7 ms·

Microsoft designs smart bra to combat emotional eating

33 points by shawndumas 13y ago

GnarfGnarf 13y ago
Thank goodness for HN to keep us abreast of these developments.
bcx 13y ago
Actual paper is pretty interesting: http://www.cs.rochester.edu/hci/pubs/pdfs/FoodMood.pdf http://www.cs.rochester.edu/hci/pubs/pdfs/FoodMood.pdf
loceng 13y ago
Breast tissue is very sensitive, not sure electronics "permanently" being there is a great idea. And please don't downvote me just because you don't believe this could lead to higher rates of cancer - it's still not fully known and should be considered a valid concern. EDIT: A number of spiteful and/or lazy people on HN eh?
- diab0lic 13y ago
  Females, at least where I'm from, regularly keep things in their bra such as cell phones. It never ceases to amaze me when a phone suddenly materializes from seemingly nowhere. Given that I feel they would hardly be opposed to some thin embedded electronics in the bra.
  - loceng 13y ago
    Yes, I have seen this too. I'm sure they're not aware of or perhaps don't believe the studies showing that there's increased cancer around the area where heavy cellphone use it as. Sure, you can argue they're not using the phone - however phones more and more actively push and receive data.
    - daeken 13y ago
      Citation badly needed. There have been many studies on this and, as far as I'm aware, not one has shown such a link.
      - loceng 13y ago
        I have to head out now - this was nearest I could find at the moment - http://www.spandidos-publications.com/ijo/43/6/1833 http://www.spandidos-publications.com/ijo/43/6/1833 - if clicking "View Affiliations" you can see where study was done, who's involved, and could do more searches. The study's conclusion is 70% increased in certain cancers if used 1 year or longer, and 300% increase if 25 years or longer (cordless and cellphone) - though not many participants had used cell or cordless phones for 20-25 years.
        smtddr 13y ago
        https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6850697 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6850697 I already tried this subject on HN and failed miserably. There are a few things in life that I kinda trust my gut-feeling more than science[1]. Or rather, in the same way there was a time where jewelry was made from radioactive material because science couldn't detect the danger yet; one day science may find that previously undetected thing that cellphones emit and the human body absorbs. I have no proof and this "logic"(fear) could be applied to anything. It's just a gut feeling I have. 1. This probably already qualifies me as insane & absurd by 98% of HN readers. I just don't think the science of humans can completely capture & comprehend the universe or even the human body. I think we're more than the sum of our parts, but don't ask me to prove it. I can't. :(
        daeken 13y ago
        > one day science may find that previously undetected thing that cellphones emit and the human body absorbs. This makes no sense. While it's easy to argue that cell phones are safe because of non-ionizing radiation, that's now how science works. The reason we feel that cell phones are safe is that we have 25 years of evidence showing no statistically significant link between cell phone use and cancer. Even if there's a magical field that a cell phone produces that causes cancer (something we can't detect in any way), we'd still detect that cancer with a higher rate than in a population that doesn't use cell phones, or uses them with a lower frequency.
- cmelbye 13y ago
  Your comment is being downvoted not because people disagree with you but because it violated the last two points at the end of the guidelines: http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
  - loceng 13y ago
    I disagree with it never doing any good. There could have been less conversation then. And there was no intent of baiting.
plg 13y ago
always nice to see innovation in the over-the-shoulder-boulder-holder space
asciimo 13y ago
In case anyone didn't make it to the last paragraph, the bra device was a previous iteration. They have moved toward bracelets suitable for everyone. (Well, everyone with hands.) > Since conducting this research, the team has moved to testing the use of Affectiva Q3 bracelets, which detect mood, so that both men and women can participate. The pilots, say the authors, have been "quite promising" for both sexes.
- eriktrautman 13y ago
  Looks like the Affectiva Q sensor is discontinued and the company said they're moving away from that into facial tracking instead. How does the Q3 come into play then? Discontinued site: http://www.qsensortech.com/ http://www.qsensortech.com/ Press Release: http://www.affdex.com/news-article/affectiva-accelerates-investments-in-affdex-emotion-measurement-discontinues-q-sensor-device/ http://www.affdex.com/news-article/affectiva-accelerates-inv...
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
downer95 13y ago
