Timeline of quantified self

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This is a timeline of quantified self. Covert surveillance or tracking of the self by others is not discussed in this timeline.

Sample questions

The following are some interesting questions that can be answered by reading this timeline:

  • Concept introduction
  • Service launch
  • Device launch
  • Literature
  • Background technology
  • Notable case
  • Data politics
  • Data privacy and security

Big picture

Time period Development summary More details
Ancient times Early ideas Monitoring, measuring and recording elements of one's body and life as a form of self-improvement or self-reflection is already discussed in ancient times.[1]
Latter half of the 20th century onwards Early technologies The Digital Revolution introduces technologies that facilitate tracking practices, leading to renewed interest in self-tracking.[1] The term database is introdiced in the 1960s. "Technically quantified self has been an idea since the 1970s"[2] In the 1990s, people start experimenting with lifelogging techniques and wearable computing devices.[1]
21st century Consolidation The term quantified self is invented in 2007 by Gary Wolf and Kevin Kelly, both who start the Quantified Self movement in the same year.[3]

Visual and numerical data

Mentions on Google Scholar

Year quantified self self tracking life logging human enhancement
1980 2,780 3,770 30,300 10,300
1985 3,460 4,660 7.830 15,900
1990 7,340 9,440 50,300 32,600
1995 12,300 18,500 13,400 65,700
2000 23,300 38,500 56,600 138,000
2002 30,500 54,000 28,100 153,000
2004 41,700 68,500 33,200 182,000
2006 56,000 88,000 39,700 212,000
2008 69,900 109,000 48,600 233,000
2010 86,500 131,000 76,500 250,000
2012 99,800 153,000 106,000 287,000
2014 99,500 162,000 99,100 276,000
2016 85,900 151,000 91,000 220,000
2017 80,400 147,000 83,200 184,000
2018 67,300 126,000 73,800 147,000
2019 51,300 97,200 59,300 109,000
2020 36,300 75,400 43,300 78,400
Quantified self.png

