Microsoft designs smart bra to combat emotional eating

http://arstechnica.com/science/2013/12/microsoft-designs-smart-bra-to-combat-emotional-eating/

by shawndumas • 13 years ago

33 38 13 years ago

bcx• 13 years ago

Actual paper is pretty interesting: http://www.cs.rochester.edu/hci/pubs/pdfs/FoodMood.pdf

loceng8• 13 years ago

Breast tissue is very sensitive, not sure electronics "permanently" being there is a great idea. And please don't downvote me just because you don't believe this could lead to higher rates of cancer - it's still not fully known and should be considered a valid concern. EDIT: A number of spiteful and/or lazy people on HN eh?

diab0lic• 13 years ago

Females, at least where I'm from, regularly keep things in their bra such as cell phones. It never ceases to amaze me when a phone suddenly materializes from seemingly nowhere. Given that I feel they would hardly be opposed to some thin embedded electronics in the bra.

loceng8• 13 years ago

Yes, I have seen this too. I'm sure they're not aware of or perhaps don't believe the studies showing that there's increased cancer around the area where heavy cellphone use it as. Sure, you can argue they're not using the phone - however phones more and more actively push and receive data.

cmelbye• 13 years ago

Your comment is being downvoted not because people disagree with you but because it violated the last two points at the end of the guidelines: http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

loceng8• 13 years ago

I disagree with it never doing any good. There could have been less conversation then. And there was no intent of baiting.

GnarfGnarf• 13 years ago

Thank goodness for HN to keep us abreast of these developments.

plg• 13 years ago

always nice to see innovation in the over-the-shoulder-boulder-holder space

asciimo• 13 years ago

In case anyone didn't make it to the last paragraph, the bra device was a previous iteration. They have moved toward bracelets suitable for everyone. (Well, everyone with hands.)

Since conducting this research, the team has moved to testing the use of Affectiva Q3 bracelets, which detect mood, so that both men and women can participate. The pilots, say the authors, have been "quite promising" for both sexes.

eriktrautman• 13 years ago

Looks like the Affectiva Q sensor is discontinued and the company said they're moving away from that into facial tracking instead. How does the Q3 come into play then?

Discontinued site: http://www.qsensortech.com/ Press Release: http://www.affdex.com/news-article/affectiva-accelerates-inv...

downer953• 13 years ago

1. Electrodermal Activity Sensor 2. Electrocardiogram Sensor

So, we can rest assured that the embedded system and controller board will be equipped with software that defaults to an always-upload mode, dumping all data to microsoft.com. The device will be completely unusable and it's data inaccesible without a one-time prompt agreeing to the EULA.

Is Microsoft trying to convince women to submit to continuous lie detector monitoring, under the auspices of weight control?

nivla2• 13 years ago

rest assured that the embedded system and controller board will be equipped with software that defaults to an always-upload mode, dumping all data to microsoft.com ... Is Microsoft trying to convince women to submit to continuous lie detector monitoring, under the auspices of weight control?

What? I get it, its in fashion to hate on MS but come on these are just ridiculous assumptions. Let's look at it from a technical point of view. If you want an always-upload device, at the current state it would require a substantially battery which needs to be recharged atleast every 12hours. Now who will buy a heavy bra that fails in half a day?

Lie detector.. really? because its in the evil interest of a corporation to know when only women are lying.

downer953• 13 years ago

It needs a battery no matter what. It assuredly has a battery. How would it function at all without a battery small enough to power a wrist watch?

How much battery power do you need, in order to pipe readings from a sensor into a tiny 2GB cache of flash memory?

Then, the data syncs with your laptop, because how else will you find out what the readings are, without some kind of GUI interface showing you some charts and graphs that interpret the raw sensor data?

The sync software will come bundled with a "share your data, oh goody!" feature that defaults to constant sharing mode (dark pattern). You charge the battery whenever you sync. In the presence of an internet connection, it uplinks to MsSmartBra.com, where data is monitored and tracked so everyone knows your high score! Yay!

droopyEyelids• 13 years ago

This has such tremendous potential. So much of our lives are ruled by habits, and who here doesn't have habits they want to break or new, better habits they want to develop?

Imagine if this could notice your boredom behaviors and prompt you to work out or study, if it gave you a solid reminder when you were watching more TV than you thought was useful, etc. Even if it noticed when you'd been sitting for more than an hour and prompted you to get up and stretch.

That would be fucking awesome.

clockworkelf2• 13 years ago

Cmon people, this is pretty sad. Humans are not robots and shouldn't be treated as such. What's next? A pair of underwear to stop men from impulsive sex? We have a soul, a spirit. Find the real reason why you harm yourself and emancipate that in a spiritual way .. not an electronic bra.

cLeEOGPw3• 13 years ago

First - humans ARE robots and have no soul/spirit, second - you should not treat non-human with disrespect just because it was of another species. Animals have feelings just like you, and in the future an actual mechanical robots might too. Would you still treat AI as it was "a thing", although it could feel, understand and act just like any human being? Because if so, you should treat every human being as thing too.

smtddr2• 13 years ago

> First - humans ARE robots and have no soul/spirit

I very strongly disagree with this, but I know on HN this makes me an absurd fool with no data to back myself up with. Ya know, on my myers briggs[1] test that took last year, and also about 20+ yrs ago when I was in highschool the results were the same. I have a strong sense of spiritualness and connectedness. I'll link this blog[2] but I suspect its contents will be dismissed around here as unscientific baseless nonsense. Not trying to change anyone's mind here, just showing how I feel. Maybe some readers will better understand the other people in the world, like myself, who don't think like vulcans[3].

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myers-Briggs_Type_Indicator

2. https://findingourwayhomeblog.wordpress.com/tag/myers-briggs...

3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vulcan_(Star_Trek)

clockworkelf2• 13 years ago

Nobody was talking about animals.

probably_wrong• 13 years ago

I actually see it as a sort of competition. There's a problem, namely, people overeating due to emotional distress. So let's have a race and see who can solve it better. The psychologist will say "go to therapy", the doctor will say "exercise more", the priest will say "try volunteering" and the engineer will say "here's an app for that".

If it turns out that the engineer's solution works better, well, a) it's up to the rest to come up with a better solution, and b) I can't blame the engineer for coming up with an engineering solution. I actually find it refreshing that they are working on that instead of Adwords/Zynga/NSA stuff.

And of course, this bra/bracelet thingy doesn't rule out the alternatives. If you don't like the engineering approach, feel free to try anything else on the list.

kristiandupont• 13 years ago

Sorry about off-topic, but if there was ever a real title that I would have thought came from the headline generator of last week, this has got to be it!

auggierose• 13 years ago

That's awesome! Can men wear it, too?

Microsoft designs smart bra to combat emotional eating

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