Wearable Fitness-Trackers and Data Sensing: Learning from Endurance Athletes
06/23/22 • 50 min
This is episode #20 of the podcast and it’s Thursday, the 23rd of June, 2022.
Today I sat down, virtually, of course, with Dr. Michael Mopas, Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario. He is cross-appointed to the Institute of Criminology and Criminal Justice and the Department of Law and Legal Studies, and serves as a member of the Duncombe Studio for Social and Cultural Research. Most of Michael’s work is in the area of science, technology, and law with a focus on 'sound'. In his spare time, he plays upright bass in several jazz bands in the city and participates in long-distance triathlons. He has completed two Ironman races (Lake Placid and Mont-Tremblant) and several other events.
In our discussion, we turned to wearable fitness-trackers and mobile apps that allow athletes to measure, monitor, visualize, and record a variety of training metrics. Dr. Mopas and his collaborators have looked into the deeply embodied and sensory dimensions of self-tracking. The overall insight seems to be that the data generated by self-trackers are not only cognitively processed, but also sensed and felt by users. While we do have some understanding of what exactly self-tracking devices measure and quantify, we know less about how/when do their users know these quantitative metrics work for them. How do we mitigate the potential dissonance between these quantitative metrics and the athletes’ lived experiences?
The second part of the discussion moved toward technology. We talked about the future of wearable self-tracking devices and debated if AI can be employed to better understand the emotional needs of the user. Here is the show.
Show Notes:
Do wearable tracking devices take too much of our ability of ‘being in the moment’?
- Should we value quantitative metrics over other ways of knowing and making sense?
- Moments of dissonance: self-tracking device’s quantitative metrics vs. the athletes’ lived experience
- Sharing data (e.g., Strava): potential benefits and limitations
- Technology: Can we develop AI that learns qualitative data that people input into such devices?
Note:
Relevant papers:
Mopas, Michael S., and Ekaterina Huybregts. "Training by feel: wearable fitness-trackers, endurance athletes, and the sensing of data." The Senses and Society 15.1 (2020): 25-40.
Lupton, Deborah, and Sarah Maslen. "The more-than-human sensorium: sensory engagements with digital self-tracking technologies." The Senses and Society 13.2 (2018): 190-202.
Link to Dr. Mopas’ web page:
This is episode #20 of the podcast and it’s Thursday, the 23rd of June, 2022.
Today I sat down, virtually, of course, with Dr. Michael Mopas, Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario. He is cross-appointed to the Institute of Criminology and Criminal Justice and the Department of Law and Legal Studies, and serves as a member of the Duncombe Studio for Social and Cultural Research. Most of Michael’s work is in the area of science, technology, and law with a focus on 'sound'. In his spare time, he plays upright bass in several jazz bands in the city and participates in long-distance triathlons. He has completed two Ironman races (Lake Placid and Mont-Tremblant) and several other events.
In our discussion, we turned to wearable fitness-trackers and mobile apps that allow athletes to measure, monitor, visualize, and record a variety of training metrics. Dr. Mopas and his collaborators have looked into the deeply embodied and sensory dimensions of self-tracking. The overall insight seems to be that the data generated by self-trackers are not only cognitively processed, but also sensed and felt by users. While we do have some understanding of what exactly self-tracking devices measure and quantify, we know less about how/when do their users know these quantitative metrics work for them. How do we mitigate the potential dissonance between these quantitative metrics and the athletes’ lived experiences?
The second part of the discussion moved toward technology. We talked about the future of wearable self-tracking devices and debated if AI can be employed to better understand the emotional needs of the user. Here is the show.
Show Notes:
Do wearable tracking devices take too much of our ability of ‘being in the moment’?
- Should we value quantitative metrics over other ways of knowing and making sense?
- Moments of dissonance: self-tracking device’s quantitative metrics vs. the athletes’ lived experience
- Sharing data (e.g., Strava): potential benefits and limitations
- Technology: Can we develop AI that learns qualitative data that people input into such devices?
Note:
Relevant papers:
Mopas, Michael S., and Ekaterina Huybregts. "Training by feel: wearable fitness-trackers, endurance athletes, and the sensing of data." The Senses and Society 15.1 (2020): 25-40.
Lupton, Deborah, and Sarah Maslen. "The more-than-human sensorium: sensory engagements with digital self-tracking technologies." The Senses and Society 13.2 (2018): 190-202.
Link to Dr. Mopas’ web page:
Previous Episode
The Felt Experience of Reading: From Realist Fiction to Immersive Technologies (Part II)
This is episode #19 of the podcast and it’s Thursday, the 9th of June, 2022.
