Outdoors + Tech newsletter – August 27, 2019

Outdoors + Tech news articles, blog posts and research papers for August 27, 2019

 

bracelets


OTA Flash Tool Makes Fitness Tracker Hacking More Accessible

Hackaday, Tom Nardi from

Over the last several months, [Aaron Christophel] has been working on creating a custom firmware for cheap fitness trackers. His current target is the “D6 Tracker” from a company called MPOW, which can be had for as little as $7 USD. The ultimate goal is to make it so anyone will be able to write their own custom firmware for this gadget using the Arduino IDE, and with the release of his new Android application that allows wirelessly flashing the device’s firmware, it seems like he’s very close to realizing that dream.

Previously, [Aaron] had to crack open the trackers and physically connect a programmer to update the firmware on the NRF52832-based devices. That might not be a big deal for the accomplished hardware hacker, but it’s a bit of a hard sell for somebody who just wants to see their own Arduino code running on it. But with this new tool, he’s made it so you can easily switch back and forth between custom and original firmware on the D6 without even having to take it off your wrist.

 

Apple Health: Once the company’s ambition, now has stalled

Marketplace, Molly Wood from

For a while in 2018, it seemed like Apple was going to upend the health industry. The company announced an app that could monitor your heart rate and detect irregularities. It was bringing your medical records to your iPhone. It even launched its own health care clinics for employees and families, which people saw as a trial balloon for understanding the industry.

But this week, CNBC’s Christina Farr reported that several people have left the Apple Health division. Host Molly Wood spoke with Farr, who said the employees were frustrated with the company’s lack of organization and ambition. [audio, 6:17]

 

How Many Steps Should You Take a Day?

The New York Times, Kim Tingley from

Humans, once in constant motion as hunters and gatherers, are moving less than ever. At first, this trend seemed like progress: Transferring our heavy and dangerous work to animals, then machines, enabled more people to live longer. As recently as the 1950s, doctors considered exercise dangerous for people over age 40; for heart disease, which was then killing a record number of Americans, they prescribed bed rest. This was partly based on their concept of what “exercise” was: Early physiologists conducted studies on their (typically young, male) graduate students or on military servicemen — and in order to become more fit than they already were, these subjects needed to work out hard. “The mantra was, You have to go to a gym, you have to do high-intensity physical activity,” says Abby C. King, a professor of health research and policy and medicine at Stanford University: “this sort of ‘no pain, no gain’ phenomenon.”

 

Wearables Under the Microscope: How New Tech Will Disrupt Patient-Physician Dynamics

tctMD, Marcus A. Banks from

… Every clinician who spoke with TCTMD supported the idea of patients taking more control of their health. But some had reservations about how well wearables actually facilitate this goal.

Mamas A. Mamas, BMBCh, DPhil (Keele University, Stoke-on-Trent, England), offered a cautionary tale, noting that he himself wears an Apple Watch when he goes for a jog. “I was running once,” he said, “and my heart rate shot up to 180, and I thought, ‘What the hell is going on here?’” Mamas determined that his pulse rate was actually 100 and did not seek medical attention. But he suspects that somebody else would have rushed to a clinic, needlessly worried.

Indeed, Mamas said he “often” has young patients referred to him whose heart rates have jumped up while exercising. In these cases, he continued, “What do you do? Do you say to these patients, ‘Oh, it’s likely to be nothing,’ or do you investigate?” Mamas came down on the side of investigating further since the patient has sought his counsel, but added that in most cases this amounts to “unnecessary stress” as younger individuals are at very low risk of developing A-fib.

 

non-wrist wearable


Scientists Develop A Sweat Patch To Test For Hydration

NPR, Shots blog, Joe Palca and Luis Torres from

… “There’s a very small amount of glucose naturally present in sweat,” says [John] Rogers. He explains that the concentration of glucose in sweat is about 100 times lower than the glucose concentration in blood. Rogers says that someday scientists might be able to engineer a patch like this one that could be used in place of needles to measure glucose in diabetic patients, but it’s going to require more sophisticated technology.

Diabetic patients are not the only ones who would benefit from needle-free tests.

