WaterLogg - a Fitbit mashup (and a wearable technology love story)

A wearable technology love story

[ WaterLogg ]

Hi! I’m @jasonsalas.

- Product manager, news anchor, college football analyst, filmmaker

- Co-author of Designing & Developing for Google Glass

- That Guy who likes Godfather: Part III best

“Necessity is the mother of invention.”

Great moments in thinking

“Necessity is the mother of invention.”

Plato, The Republic, circa 380 BC

Great moments in thinking

“When you create a solution for a problem that doesn’t exist, THAT’S invention.”

Great moments in thinking

“When you create a solution for a problem that doesn’t exist, THAT’S invention.”

Me, some obscure graduate school paper, circa 1999 AD

Great moments in thinking

Put it into perspective...

Fitbit, IoT & The Quantified Self

Inefficiency epiphany

● I drink A LOT of water ○ Large daily volume ○ Multiple “transactions”

● Fussing with Fitbit’s mobile & web apps is often laborious ○ Constantly posting via phone, tablet & browser○ Keeps me from doing other things

Do what engineers do

1. Identify a problem2. Simplify the problem3. Solve the problem

● A Glass/Fitbit mashup ○ Head-mounted client largely without a UI

● RESTful application○ Cloud service doesn’t require native app startup/shutdown

● Voice is the perfect input mechanism○ 4 seconds versus 20 seconds○ Android’s Speech Recognizer is excellent with numbers

EUREKA! WaterLogg is born

● Tell Glass how much water you drink○ ...literally!

● Track how much you’ve consumed○ ...constantly!

● Continue to live in the moment○ ...conveniently!

● Leverage the Internet of Things○ ...totally!

Handsfree program control

Use case

● Drink water at the office, in the car, at a restaurant, while exercising, doing dishes, folding laundry, lying on the couch...

● “OK Glass - post an update to - WaterLogg - thirty-three”● Audio transcribed as numeric text & pushed to the cloud● Fitbit profile updated & synced across platforms/devices● Confirmation card inserted into Glass timeline

● This is precisely the behavior where wearables rock○ Doesn’t take users away out of the real world○ Caters to microinteractions: quick, lightweight sessions

● A completely subjective solution○ Nothing existing addressed my specific need○ High impact, low intrusion, stupidly simple○ Rapid production time

Opportunities

Let’s take it for a spin

Voice command

Voice command

(or a tappable home card menu item)

(or a tappable home card menu item)

Glass listens for input

Speak volume of water consumed

Volume transcribed & uploaded

Success!

Success!

I use this all the time, everywhere.

Seriously. (Ask my co-workers & neighbors.)

● Mirror API○ Static cards, menu items, voice command, sharing contact

● Google APIs Client Library for Python○ OAuth 2.0 flow

● App Engine ○ Task Queue

● Temboo○ Insanely useful libs supporting 100+ APIs, devices & databases ○ Proxies authorized requests to remote services

Server-side semantics

Mirror API flow

Mirror API flow

Mirror API flow

Mirror API flow

- Callback needs to respond to notification pings ASAP- Let a managed service handle processing (like multithreading)- Adopt this pattern in all Glassware, no matter how trivial

Use a job queue for async processing

Roadmap

● Smartwatch integration○ Same idea, but designed for the wrist

■ Swipeable list with commonly-used volumes, too!○ Using voice is sometimes awkward

■ At a gig, in church, in line at the bank, at the movies, in court● Contextual awareness

○ What I’m doing, where I am, what time it is, who I’m with, who’s near me, what’s going on around me

WaterLogg for Android Wear

● No data connection on the watch○ Communicates with paired phone

● Architecture is much different○ Input captured on wearable, then pushed to handheld over

Bluetooth, then to the cloud● Android Wear SDK

○ 100% Java○ Node API, Message API, Data Layer API

Platform gotchas

A service on the handheld is the secret sauce

Takeaways

● Big win isn’t next-gen technical alchemy ○ Not just Glassware for the sake of Glassware

● Enhancing value by delivering real utility○ Creating an effective solution to do something better

● Fluency of the wearable UX ○ Right tool for the right job○ Leveraging microinteractions

As it turns out, the Grecian formula was right

Philosopher king > Guam dweeb

Get the code

Explore, clone, fork & improve!https://github.com/jasonsalas/WaterLoggforGlass

https://github.com/jasonsalas/WaterLoggforWear

SPOILER ALERT!!!

Shameless self-promotion FTW

@jasonsalasgoogle.com/+JasonSalas

#ThinkForGlass

Thanks for your time!

(And remember to hydrate.)

;-)