Full timeline

Year Month and date (approximately) Event type Domain (when applicable) Details
1945 Notable comment (lifelogging) American presidential science advisor Vannevar Bush publishes an essay asserting his belief that humans' ability to remember could be enhanced by technology. In this essay, Bush introduces his idea of the Memex, a mechanized device in which people could store all their documents, records, books, letters and memos. People could wear small cameras on their foreheads to capture details of their daily lives and add them to the Memex archive.[1]
1972–1997 Notable case (lifelogging) "A known lifelogger was Robert Shields, who manually recorded 25 years of his life from 1972 to 1997, at 5-minute intervals. This record resulted in a 37-million word diary, thought to be the longest ever written."
1980 The first wireless ECG is invented.
1998 Notable case Using digital technologies, American electrical engineer Gordon Bell starts recording as many aspects of his life as possible, including all his correspondence and documents, books he has read, photos, home movies and videos, computer files, mementos, meetings, conversations and phone calls. In 2000, he would start wearing a camera, and in 2002, BodyMedia, an early health-tracking armband.[1]
1999 "eHealth is a relatively recent healthcare practice supported by electronic processes and communication, dating back to at least 1999."[4]
2001 Experiment MyLifeBits launches as a life-logging experiment. It is a Microsoft Research project inspired by Vannevar Bush's hypothetical Memex computer system.[5]
2004 January 1[6] Service launch Workplace wellness Richard Branson’s Virgin Group launches Virgin Pulse, a platform that offers both productivity-, health- and fitness-tracking programs for workers, including wearable fitness, diet, weight, sleep and work commitment trackers.[7]
2005 MyFitnessPal is launched. It is a health smartphone app that tracks nutrition, exercise, and diet. In 2020, MyFitnessPal would be acquired by Francisco Partners for US$345 million.[8]
2006 April 23andMe
2006 August 24 Background technology Amazon.com releases its Elastic Compute Cloud product. Cloud computing starts being popularized.[9]
2007 January 15 Service launch (reading tracker) Goodreads is founded. It is a mobile and web app that allows its users to find, share, recommend, read, and review the books they like. In 2013, it would be acquired by Amazon.[10] As of 2021, Goodreads is the world’s largest site for readers and book recommendations.[11]
2007 January 28 Service launch (task manager) Todoist is founded. It keeps track of tasks, projects, and goals in one simple place, synching across all the users devices and integrating with all their favorite apps.[12]
2007 March 26 Fitbit
2007 April 1 Service launch Productivity monitoring RescueTime is launched. Based in Seattle, Washington, it is a web-based time management tool that keeps track of what the user does and for how long when they are on their computer. Productivity-monitoring devices and software are becoming a feature of many workplaces.[13]
2007 Concept development The term quantified self is proposed in San Francisco by Wired magazine editors Gary Wolf and Kevin Kelly as "a collaboration of users and tool makers who share an interest in self knowledge through self-tracking."[14][15]
2007 September 25 Website launch quantifiedself.com is registered.[16] Set up by Gary Wolf and Kevin Kelly, the website provides discussion forums, supports regional meetings of members and two annual international conferences, and publishes a blog covering self-tracking aspects and strategies.[1]
2007 Organiztion "The Quantified Self movement was founded by Gary Wolf and Kevin Kelly in 2007. From the start it has been a movement that aims to explore ‘what new tools of self-tracking are good for’ and ‘to create an environment where this question can be explored on a human level’. The community of curious self-trackers in this early stage was limited to a Bay Area Quantified Self Meetup Group. Since then the movement has gained huge momentum; today there are hundreds of QS meetup groups worldwide."
2008 "At the center of the quantified self movement is, appropriately, the Quantified Self community, which in October 2012 comprised 70 worldwide meetup groups with 5,000 participants having attended 120 events since the community formed in 2008 (event videos are available online at http://quantifiedself.com/)."[17]
2009 Device launch Philips releases Fractals, a prototype consisting in digital jewelry or scarf arrangements that are designed to be a hybrid between clothing and jewelry. Using light-emitting diode (LED) configurations to display data, these objects sense bodily changes of the wearer as well as the proximity of others' bodies.[18]
2009 February Literature David Ewing Duncan publishes Experimental Man: What One Man's Body Reveals about His Future, Your Health, and Our Toxic World.[19]
2011 May Conference The first Quantified Self international conference is held in Mountain View, California.[20]
2011 November Conference The first European Quantified Self (QS) conference is conducted in Amsterdam.[20]
2012 April Literature Bruce W. Perry publishes Fitness for Geeks: Real Science, Great Nutrition, and Good Health.[21]
2012 September 28 Organization The Quantified Self Institute, is officially founded as an academic research institute in the Netherlands by the Hanze University of Applied Sciences, in collaboration with the Quantified Self Labs.[20][1]
2012 September " The group's third conference was held at Stanford University in September 2012 with over 400 attendees."[17]
2012 October "At the center of the quantified self movement is, appropriately, the Quantified Self community, which in October 2012 comprised 70 worldwide meetup groups with 5,000 participants having attended 120 events since the community formed in 2008"[17]
2012 October "The Quantified Self web site listed over 500 tools as of October 2012 (http://quantifiedself.com/guide/), mostly concerning exercise, weight, health, and goal achievement."[17]