“Many of the tests for high performance athletics are being done by blood,” says Juan Hinestroza, associate professor of fiber science and director of the textiles nanotechnology laboratory at Cornell University, who wasn’t involved in the study. This might include testing of lactate levels to measure the flow of blood and oxygen in the body.

[Mallika] Bariya says they want to adapt the device to measure other molecules in sweat that are important to health, such as other electrolytes including calcium and chloride. Rogers thinks the patch could also measure heavy metals such as lead, as well as drugs like stimulants or depressants. [audio, 2:24]

 

Are wearable heart rate measurements accurate to estimate aerobic energy cost during low-intensity resistance exercise?

PLOS One; Victor M. Reis et al. from

The aim of the present study was to assess the accuracy of heart rate to estimate energy cost during eight resistance exercises performed at low intensities: half squat, 45° inclined leg press, leg extension, horizontal bench press, 45° inclined bench press, lat pull down, triceps extension and biceps curl. 56 males (27.5 ± 4.9 years, 1.78 ± 0.06 m height, 78.67 ± 10.7 kg body mass and 11.4 ± 4.1% estimated body fat) were randomly divided into four groups of 14 subjects each. Two exercises were randomly assigned to each group and subjects performed four bouts of 4-min constant-intensity at each assigned exercise: 12%, 16%, 20% and 24% 1-RM. Exercise and intensity order were random. Each subject performed no more than 2 bouts in the same testing session. A minimum recovery of 24h was kept between sessions. During testing VO2 was measured with Cosmed K4b2 and heart rate was measured with Polar V800 monitor. Energy cost was calculated from mean VO2 during the last 30-s of each bout by using the energy equivalent 1 ml O2 = 5 calorie. Linear regressions with heart rate as predictor and energy cost as dependent variable were build using mean data from all subjects. Robustness of the regression lines was given by the scatter around the regression line (Sy.x) and Bland-Altman plots confirmed the agreement between measured and estimated energy costs. Significance level was set at p≤0.05. The regressions between heart rate and energy cost in the eight exercises were significant (p<0.01) and robustness was: half squat (Sy.x = 0,48 kcal·min-1), 45° inclined leg press (Sy.x = 0,54 kcal·min-1), leg extension (Sy.x = 0,59 kcal·min-1), horizontal bench press (Sy.x = 0,47 kcal·min-1), 45° inclined bench press (Sy.x = 0,54 kcal·min-1), lat pull down (Sy.x = 0,28 kcal·min-1), triceps extension (Sy.x = 0,08 kcal·min-1) and biceps curl (Sy.x = 0,13 kcal·min-1). We conclude that during low-intensity resistance exercises it is possible to estimate aerobic energy cost by wearable heart rate monitors with errors below 10% in healthy young trained males. [full text]

 

New robotic lens lets you zoom in by blinking your eye

University of California, News, UC San Diego from

A research team led by the University of California San Diego has developed a soft robotic lens whose movements are controlled by the eyes — blink twice and the lens zooms in and out; look left, right, up or down and the lens will follow.

The lens is the first example of an interface between humans and soft machines. “The human-machine interface, as we know it, features classical machines: computers, wheelchairs, and rigid robotics, for example. The innovation here is the interface with soft robotics. This can really open up new opportunities in the field,” said Shengqiang Cai, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at UC San Diego who led the research.

 

Epicore Biosystems Demos PPG Patch

YouTube, NextFlex US from

At NextFlex’s Innovation Day 2019, Adam Leech from Epicore Biosystems demonstrated their FHE patch containing a PPG and an accelerometer. [video, 1:24]

 

software


Strava launches four-week multi-sport Escape Plan challenge

Canadian Running Magazine, Anne Francis | from

Strava’s new Escape Plan challenge, designed to help users make physical activity a daily habit, supports 32 different sports

 

Why are big brands like Nike giving up on fitness apps?

Cult of Mac, Graham Bower from

Remember when every sports apparel brand needed an app to be cool? Ten years ago, the Nike+Apple partnership was in its ascendency, while Under Armour and Adidas were splurging millions acquiring fitness apps like MyFitnessPal and Runtastic.

