Saturday, March 14, 2009

HappyHR

As I was reading through google reader, trying to catch up on articles, I came across this one about the HappyHR. After I read this, alarm bells went on in my head how this could be very abused, especially for those with eating disorders and chronic dieters. Basically, the HappyHR is a device which counts calories 24/7, including in your sleep! It is touted as "a fitness monitoring and management" device which the creators hope to extend to health applications for glucose and respiratory monitoring.

I think this is kind of scary. It doesn't say its accuracy, but how much concern is that really? It's just the point that there are people out there creating tools to determine how many calories you expend each and every minute of the day. It's not like we need another tool to add to society's obsession with numbers or as a way of measuring up, determining our worth. Seriously, what are people thinking?

I know I'm ranting here, but do other people see the pitfalls of this technology?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I could not be trusted with this. It's funny how they can creat such a device to measure with accuracy something so inaccurate. What I mean is, calories in and calories out is so much more complicated than a simple equation. This device equals trouble in my book! Now where do I get one....

Lola x

Lisa said...

Uh, yeah, my first thought was "Oooh, I want one!" So yes, this certainly has the potential to be abused.

Tiptoe said...

Lola and Lisa, my thoughts were similar to you too. In some ways, I do think it would be curious to know, but it is probably NOT a good idea for any of us.

Lola, yeah, I do not know how they would even take into account Basal Metabolic Rates which are different for everyone.

Wrapped up in Life said...

Oh dear.

Another anchor to my ED.