2013 Concept introduction Michael Savage uses the term 'lively data' in an article, to denote the constant generation of large masses of digital data as part of the digital data economy, and the implications of this practice for sociological research methods.[1]
2014 April Market "Amazon.com Launches Wearable Technology Web Store"[22]
2014 May 21 Wellness & Prevention, a division of Johnson & Johnson, launches self-tracking app Track Your Health, which allows users to track and aggregate data, set goals, and visualize their weight, movement and nutrition progress in the form of charts.[23]
2014 Demographics Fitness tracking Study by Nielsen reports that women are more likely to wear fitness bands than men, and also more likely to use other specialized mobile health devices. He also reports that owners of wearable devices are more likely to have a high household income, particularly fitness-band owners.[24]
2014 Demographics General Study published on the Quantified Self website reports that American middle-class white men with high levels of digital technological know-how are perhaps the more public face of self-tracking. The largest group of self-trackers in this study were monitoring health-related factors such as physical activity, food consumption, weight, and mood. A group comprised of software engineers and students are found to be interested in tracking work productivity and cognitive performance. Others are found to want to have new life experiences through self-tracking, which they considered to be a form of experimenting.[25].
2014 Concept development Internet of Things Elwell argues that, instead of Internet of Things, we should be referring to the 'Internet od Life', in relation to the increassing masses of digital data on a greater number of elements of human life.[26]
2014 July "In July 2014 a smart technology footwear was introduced in Hyderabad, India. The shoe insoles are connected to a smartphone application that uses Google Maps, and vibrate to tell users when and where to turn to reach their destination.[27][28][29][30]"
2014 July Device launch Emotion tracking London-based Studio XO partners with Saatchi & Saatchi to create XOX, an emotional technology platform that allows brands and artists to track people's emotional states. XOX enables brands and artists to collect data on the emotional states of individuals in order to measure 'crowd excitement' so as to adjust products and services accordingly.The device is also advertised for people wearing it to be able to identify their own emotions. It consists in a wristband embedded with sensors that collects 'intimate data' on 'levels of excitement'.[31]
2014 September Survey Fitness tracking TechnologyResearch publishes results of an internet survey of U.S. residents, finding that a quarter of the respondents said that they used either a fitness-tracking device of a smartphone app to track their health, weight or exercise. Lack of interest and concern over cost were the primary reasons given by respondents who did not use those devices, although almost half of this group said that they would use a fitness-tracking device if it were recommended or prescribed by their doctor.[32]
2014 October 28 Health-tracking platform launch Google Fit launches.[33]
2015 April Device launch Apple releases its smartwatch, the Apple Watch, which serves the purpose as a wearable health- abd fitness- tracking device.
2015 July Statistics According to quantifiedself.com, as of date, there are 207 quantified self 'meetup' groups in 37 countries around the world, with a total of over 52,000 members. The largest number of groups is in the United States.[1]
2016 April 8 Literature Dawn Nafus publishes Quantified: Biosensing Technologies in Everyday Life, which elaborates on social, cultural, political, and economical aspects of quantified self. The book discusses empowering, social control, volunteering, enforcement, data interpretation, and how does all this affect the relationship between medical practice and self care, between scientific and lay knowledge.[34]
2016 May 2 Literature Deborah Lupton publishes The Quantified Self, which "critically analyses the social, cultural and political dimensions of contemporary self-tracking and identifies the concepts of selfhood and human embodiment and the value of the data that underpin them".[1]
2016 June 24 Literature Dawn Nafus and Gina Neff publish Self-Tracking: The Mit Press Essential Knowledge Series, which introduces the essential ideas and key challenges of self-tracking.[35]
2016 September 7 Literature Deborah Lupton publishes The Quantified Self.[36]
2017 September 11 Literature Phoebe V. Moore publishes The Quantified Self in Precarity: Work, Technology and What Counts, which attempts to demonstrate how workplace quantification leads to high turnover rates, workplace rationalization and worker stress and anxiety.[37]
2017 September 28 Literature Burkhardt Funk and Mark Hoogendoorn publish Machine Learning for the Quantified Self: On the Art of Learning from Sensory Data, which explains the complete loop to effectively use self-tracking data for machine learning.[38]
2018 May 8 Health-tracking platform launch "Google, Android P take on phone addiction with Android Dashboard"[39]
2019 Service launch (metabolic health tracker) NutriSense is founded. It is a data-driven metabolic health platform that tracks key metabolic markers in real-time. It uses continuous glucose monitoring, AI-powered meal tracking, and expert coaching. It uses machine learning technology.[40][41]
2020 June 1 "Google updates Pixel devices with a new "bedtime" feature, new safety features"[42]
2020 August 27 Health-tracking platform launch "AMAZON ANNOUNCES HALO, A FITNESS BAND AND APP THAT SCANS YOUR BODY AND VOICE"[43][44]
2021 March 31 "Cisco is adding new "People Insights" to Webex to help you keep your professional screen time on track."[45]
2021 April 15 "Researchers in Japan have built a PV-powered device to measure volumetric variations in blood circulation. The system, which is just a few microns thick, was built with an organic solar module, a polymer light-emitting diode (PLED), and an organic photodetector."[46]

