OutRun – Open-source, privacy oriented, outdoor fitness tracker

I wouldn't necessarily say abandoned. I still work on it from time to time, but progress is very very slow and I cannot prioritise it over other things atm

https://github.com/timfraedrich/OutRun/issues/91

jamil7• 3 years ago

Which is fine but they didn’t merge any PRs either. I might have a go at a fork of this but I don’t take a phone with me running or track them these days.

voisin2• 3 years ago

I see ways to sync new runs but no way to import all past runs from Apple Health

sen• 3 years ago

I’ve been wanting something like this but so long, and had it on my list of projects to potentially try making. All I need is basic tracking of my walks/runs to motivate myself, and have zero desire for all the other bloat most fitness apps have.

apatheticonion3• 3 years ago

I really want this for sleep tracking.

There are so many devices, each have their own algorithm for sleep tracking and the device I pick largely depends on the accuracy of the device's sleep tracking.

However there are new apps, like Nukkuaa, an (EU only) sleep analysis app that uses any heart-rate tracker (like a bluetooth fitness chest strap) and infers sleep quality from the data.

A generic app expands what devices are available to me. Right now I use CGM tape and stick a Fitbit Charge 3 on my tricep - but I dislike the Fitbit app and if I change to another brand I cannot export my logs.

A third party app has the potential to train against more data than any individual single brand could and, with appropriate tagging, could possible offer better accuracy. Open source would be icing on the cake.

Additionally, it would be great if devices like the Fitbit Charge could be used as a bluetooth heart rate monitor that can be used on apps that consume trackers on a (presumably) standard API (like TrainerRoad, Zwift, etc).

- https://www.nukkuaa.com/en

justinc8687• 3 years ago

Additionally, it would be great if devices like the Fitbit Charge could be used as a bluetooth heart rate monitor that can be used on apps that consume trackers on a (presumably) standard API (like TrainerRoad, Zwift, etc).

The new charge 6 does have this capability. [0]

[0](https://support.google.com/fitbit/answer/14236705)

apatheticonion3• 3 years ago

Fantastic! I am hoping this is an industry-wide trend

clintonb• 3 years ago

You can definitely export data from Fitbit. I built an app to export intraday data to Apple Health using Fitbit’s REST API.

figmert• 3 years ago

Not open source but Sleep as Android is a great app that integrates with many different devices to track your sleep. They also have their own devices that can help improve tracking.

beardedwizard• 3 years ago

How could this concept be monetized? How much would you pay?

ildon• 3 years ago

I use the Oura ring [1] for sleep tracking, it's by far the best I know of for sleep. The fact that it's a ring is convenient for comfort, and very precise as it adheres well to the finger even during night movements.

[1] https://ouraring.com/raf/34be98b1fd?utm_medium=iac

JTyQZSnP3cQGa8B• 3 years ago

It’s interesting but needing a subscription for sleep and heart rate analysis is a bit too much for a $400 device.

At such a price (more than my Apple Watch) I expect all the analysis to be done on the phone.

2Gkashmiri2• 3 years ago

Their marketing says

research-grade sensors

Are these people really this shallow? What does that even mean

tguvot• 3 years ago

https://us.emfit.com/features/ seems to be more comprehensive

com2kid• 3 years ago

Go do an actual sleep study some time. You'll be hooked up to a ton of sensors, and in the morning a group of doctors pour over the results, and they'll basically vote to decide on what the data means. "Oh this looks like REM".

So, to calibrate a sleep tracking device, you have a person wear the device, while also doing the sleep study. You do this a bunch of times. You train some ML models to try and make the outputs from the sensor data, after processing, the same as the study data.

After some degree of accuracy you declare success.

Now, does it work? In broad strokes, yes. You can (easily!!) see the effect of alcohol on sleep quality. If you have a crap night vs a good night, sure, a wrist based consumer device can figure that out.

Actual details? Eh. I wouldn't trust the devices for anything but directional data.

The more sensors devices get, the better than ML model can be trained.

Now it has been awhile since I last worked on this stuff (I actually just sat next to the people doing the work), so maybe there is some revolutionary new technique out there, but if not, it is still ML models trying to correlate things and match them up to what a bunch of fancier sensors said during studies.

faichai• 3 years ago

Typical watch based sleep trackers and even my Withings sleep pad can’t really track my sleep properly, particularly REM sleep. I think I move too much. I bought a Dreem2 EEG device that measures brain waves and it could detect my REM sleep correctly, and determined that my sleep is actually fine, not great, but good enough.

exceptione• 3 years ago

I understood sleep trackers are useless. Here your doctor can lend you some professional watches you can wear for 2 weeks that cost 700 eur, but those are not sold to the public. Unless things did change in the past 4 years.

And even then, they can not really measure your sleep. If you want to measure sleep, you will need to have wires on your scalp that measure what happens inside your brain.

apatheticonion3• 3 years ago

Studies show that some device (like the Fitbit Charge 6, Apple watch) infer sleep stages with a greater than 80% agreement compared to an ECG sleep study.

--- For primarily younger white males

But still pretty good seeing as they infer this largely from heart rate and movement.

INTPenis• 3 years ago

What about an Android alternative?

mynjin• 3 years ago

I've been using FitoTrack from the F-Droid appstore. It works fantastic, offline, private, and looking at the screenshots of the Outrun app have very similar look & layout.

amomo• 3 years ago

Right ! And Paseo for steps counting is quite good for my needs too

qurm• 3 years ago

Also Gadgetbridge on F-droid

tonetegeatinst• 3 years ago

Second this. Wish they had a better layout for supported devices and you could sort by device type....but overall this seems like the best for privacy

harry8• 3 years ago

Used to use this with Lenovo watch X. Worked ok, private, inexpensive. Avoid the Lenovo app.