Back then, brand owners hoped that by mining our workout data from these apps, they could target us with personalized offers. The big idea was that if you knew how often someone went running, you could tell when they needed new running shoes.

Today, things look very different. Nike removed workout tracking from its website. And Under Armour still can’t figure out how to unlock the potential of its apps. So what went wrong? What happened to the digital fitness revolution?

 

The machine always wins: what drives our addiction to social media

The Guardian, Richard Seymour from

Social media was supposed to liberate us, but for many people it has proved addictive, punishing and toxic. What keeps us hooked?

 

Professor Scott Delp delivering the @AmSocBiomech Goel Award Presentation, highlighting the approach of technology transfer being “pulled” by human health needs vs “pushed” by technology development.

Twitter, Wendy Murray from

 

gear


Differences in running biomechanics between a maximal, traditional, and minimal running shoe

Journal of Science & Medicine in Sport from

Objectives

Previous studies comparing shoes based on the amount of midsole cushioning have generally used shoes from multiple manufacturers, where factors outside of stack height may contribute to observed biomechanical differences in running mechanics between shoes. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to compare ground reaction forces and ankle kinematics during running between three shoes (maximal, traditional, and minimal) from the same manufacturer that only varied in stack height.
Design

Within-participant repeated measures
Methods

Twenty recreational runners ran overground in the laboratory in three shoe conditions (maximal, traditional, minimal) while three-dimensional kinematic and kinetic data were collected using a 3D motion capture system and two embedded force plates. Repeated measures ANOVAs (α = .05) compared biomechanical data between shoes.
Results

While the loading rate was significantly greater in the minimal shoe compared to the maximal shoe, no other differences were seen for the ground reaction force variables. Peak eversion was greater in the maximal and minimal shoe compared to the traditional shoe, while eversion duration and eversion at toe-off were greater in the maximal shoe.
Conclusions

Previously cited differences in ground reaction force parameters between maximal and traditional footwear may be due to factors outside of midsole stack height. The eversion mechanics in the maximal shoes from this study may place runners at a greater risk of injury. Disagreement between previous studies indicates that more research on maximal running shoes is needed.

 

materials


Smart Clothing: What You Need to Know About E-Textiles

Innovation & Tech Today, KC Bean from

… Given the continued innovation with digital devices, sensors, wireless communications, material sciences, and textiles, it was only a matter of time before the clothes on our backs joined the act. And while fitness and personal health trackers have more or less co-opted the term “wearables,” it’s also often used interchangeably with smart clothes by the general public and the industries that make them. Smart clothes, also referred to as high-tech clothing, smart garments, or electronic textiles, have been defined as “clothing items that have been enhanced with technology to add functionality beyond that of the traditional use.” Some smart clothes use advanced textiles with interwoven or printed circuitry, while others implement sensors, haptics, and additional hardware to provide smart functionality. Many smart clothes can connect to an app or program on a secondary device using Bluetooth or Wi-Fi.

For instance, the Mobile Warming Technology platform, built into their Fieldsheer line, features heating systems in jackets, pants, base layers, socks, gloves, and other accessories. The technology found in Mobile Warming garments utilizes a sophisticated power and control system with integrated electrical circuitry, wireless 2-way communications, and a garment management Bluetooth app.

 

Nylon as a building block for transparent electronic devices?

Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research from

Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research (MPI-P) led by Dr. Kamal Asadi have solved a four decade long challenge of producing very thin nylon films that can be used for instance in electronic memory components. The thin nylon films are several 100 times thinner than human hair and could thus be attractive for applications in bendable electronic devices or for electronics in clothing.

 

stories


Beta alanine supplementation

Asker Jeukendrup from

Beta-alanine has become a “must-have” supplement for many athletes, but does the science support the hype? Its inclusion as one of five performance-enhancing supplements with enough evidence to support its use in the International Olympic Committee’s recent consensus statement suggests it does. But what is beta-alanine, what does it do and in what situations might someone benefit this popular supplement?