1. Electrodermal Activity Sensor 2. Electrocardiogram Sensor So, we can rest assured that the embedded system and controller board will be equipped with software that defaults to an always-upload mode, dumping all data to microsoft.com. The device will be completely unusable and it's data inaccesible without a one-time prompt agreeing to the EULA. Is Microsoft trying to convince women to submit to continuous lie detector monitoring, under the auspices of weight control?
- nivla 13y ago
  >rest assured that the embedded system and controller board will be equipped with software that defaults to an always-upload mode, dumping all data to microsoft.com ... Is Microsoft trying to convince women to submit to continuous lie detector monitoring, under the auspices of weight control? What? I get it, its in fashion to hate on MS but come on these are just ridiculous assumptions. Let's look at it from a technical point of view. If you want an always-upload device, at the current state it would require a substantially battery which needs to be recharged atleast every 12hours. Now who will buy a heavy bra that fails in half a day? Lie detector.. really? because its in the evil interest of a corporation to know when only women are lying.
  - downer95 13y ago
    It needs a battery no matter what. It assuredly has a battery. How would it function at all without a battery small enough to power a wrist watch? How much battery power do you need, in order to pipe readings from a sensor into a tiny 2GB cache of flash memory? Then, the data syncs with your laptop, because how else will you find out what the readings are, without some kind of GUI interface showing you some charts and graphs that interpret the raw sensor data? The sync software will come bundled with a "share your data, oh goody!" feature that defaults to constant sharing mode (dark pattern). You charge the battery whenever you sync. In the presence of an internet connection, it uplinks to MsSmartBra.com, where data is monitored and tracked so everyone knows your high score! Yay!
    - nivla 13y ago
cheery 13y ago
Bras for Kim Dotcom and Richard Stallman.
droopyEyelids 13y ago
This has such tremendous potential. So much of our lives are ruled by habits, and who here doesn't have habits they want to break or new, better habits they want to develop? Imagine if this could notice your boredom behaviors and prompt you to work out or study, if it gave you a solid reminder when you were watching more TV than you thought was useful, etc. Even if it noticed when you'd been sitting for more than an hour and prompted you to get up and stretch. That would be fucking awesome.
clockworkelf 13y ago
Cmon people, this is pretty sad. Humans are not robots and shouldn't be treated as such. What's next? A pair of underwear to stop men from impulsive sex? We have a soul, a spirit. Find the real reason why you harm yourself and emancipate that in a spiritual way .. not an electronic bra.
- cLeEOGPw 13y ago
  First - humans ARE robots and have no soul/spirit, second - you should not treat non-human with disrespect just because it was of another species. Animals have feelings just like you, and in the future an actual mechanical robots might too. Would you still treat AI as it was "a thing", although it could feel, understand and act just like any human being? Because if so, you should treat every human being as thing too.
  - smtddr 13y ago
    >> First - humans ARE robots and have no soul/spirit I very strongly disagree with this, but I know on HN this makes me an absurd fool with no data to back myself up with. Ya know, on my myers briggs[1] test that took last year, and also about 20+ yrs ago when I was in highschool the results were the same. I have a strong sense of spiritualness and connectedness. I'll link this blog[2] but I suspect its contents will be dismissed around here as unscientific baseless nonsense. Not trying to change anyone's mind here, just showing how I feel. Maybe some readers will better understand the other people in the world, like myself, who don't think like vulcans[3]. 1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myers-Briggs_Type_Indicator http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myers-Briggs_Type_Indicator 2. https://findingourwayhomeblog.wordpress.com/tag/myers-briggs-type-indicator/ https://findingourwayhomeblog.wordpress.com/tag/myers-briggs... 3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vulcan_(Star_Trek) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vulcan_(Star_Trek)
    - cLeEOGPw 13y ago
      Regarding the MBTI test, take it with a grain of salt. As for spirituality, if it is how you feel, it's nothing wrong. The way human body functions is not a matter of agreement between people anyway. Also being reasonable and logical doesn't automatically make you emotionless.
kristiandupont 13y ago
Sorry about off-topic, but if there was ever a real title that I would have thought came from the headline generator of last week, this has got to be it!
auggierose 13y ago
That's awesome! Can men wear it, too?

