 8
http://milab.imm.dtu.dk/eeg
Jakob Larsen
demonstrated a portable smartphone brain scanner that allowed real time brain imaging. It consisted of a low-cost 14-
channel EEG headset (a video game accessory) with a wireless connection to a Nokia smartphone. This enabled minimally
invasive EEG monitoring, and the app provided a touch interface with real-time brain state decoding and 3D
reconstruction.