 

FOODS THAT ARE VERY HEALTHY BUT ARE NOT RECOMMENDED DURING EXERCISE

Barca Innovation Hub from

There are all sorts of very healthy foods that are recommended as part of an elite athlete’s diet. However, consideration needs to be given to the issue of “timing”: a schedule adjustment that must be taken into account in order to know when these foods can be consumed if the athlete needs to compete or train afterwards. Although these foods may contain very healthy ingredients and nutrients, due to the fact that they take a long time to digest, or cause gas or bloating, they should not be eaten before practising sports.

Dr. María Antonia Lizarraga, specialist in Sports Medicine and Nutrition, explains, it is important to know what an athlete is eating and especially what they are eating before, during and after physical training. The key, she points out, is for them to know when food can be eaten so that it does not cause any issues in regard to digestion.

In general, on training or match days when there is very little time for digestion, it is recommended that small quantities of food are eaten, preferably liquid meals rather than solids, and foods which contain only a small amount of fibre.

 

Personalized Nutrition Companies’ Claims Overhyped: Scientists

The Scientist Magazine®, Shawna Williams from

The top of the Nourish3d homepage cycles through images of three young adults shown next to the seven ingredients in their own personalized daily supplements. Olivia’s Nourish3d includes ginger, marine collagen, and an “omega blend.” Mark needs tart cherry and vitamins A and E. Sophie gets green tea extract and something called CoQ10.

Like Olivia, Mark, and Sophie, consumers in the UK will be able to order supplements of their own that are customized to their goals and lifestyle beginning later this month, says Nourish3d CEO Melissa Snover. Each person’s selected ingredients, as determined by a questionnaire, will be “conveniently 3D printed into a tasty fruity, gummy stack,” according to the website, and mailed to them for £40 (about $50 US) per month or £360 per year.

Nourish3d’s 3D-printed spin on supplements has garnered some publicity, including a profile of Snover in Inc. and a Reuters video. Yet the company enters an already-crowded ecosystem of companies promising nutritional products or advice tailored to consumers’ unique needs. Megan Rossi, who studies nutrition at King’s College London, notes that “there is a growing tendency for more and more companies to do this personalization approach because people want to feel unique.” The quality of the research foundation on which these products rest varies, but independent experts such as Rossi are largely skeptical that they can deliver the benefits promised.

 

Why Athletes Need Sodium

TrainingPeaks, Andy Blow from

A 2015 study found that athletes who adequately replaced the sodium lost in their sweat finished a middle distance triathlon an average of 26 minutes faster than those who didn’t.

That’s quite a significant potential boost in performance! But, what’s the science behind sodium supplementation during exercise and how can athletes ensure they’re getting their intake right? Andy Blow, Founder and Sports Scientist at Precision Hydration has the answers.

 

data


Improving the Diagnosis of Nonfunctional Overreaching and Overtraining Syndrome. – PubMed – NCBI

Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise journal from

INTRODUCTION:

This study aimed to simplify and optimize the distinction between non – functional overreaching (NFO) and overtraining syndrome (OTS) by developing a multivariate approach (discriminant analysis, DA) including hormonal and psychological changes measured during the Training Optimization (TOP) test.
METHODS:

Sensitivity of previously defined cut-off values for hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA) hormonal changes were recalculated on a larger database (n=100). DA including hormonal and psychological variables measured during the TOP test was used to discriminate between NFO and OTS and predict the diagnosis of new cases.
RESULTS:

Adrenocorticotrophic hormone (ACTH) and prolactin (PRL) responses to the 2 exercise test were most sensitive to NFO and OTS. Cut-off values for ACTH and PRL response to the 2 test (NFO > cut-off value (200 %) > OTS), showed a sensitivity of 67% for ACTH and 93% for PRL in case of OTS and 74% for both ACTH and PRL in case of NFO. A DA including hormonal and psychological changes measured during the TOP test, resulted in the accurate diagnosis of NFO and OTS with 98% sensitivity. ACTH and PRL responses to the 1 and 2 exercise test and feeling of fatigue were the most discriminating variables.
CONCLUSION:

ACTH and PRL responses during the TOP test are the most sensitive markers to discriminate between NFO and OTS. DA including hormonal and psychological responses during the TOP test, can be used to optimize the diagnosis of NFO and OTS.