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See also

External links

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 Lupton, Deborah (2 May 2016). The Quantified Self. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-1-5095-0059-8. 
  2. Wong, Kai (15 November 2019). "The Quantified Self movement is dead". Medium. 
  3. "The Quantified Self Movement: Self-Tracking in the Data Gold Rush". Bloomsoup. 23 July 2020. Retrieved 7 April 2021. 
  4. Della Mea, Vincenzo (22 June 2001). "What is e-Health (2): The death of telemedicine?". Journal of Medical Internet Research. 3 (2): e22. PMC 1761900Freely accessible. PMID 11720964. doi:10.2196/jmir.3.2.e22Freely accessible. 
  5. "MyLifeBits". Microsoft Research. Retrieved 19 July 2021. 
  6. "Virgin Pulse - Virgin Pulse, part of the famed Virgin Group, is passionate about inspiring and engaging employees to live better every day. | Startup Ranking". StartupRanking. Retrieved 19 July 2021. 
  7. "Virgin Pulse - Crunchbase Company Profile & Funding". Crunchbase. Retrieved 19 July 2021. 
  8. "MyFitnessPal - Crunchbase Company Profile & Funding". Crunchbase. Retrieved 18 July 2021. 
  9. "Announcing Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) – beta". 24 August 2006. Retrieved 31 May 2014. 
  10. "Amazon Acquires Social Reading Site Goodreads, Which Gives The Company A Social Advantage Over Apple". TechCrunch. Retrieved 18 July 2021. 
  11. "Goodreads - Crunchbase Company Profile & Funding". Crunchbase. Retrieved 18 July 2021. 
  12. "Todoist - Crunchbase Company Profile & Funding". Crunchbase. Retrieved 18 July 2021. 
  13. "RescueTime - Crunchbase Company Profile & Funding". Crunchbase. Retrieved 19 July 2021. 
  14. Wolf, Gary. "Quantified Self". Gary Wolf. Archived from the original (blog) on 2012-03-27. Retrieved 2012-03-26. 
  15. Singer, Emily. "The Measured Life". MIT. Retrieved 2011-07-05. 
  16. "quantifiedself.com whois lookup - who.is". who.is. Retrieved 19 July 2021. 
  17. 17.0 17.1 17.2 17.3 Swan, Melanie (June 2013). "The Quantified Self: Fundamental Disruption in Big Data Science and Biological Discovery". Big Data. 1 (2): 85–99. doi:10.1089/big.2012.0002. 
  18. Ryan, 2014
  19. Duncan, David Ewing (2009). Experimental man : what one man's body reveals about his future, your health, and our toxic world. Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley. ISBN 9780470176788. 
  20. 20.0 20.1 20.2 Wolf, Gary (18 October 2016). "What is quantified self?". Quantified Self Institute. Retrieved 19 July 2021. 
  21. Perry, Bruce W. (2012). Fitness for geeks : real science, great nutrition, and good health (1st ed.). Sebastopol, CA: O'Reilly Media. ISBN 1449399894. 
  22. Sacco, Al (29 April 2014). "Amazon.com Launches Wearable Technology Web Store". CIO. Retrieved 19 July 2021. 
  23. "Johnson & Johnson subsidiary launches self-tracking app". MobiHealthNews. 21 May 2014. Retrieved 20 March 2021. 
  24. Nielsen, 2014
  25. Choe, Lee, Lee, Pratt, and Kientz, 2014
  26. Elwell, 2014
  27. McGregor, Jay (25 July 2014). "India's Take On Google Glass, A Vibrating Smartshoe". Forbes. Retrieved 26 July 2014. 
  28. Thoppil, Dhanya Ann Thoppil (24 July 2014). "India's Answer to Google Glass: The Smartshoe". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 26 July 2014. 
  29. Anthony, Sebastian (24 July 2014). "The smartshoe: A much more sensible approach to wearable computing than Glass or a smartwatch". Extreme Tech. Retrieved 26 July 2014. 
  30. "A smart shoe from Indian firm". Deccan Chronicle. 27 July 2014. Retrieved 26 July 2014. 
  31. "XOX: Emotional Advertising | Stylus". Stylus | Innovation Research & Advisory. Retrieved 19 July 2021. 
  32. Graham, 2014
  33. Sawers, Paul (28 October 2014). "Google launches Google Fit app for Android, capturing all your fitness data in one place". TNW | Apps. Retrieved 5 May 2021. 
  34. Nafus, Dawn (8 April 2016). Quantified: Biosensing Technologies in Everyday Life. MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-03417-3. 
  35. Neff, Gina; Nafus, Dawn (24 June 2016). Self-Tracking. MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-52912-9. 
  36. Lupton, Deborah. The Quantified Self. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-1-5095-0063-5. 
  37. Moore, Phoebe V. (11 September 2017). The Quantified Self in Precarity: Work, Technology and What Counts. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-317-20160-1. 
  38. Hoogendoorn, Mark; Funk, Burkhardt. Machine Learning for the Quantified Self: On the Art of Learning from Sensory Data. Springer. ISBN 978-3-319-66308-1. 
  39. Ng, Alfred. "Google wants to help you fight phone addiction". CNET. Retrieved 4 April 2021. 
  40. Collier, Kara. "NutriSense V2.0 - Discover and reach your health potential". Product Hunt. Retrieved 18 July 2021. 
  41. "NutriSense - Crunchbase Company Profile & Funding". Crunchbase. Retrieved 18 July 2021. 
  42. Condon, Stephanie. "Google updates Pixel devices with a new "bedtime" feature, new safety features". ZDNet. Retrieved 4 April 2021. 
  43. "Introducing Amazon Halo and Amazon Halo Band—A New Service that Helps Customers Improve Their Health and Wellness | Amazon.com, Inc. - Press Room". press.aboutamazon.com. Retrieved 4 April 2021. 
  44. Bohn, Dieter (27 August 2020). "Amazon announces Halo, a fitness band and app that scans your body and voice". The Verge. Retrieved 4 April 2021. 
  45. Condon, Stephanie. "Cisco adds new "People Insights" to Webex for a work-focused spin on digital wellness". ZDNet. Retrieved 4 April 2021. 
  46. "I've got solar over my skin". pv magazine International. Retrieved 17 April 2021.