33 points by shawndumas 13y ago

Thank goodness for HN to keep us abreast of these developments.

bcx 13y ago

Actual paper is pretty interesting: http://www.cs.rochester.edu/hci/pubs/pdfs/FoodMood.pdf http://www.cs.rochester.edu/hci/pubs/pdfs/FoodMood.pdf

loceng 13y ago

Breast tissue is very sensitive, not sure electronics "permanently" being there is a great idea. And please don't downvote me just because you don't believe this could lead to higher rates of cancer - it's still not fully known and should be considered a valid concern. EDIT: A number of spiteful and/or lazy people on HN eh?

diab0lic 13y ago
Females, at least where I'm from, regularly keep things in their bra such as cell phones. It never ceases to amaze me when a phone suddenly materializes from seemingly nowhere. Given that I feel they would hardly be opposed to some thin embedded electronics in the bra.
- loceng 13y ago
  Yes, I have seen this too. I'm sure they're not aware of or perhaps don't believe the studies showing that there's increased cancer around the area where heavy cellphone use it as. Sure, you can argue they're not using the phone - however phones more and more actively push and receive data.
  - daeken 13y ago
    Citation badly needed. There have been many studies on this and, as far as I'm aware, not one has shown such a link.
    - loceng 13y ago
      I have to head out now - this was nearest I could find at the moment - http://www.spandidos-publications.com/ijo/43/6/1833 http://www.spandidos-publications.com/ijo/43/6/1833 - if clicking "View Affiliations" you can see where study was done, who's involved, and could do more searches. The study's conclusion is 70% increased in certain cancers if used 1 year or longer, and 300% increase if 25 years or longer (cordless and cellphone) - though not many participants had used cell or cordless phones for 20-25 years.
      - smtddr 13y ago
        https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6850697 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6850697 I already tried this subject on HN and failed miserably. There are a few things in life that I kinda trust my gut-feeling more than science[1]. Or rather, in the same way there was a time where jewelry was made from radioactive material because science couldn't detect the danger yet; one day science may find that previously undetected thing that cellphones emit and the human body absorbs. I have no proof and this "logic"(fear) could be applied to anything. It's just a gut feeling I have. 1. This probably already qualifies me as insane & absurd by 98% of HN readers. I just don't think the science of humans can completely capture & comprehend the universe or even the human body. I think we're more than the sum of our parts, but don't ask me to prove it. I can't. :(
        daeken 13y ago
        > one day science may find that previously undetected thing that cellphones emit and the human body absorbs. This makes no sense. While it's easy to argue that cell phones are safe because of non-ionizing radiation, that's now how science works. The reason we feel that cell phones are safe is that we have 25 years of evidence showing no statistically significant link between cell phone use and cancer. Even if there's a magical field that a cell phone produces that causes cancer (something we can't detect in any way), we'd still detect that cancer with a higher rate than in a population that doesn't use cell phones, or uses them with a lower frequency.
cmelbye 13y ago
Your comment is being downvoted not because people disagree with you but because it violated the last two points at the end of the guidelines: http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- loceng 13y ago
  I disagree with it never doing any good. There could have been less conversation then. And there was no intent of baiting.

plg 13y ago

always nice to see innovation in the over-the-shoulder-boulder-holder space

asciimo 13y ago

In case anyone didn't make it to the last paragraph, the bra device was a previous iteration. They have moved toward bracelets suitable for everyone. (Well, everyone with hands.) > Since conducting this research, the team has moved to testing the use of Affectiva Q3 bracelets, which detect mood, so that both men and women can participate. The pilots, say the authors, have been "quite promising" for both sexes.

eriktrautman 13y ago
Looks like the Affectiva Q sensor is discontinued and the company said they're moving away from that into facial tracking instead. How does the Q3 come into play then? Discontinued site: http://www.qsensortech.com/ http://www.qsensortech.com/ Press Release: http://www.affdex.com/news-article/affectiva-accelerates-investments-in-affdex-emotion-measurement-discontinues-q-sensor-device/ http://www.affdex.com/news-article/affectiva-accelerates-inv...

