Fitbit [113] offers a lot of wearables for different types of usages, but the main thing all the wearables do good is to track a lot of things about the human behavior. Step counters, calories burned and sleep are just some of the few features any Fitbit armband can offer. The company has an open web API where developers can authenticate themselves, and then gain access to the API to retrieve data. The user has to grant the developers access to their data, but after that any data that the bands register can be retrieved from Fitbit if it has been uploaded to their servers.
8.4.1 Features
The basic features can be found in the list below, although they sound pretty simple, the data from this can help the user a lot when the data is analyzed. By simply using data such as sleep quality can help the user identify why and when problems occur. Or if the user is feeling sore one day, then the Fitbit band can show a visual graph with data about how much and how many steps a user has walked.
The Fitbit dashboard has support for manually logging activities, food diets, weight and sleep. By logging these areas, it is possible to see how much activity the user has done and the changes the user has done over time. The only problem with this way of logging is that it requires manual labor in order to be as effective as possible. As a default, the Fitbit automatically logs the steps the user takes, and this will be calculated into distance and expected calorie consumption for the activity done by the user (see figure 8.4). There is also support for user input of data for better monitoring of a user’s progress on their dashboard. This can be used if the user for example is currently charging the band, within the time it is off, the activity levels are high, i.e., manual activity logging are needed to get the correct data calculations.
Figure 8.4: Fitbit dashboard visualization 8.4.2 Limitations
The band itself has a battery time consisting of 6-10 days depending on which type of Fitbit device the user has. It is not possible to use the Fitbit while it is charged. It has to be de-assembled and attached to an external charger in order to be able to charge it. It is also important to note that there are two ways to synchronize the data from the band to Fitbit’s databases. The first way is by using a given wireless dongle that is attached to a computer, which will connect to the band through Bluetooth and then upload the data to the database if there is a network connection. The second way is to synchronize through a mobile device, which will be uploaded to the database when it has a network connection. One of the biggest limitations by using these type of bands from Fitbit is that if the user want the best analysis possible, then it would require a lot of manual work in order to make the data as consistent and effective as possible.
8.4.3 Uploading data to pmSys
The players can link their Fitbit account to their own pmSys user through the pmSys-app, and give pmSys read-access to their data from Fibit’s web API. By going into the profile, the player can link his Fitbit account to his pmSys user account (see figure 8.5). Fitbit uses OAuth [114] which is an open standard for authorization of users in a system. It is used by numerous systems and services where it is the middleware-security layer that takes care of authorization by linking users up against access tokens from their authorization server.
When clicking on the Fitbit image, a login screen is asking the players for their Fitbit user credentials.
When the credentials is typed in correctly, they will be asked to givepmSysread-only accessto their data, and this is used purely to visualize the user data so that the coaches can compare the subjective data (surveys) and the objective data (Fitbit). The whole process takes about one minute, and then the next time the coach wants to see the objective data, he can gain access freely since pmSys has been given access to the data of the player.
Figure 8.5: OAuth workflow for read-access to user data
8.4.4 Data processing
The data has already been formatted when pmSys retrieves it from Fitbit’s web API. The only thing pmSys does with the data from the web API, is to extract the data that is needed for visualization. When the data is extracted, it is then joined into a JSON object, before returning the object to the client for visual rendering.
8.4.5 Visualization
The data from Fitbit is also from the selected data and is presented in pie charts, the reason for this is to show how efficient the day has been. The data the Fitbit device collects as a default is presented here, and for other information such as weight changes, diet or calorie burned requires manual work. (see figure 8.6). This information could be useful when a player has a declining performance, and can help the coach and the medical staff to find out a solution to help the player return back to the peak physical state.
Figure 8.6: Visualization of sleep time and activity levels