I interviewed Dr. Elaine Auyoung, Donald V. Hawkins Professor and Associate Professor of English at the University of Minnesota, and Affiliate Faculty of the Center for Cognitive Sciences. She is the author of “When Fiction Feels Real: Representation and the Reading Mind”, recently released in paperback from Oxford University Press. In addition to the project on “Unselfing” described on her faculty webpage, Elaine is also working on a book project on “Becoming Sensitive”, which uses cognitive research on expertise and perceptual learning to show how training in the arts and humanities prepares learners to notice and respond to information in ways that are important for future problem solving but have been difficult to assess.
We had a fascinating discussion on many important topics covered in Elaine’s book, but the episode went over the usual podcast duration, so I’ve decided to split it into two parts. This is Part II.
We continued our discussion from Part I on how to bridge the gap between readers’ experience and the experience of firsthand perception — i.e., how well can we know what we don’t experience directly? We then moved to the vocabulary of 'bereavement' addressing the question ‘What happens when novels end?” As always, we concluded with a discussion on technology covering e-books, multimedia experiences, and VR. Elaine was also happy to introduce us to her current project on ‘Becoming Sensitive’ where she debates the importance of the Arts and Humanities in preparing learners to make and represent information in ways that are important for future problem solving.
Here is the show.
Show Notes:
how well can we know what we don’t experience directly? (and limitations of language)
- leaving room between imagination and experience
- the vocabulary of 'bereavement': What happens when novels end?
- the future of digital books and the future of experiencing fiction in VR: 1st person vs. 3rd person immersion
- the role of language in immersive environments
- Elaine’s current project, ‘Becoming Sensitive’
- perceptual learning: the ability to differentiate one’s experience (preparing us for noticing or for being sensitive)
Dr. Auyoung’s faculty webpage:
https://cla.umn.edu/about/directory/profile/eauyoung
Link to paperback edition of Dr. Auyoung book:
https://www.amazon.com/When-Fiction-Feels-Real-Representation/dp/0197621279/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1MMDE5NRJ6GV4&keywords=when+fiction+feels+real&qid=1650048589&sprefix=when+fiction+feels+real%2Caps%2C96&sr=8-1
Next Episode
Subjective Experience, Consciousness, and Artificial Intelligence
This is episode #21 of the podcast and it’s Thursday, the 7th of July, 2022.
My guest today is Dr. Matthias Michel, a philosopher working at the Center for Mind, Brain, and Consciousness at the New York University. Although most of his research focuses on the scientific study of consciousness, he is also interested in non-human / animal consciousness. Matthias has also worked in the domain of 'philosophy of measurement' as it applies to the measurement of mental properties, especially in psychiatric research (for instance, in the measurement of fear and anxiety).
We started the show by defining consciousness — discussing the ways in which we can assess our own conscious experience. Since the subjective aspect of consciousness makes its scientific study very challenging, I asked Matthias to summarize for us the current assessment methods used in the field. One such method (the use of subjective reports), although somewhat controversial, proves to be particularly important in applications like mental disorders (specifically, fear and anxiety). Matthias believes that cognitive neuroscience research on consciousness could give us a deeper understanding of mental disorders and their treatments.
The second part of the interview covered technology where we focused in particular on the questions ‘can AI systems be conscious? And, if yes, how?’ Matthias kindly shares with us his field’s perspective as well as his own opinion on the topic.
Here is the show.
Show Notes:
- Defining consciousness; Is human experience always conscious?
- Does being conscious presuppose being aware? (And what kind of awareness is needed here?)
- What makes the scientific study of consciousness challenging?
- Applications: mental disorders (like fear and anxiety): how can the scientific field of consciousness help?
- Subjective reports in the assessment of conscious experience
- Technology: Can AI be conscious? How?
Note:
Relevant papers:
Michel, Matthias. "The Mismeasure of Consciousness: A problem of coordination for the Perceptual Awareness Scale." Philosophy of Science 86.5 (2019): 1239-1249.
Taschereau-Dumouchel, Vincent, et al. "Putting the “mental” back in “mental disorders”: a perspective from research on fear and anxiety." Molecular Psychiatry 27.3 (2022): 1322-1330.
Lau, Hakwan. In Consciousness we Trust: The Cognitive Neuroscience of Subjective Experience. Oxford University Press. 2022.
Link to Dr. Michel’s website:
https://matthias-michel.wixsite.com/michel
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