What else works well with gadgetbridge?

Any ios equivalent?

byt3blight• 3 years ago

I use open tracks

shshshshsh• 3 years ago

I second OpenTracks[0]! I use it for running, hiking, snowboarding, exploring potential terrain, etc. I can then export easily the data in QGIS3.

[0] https://opentracksapp.com/

bjackman• 3 years ago

I use RunnerUp, it works great. Glad to see there are so many options in this space!

neilv3• 3 years ago

Open-source, privacy oriented, outdoor fitness tracker... for Apple iOS.

neilv3• 3 years ago

Open source related application, for open source desktops like Linux (unfortunately not for open source Android/GrapheneOS currently), there's Alex Harsányi's ActivityLog2 (which is an impressive application in Racket):

https://github.com/alex-hhh/ActivityLog2/wiki/Just-The-Scree...

Incidentally, I'd love to have an open source, privacy-respecting nutrition tracker that works on open source desktops. (I find my laptop much, much faster than phone for recording this data, at least in the ad hoc way I'm doing it, including things like weights of every ingredient that goes into a dish.)

hombre_fatal• 3 years ago

The hard part about a nutrition tracker is the data.

The most complete nutrient data for basic foods seems to be http://www.ncc.umn.edu/food-and-nutrient-database/ which you need to pay for, so I wonder how an open source implementation could work.

I use Cronometer daily which shows you the datasource for each food you add, and if it's not NCCDB (the one at the link above) then chances are it's not going to have much info. Yet that extra info is exactly why I'm using a nutrient tracker rather than just a calorie tracker.

ward• 3 years ago

Open source related application, for open source desktops like Linux (unfortunately not for open source Android/GrapheneOS currently), there's Alex Harsányi's ActivityLog2 (which is an impressive application in Racket): https://github.com/alex-hhh/ActivityLog2/wiki/Just-The-Scree...

In that realm, there is also GoldenCheetah:

- https://www.goldencheetah.org/ - https://github.com/GoldenCheetah/GoldenCheetah

BenFranklin1002• 3 years ago

Is there a point besides snark? If one chooses to export to Apple Health, HealthKit keeps everything on device or encrypted. Even Apple can’t access the data. I stay away from all 3rd party health trackers since most don’t seem to have any commit to privacy, so this looks like a nice addition to the ecosystem.

neilv3• 3 years ago

Not snark, but title clarification.

(When I saw "Open-source, privacy oriented, outdoor fitness tracker", I thought it would be available for an open source platform, so I clicked. It being for a closed, all-your-data-are-belong-to-us platform wasn't expected. Maybe the comment saved some clicks.)

account-5• 3 years ago

I would imagine frustration more than snark. The "... for Apple" clarifications would have saved me clicking on this thread in anticipation of something I could use.

maxhille• 3 years ago

Even Apple can’t access the data.

They own your device 100%. Of course they can access your data...

Moru2• 3 years ago

Since they own the device and OS, they don't need to access your data. They have low-level access to all the sensors/gps.

jefurii• 3 years ago

Not snark, but I have an Android phone so it's irrelevant to me.

gen220• 3 years ago

I started building something like this for myself (as a CLI tool, so way less ambitious). It’s a pretty fun project with a tight feedback loop.

Parsing GPS data is surprisingly simple.

It surprised me to learn that different apps will “smooth” out measures like elevation and distance — it’s actually quite a rich problem space with a few interesting solutions.

bartread• 3 years ago

I realise naming is hard but, as a big fan of Sega's iconic 1980s arcade racing game and its sequels - and at willing risk of sounding a little bit gatekeepy - I must admit that I don't particularly appreciate this project's appropriation of the name OutRun.

Also, it doesn't appear to be getting a lot of activity, which suggest it's perhaps not a going concern.

kQq9oHeAz6wLLS• 3 years ago

I immediately thought of the arcade game when I saw the name

bitwize• 3 years ago

I'd be happier if it played Magical Sound Shower or something while you were exercising.

Moru2• 3 years ago

I thought is was a very good use of the name, much better than on a car game.

iamacyborg• 3 years ago

Given that there’s no mention of fitness trackers, I assume you need to record the activity on your phone?

That’s not ideal, but I’m definitely not the target market as I’m happy to buy one of the higher end Garmin models.

sampli• 3 years ago

I’ve been using outrun for a year now and it’s really great! Always nice to see a good product featured on HN

bmitc• 3 years ago

"... tracker iOS app"

bhakunikaran• 3 years ago

I wonder how Patrick thinks new tech like blockchain or AI might change the way we handle money. Will it make things easier, or will it bring new challenges?

richrichardsson2• 3 years ago

I'm quite surprised Sega's lawyers didn't already come knocking over the name for this in the previous 4 years.

astroid• 3 years ago

I'm not - it's not even a remotely related industry. That's not how this works.

richrichardsson2• 3 years ago

It's a name for two (admittedly entirely unrelated use case) pieces of software. Just because something may or may not stand up in court doesn't automatically preclude lawyers from sending Cease & Desist letters or what ever. Just look at the nonsense from Take Two claiming that Remedy's new logo is too close to the Rock Star logo [1]. Any reasonable person wouldn't confuse the two, but still the lawyers are involved.

[1] https://www.gamesindustry.biz/take-two-reportedly-in-tradema...

carra• 3 years ago

Seeing both "OutRun" and "tracker" in the title I thought this would be a thread about synthwave music (which would be very cool).

OutRun – Open-source, privacy oriented, outdoor fitness tracker

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