The Future of Wearable Tracking: Quantify Health, Fitness & Happiness

By now, like many techies, you must be bored of step counting and heart rate tracking. You expect more from your wearable tracking devices.

Don’t worry—it looks like they will deliver. The future is all about measuring other metrics, among the most notable of which is what you eat and how much you weigh (at any given time).

Can you measure your eating habits for a fitter and happier life?

My Fitness Pal is the current leader when it comes to food tracking with over 85 million users around the globe. But it still requires the user to search for foods, guess amounts, and manually input quantities and ingredients.

Google’s Im2Calories is now using AIl to estimate the number of calories in the food you take pictures of, but unfortunately it has been known to misidentify so many types of food.  The good news is like all things Google, it will learn the more it is used.
So what is the future for this niche?

There are several promising wearables in the pipeline that promise to do better. The HealBe GoBe automatically counts calories—in real time—by quantifying your blood glucose levels. Early tests show that the results are pretty accurate (there have been some questions behind this tech is being evaluated).
Google is currently developing smart contact lenses designed to track your blood glucose levels as well. The technology is designed for diabetics but may also be helpful for those who want to eat more consciously.

What is the future of quantifying your weight and activities?

If you want to map out your weight trends in the long term then this might interest you.

Samsung C-Lab recently bought the startup company Welt, which manufactures smart belts designed to measure your waist precisely. The tracking tech is in the buckle and algorithms can determine if you are overeating, are bloated, and/or gained weight.

Activity trackers are not likely to go away, but they are expected to be evolve into more sophisticated devices that can track heart rate variability or HRV, which refers to the time interval between your heartbeats (as opposed to just the beats per minute). This important personal health tracking information may help you find out if you are straining your body too much and whether it’s safe to work out again.