Comments on: Nokia Sports Tracker and Tracing Personal Mobility http://liftlab.com/think/fabien/2007/03/16/nokia-sports-tracker-and-tracing-personal-mobility/ Fabien Girardin Mon, 07 Jul 2008 01:54:59 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=wordpress-mu-1.2.1 By: fred http://liftlab.com/think/fabien/2007/03/16/nokia-sports-tracker-and-tracing-personal-mobility/#comment-335805 fred Fri, 02 May 2008 20:53:05 +0000 http://liftlab.com/think/fabien/2007/03/16/nokia-sports-tracker-and-tracing-personal-mobility/#comment-335805 Hi all, Just a short note to remind you that Nokia has stolen the name "SportsTracker" This application has been on the web for years now. See: http://sourceforge.net/projects/sportstracker That probably did not matter when they choose the name. Bast.... Fred Hi all,

Just a short note to remind you that Nokia has stolen the name “SportsTracker”
This application has been on the web for years now.
See:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/sportstracker

That probably did not matter when they choose the name. Bast….

Fred

]]> By: Julian Bleecker http://liftlab.com/think/fabien/2007/03/16/nokia-sports-tracker-and-tracing-personal-mobility/#comment-152037 Julian Bleecker Sat, 17 Mar 2007 16:10:49 +0000 http://liftlab.com/think/fabien/2007/03/16/nokia-sports-tracker-and-tracing-personal-mobility/#comment-152037 I think that the instrumented approach to measuring activity like this is quite compelling to many fitness enthusiasts. Knowing the numbers and tracking progress through spreadsheets and graphs has its appeal for those who want to measure very detailed incremental increases in their fitness. I think that there is the possibility for re-calibrating what gets to count as "fitness" so that it has a less instrumental meaning. So, rather than fitness measured as how far you can run in what amount of time, fitness could be shaped around less self-centered characteristics, such as how much CO2 your super hero avatar prevented from escaping into the atmosphere, or how many dinosaurs you saved by avoiding turning them into the fuel from their fossils. I only say this because, plainly, the GPS thing is wonky at best as you describe. In many cases it works perfectly fine — but in the off case that it does not work well, there's a real issue in terms of user adoption or satisfaction. If you measure physical activity more "ambiently" or with less instrumentalized rigor (sum-of-squares acceleration versus meters moved), you can tap into much less expensive techniques. Also, there's an exciting challenge there — can we redefine the culture of fitness, tie it into the booming electronic games business — all in the service of elevating ecoawareness? It'd be like crossing the streams in Ghost Busters! I think that the instrumented approach to measuring activity like this is quite compelling to many fitness enthusiasts. Knowing the numbers and tracking progress through spreadsheets and graphs has its appeal for those who want to measure very detailed incremental increases in their fitness. I think that there is the possibility for re-calibrating what gets to count as “fitness” so that it has a less instrumental meaning. So, rather than fitness measured as how far you can run in what amount of time, fitness could be shaped around less self-centered characteristics, such as how much CO2 your super hero avatar prevented from escaping into the atmosphere, or how many dinosaurs you saved by avoiding turning them into the fuel from their fossils. I only say this because, plainly, the GPS thing is wonky at best as you describe. In many cases it works perfectly fine — but in the off case that it does not work well, there’s a real issue in terms of user adoption or satisfaction. If you measure physical activity more “ambiently” or with less instrumentalized rigor (sum-of-squares acceleration versus meters moved), you can tap into much less expensive techniques. Also, there’s an exciting challenge there — can we redefine the culture of fitness, tie it into the booming electronic games business — all in the service of elevating ecoawareness? It’d be like crossing the streams in Ghost Busters!

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