 

Is a rubber band the secret to running faster?

Stanford Medicine, Scope Blog from

There are plenty of ways you could get yourself to run faster. You could train, or you could buy special shoes, use an exoskeleton or even strap on a jet pack. But now, Stanford engineers report in the Journal of Experimental Biology, there’s a new way: a rubber band.

Dubbed an “exotendon” by its creators, the device is clipped between a runner’s shoes and links them together, which — perhaps surprisingly — helps address some of the fundamental inefficiencies of running, said Elliot Hawkes, PhD, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the University of California, Santa Barbara and one of the senior authors on the new paper.

“Every stride, you slow your body down and speed it back up again,” losing energy that could otherwise be conserved or put into running faster, said Hawkes, who was a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford when the research was conducted. “90 percent of the energy you put into running is wasted, in a sense.”

 

Blow to 10,000-hour rule as study finds practice doesn’t always make perfect

The Guardian, Ian Sample from

… [Brooke] Macnamara and her colleague Megha Maitra set out to repeat part of the 1993 study to see whether they reached the same conclusions. They interviewed three groups of 13 violinists rated as best, good, or less accomplished about their practice habits, before having them complete daily diaries of their activities over a week.

While the less skilful violinists clocked up an average of about 6,000 hours of practice by the age of 20, there was little to separate the good from the best musicians, with each logging an average of about 11,000 hours. In all, the number of hours spent practising accounted for about a quarter of the skills difference across the three groups, according to the study published in Royal Society Open Science.

 

public lands


Future of nation’s outdoors depends on cultivating passion in youths

Las Vegas Sun News, Andres Almanza from

Getting kids outdoors and in touch with nature is crucial today when it seems like millions of screens are fighting for our attention. But this is doubly important for Latino and other diverse communities, and the fate of our public lands may depend on it.

The demographics of our nation are changing. By 2043, a majority of our country’s residents will be people of color, including more than 60% of those under the age of 18. Yet a 2018 Outdoor Industry Association report found that only 10% of Latinos were engaged in outdoor recreation activities.

In simple terms, the future of public lands depends on engaging and welcoming our diverse youths. We all share the moral responsibility of serving as stewards for our public lands and waterways, but without developing this connection between our youths and the outdoors, it will be difficult for stewardship to take root.

 

Protect public lands: Support LWCF

The Seattle Times from

For more than 50 years, the Land and Water Conservation Fund has been an essential tool for protecting and expanding outdoor spaces for the benefit of communities nationwide, including the Pacific Northwest. Because of that success, LWCF has remained a bipartisan priority in Washington. Currently, there are bills in both chambers of Congress to fully and permanently fund LWCF, but they aren’t moving quickly enough.

 

energy


UMass Amherst project powers wearable sensors via human skin

MobiHealthNews, Dave Muoio from

Devices and sensors are getting smaller with each passing year, but some are still constrained by the need for bulky batteries or other inconvenient power sources. However, if a new proof-of-concept research projected headed by University of Massachusetts Amherst researchers pans out, the minuscule wearables of tomorrow could receive their juice via the wearer’s skin.

“We’re using the human skin, which is composed of mostly water, as a conductor,” Sunghoon Ivan Lee, a UMass Amherst researcher and assistant professor of computer science, said in a release from the school. “But human skin is one big chunk of conductive material, so there’s no distinction between the signal wire and the ground wire. So we’re using the skin as a signal wire, and air as the ground.”

 

Renewable energy: getting to 100% requires cheap energy storage. But how cheap?

Vox, David Roberts from

… There are many sources of grid flexibility, but the one that seems to have the most potential and is laden with the highest hopes is energy storage. To a first approximation, the question of whether renewables will be able to get to 100 percent reduces to the question of whether storage will get cheap enough. With cheap-enough storage, we can add a ton of it to the grid and absorb just about any fluctuations.

But how cheap is cheap enough?

That question is the subject of a fascinating new bit of research out of an MIT lab run by researcher Jessika Trancik (I’ve written about Trancik’s work before), just released in the journal Joule.

To spoil the ending: The answer is $20 per kilowatt hour in energy capacity costs.

 

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