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

downer95 13y ago

1. Electrodermal Activity Sensor 2. Electrocardiogram Sensor So, we can rest assured that the embedded system and controller board will be equipped with software that defaults to an always-upload mode, dumping all data to microsoft.com. The device will be completely unusable and it's data inaccesible without a one-time prompt agreeing to the EULA. Is Microsoft trying to convince women to submit to continuous lie detector monitoring, under the auspices of weight control?

nivla 13y ago
>rest assured that the embedded system and controller board will be equipped with software that defaults to an always-upload mode, dumping all data to microsoft.com ... Is Microsoft trying to convince women to submit to continuous lie detector monitoring, under the auspices of weight control? What? I get it, its in fashion to hate on MS but come on these are just ridiculous assumptions. Let's look at it from a technical point of view. If you want an always-upload device, at the current state it would require a substantially battery which needs to be recharged atleast every 12hours. Now who will buy a heavy bra that fails in half a day? Lie detector.. really? because its in the evil interest of a corporation to know when only women are lying.
- downer95 13y ago
  It needs a battery no matter what. It assuredly has a battery. How would it function at all without a battery small enough to power a wrist watch? How much battery power do you need, in order to pipe readings from a sensor into a tiny 2GB cache of flash memory? Then, the data syncs with your laptop, because how else will you find out what the readings are, without some kind of GUI interface showing you some charts and graphs that interpret the raw sensor data? The sync software will come bundled with a "share your data, oh goody!" feature that defaults to constant sharing mode (dark pattern). You charge the battery whenever you sync. In the presence of an internet connection, it uplinks to MsSmartBra.com, where data is monitored and tracked so everyone knows your high score! Yay!
  - nivla 13y ago

cheery 13y ago

Bras for Kim Dotcom and Richard Stallman.

droopyEyelids 13y ago

This has such tremendous potential. So much of our lives are ruled by habits, and who here doesn't have habits they want to break or new, better habits they want to develop? Imagine if this could notice your boredom behaviors and prompt you to work out or study, if it gave you a solid reminder when you were watching more TV than you thought was useful, etc. Even if it noticed when you'd been sitting for more than an hour and prompted you to get up and stretch. That would be fucking awesome.

clockworkelf 13y ago

Cmon people, this is pretty sad. Humans are not robots and shouldn't be treated as such. What's next? A pair of underwear to stop men from impulsive sex? We have a soul, a spirit. Find the real reason why you harm yourself and emancipate that in a spiritual way .. not an electronic bra.

cLeEOGPw 13y ago
First - humans ARE robots and have no soul/spirit, second - you should not treat non-human with disrespect just because it was of another species. Animals have feelings just like you, and in the future an actual mechanical robots might too. Would you still treat AI as it was "a thing", although it could feel, understand and act just like any human being? Because if so, you should treat every human being as thing too.
- smtddr 13y ago
  >> First - humans ARE robots and have no soul/spirit I very strongly disagree with this, but I know on HN this makes me an absurd fool with no data to back myself up with. Ya know, on my myers briggs[1] test that took last year, and also about 20+ yrs ago when I was in highschool the results were the same. I have a strong sense of spiritualness and connectedness. I'll link this blog[2] but I suspect its contents will be dismissed around here as unscientific baseless nonsense. Not trying to change anyone's mind here, just showing how I feel. Maybe some readers will better understand the other people in the world, like myself, who don't think like vulcans[3]. 1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myers-Briggs_Type_Indicator http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myers-Briggs_Type_Indicator 2. https://findingourwayhomeblog.wordpress.com/tag/myers-briggs-type-indicator/ https://findingourwayhomeblog.wordpress.com/tag/myers-briggs... 3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vulcan_(Star_Trek) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vulcan_(Star_Trek)
  - cLeEOGPw 13y ago
    Regarding the MBTI test, take it with a grain of salt. As for spirituality, if it is how you feel, it's nothing wrong. The way human body functions is not a matter of agreement between people anyway. Also being reasonable and logical doesn't automatically make you emotionless.

kristiandupont 13y ago

Sorry about off-topic, but if there was ever a real title that I would have thought came from the headline generator of last week, this has got to be it!

auggierose 13y ago

That's awesome! Can men wear it, too?