A platform for wearable physiological computing

As computers emerge, from the desktop and palm top, into everyday life, and on to our bodies there are opportunities to aggregate and present data and to realize and envision applications that have never before been possible. Tracking the physiological state of individuals, at resolutions measured in thousandths of a second instead of in visits per year, now makes it possible to ascertain caloric intake and expenditure, patterns of sleep, contextual activities such as working-out and driving, even parameters of mental state and health. An award wining multi-channel wearable physiological sensor has enabled the collection of data in natural settings from thousands of subjects engaged in diverse activities. The resulting corpus of physiological data from 4 years of aggregation has yielded over 30 million minutes of physiological data. Data modeling efforts are resulting in applications that enable real-time presentation of meaningful and actionable information to users and their designated collaborators (physicians, family members, counselors, coaches, etc.) The SenseWear system, its design and a summery of the experimental results and ongoing research initiatives will be presented. This discussion will show how the design and research efforts of ubiquitous, pervasive, and collaborative computing are converging to manifest the future of computing as: wearable, personal, and sympathetic.