Basis Peak – Software reliability and heart rate sensor

The segment of the quantifiers, especially with the arrival of the smartwatches, is saturated with too many different formats. It also has a king, Fitbit and others looking to enter the market, providing differentiating elements and those who stand out.

Intel is one of those companies and has recently put on the market its own solution called Basis Peak. Your contribution is not so in the design but in the value of the data.

It is difficult to stand out in the segment of quantifiers

How can a design level stand out in a crowded marketplace of quantifiers? It’s really complicated, so we understand that Intel has gone to basics to design your Basic Peak. None of this much like a classic watch device really catches your eye, and it is quite possible that no one will notice that it is something more than a watch traditional bracelet.

Basis Peak

Image Source: Google Image

The Basis Peak has a square format without any physical control. Everything goes through your screen, touch and with a size of “sphere” of 33 mm. The resolution is 144 x 168 pixels, enough to read text in black and white.

You will not fall in love with this Basis Peak at first sight but it works and how convenient it is to take just hooking…

The display is a reflective type, which certainly improves outdoor visibility, but also has backlighting that we should turn us. Doing so is not as simple as it might seem (e.g. click on the screen when you want to see night time) and you have to slide in a particular way: from bottom to top on the right side of the screen. To turn off the same but we proceed from top to bottom.

This peculiar way of interacting with the display remains in normal operation and does not seem counter intuitive. The learning curve is considerable and costs be with her and not go with trial and error all the time.

The basic screen gives us the time and moving sliding down leads to screens to place alarms or start a time measurement. If you slide to the left from the time display will access the heart rate measurement and if we keep to the left on the panels we find the summary of the activities of that day. When we are within an activity, the main screen changes and basic movements to go from one screen of information to another is made up and down and sideways.

We have tested the most basic model Peak, with white silicone strap, but there are options to exchange it and to give it some color or exclusivity (models with leather finish). But what matters is that he is comfortable quantifier, the basic model with plastic finish it is a lot. It is flexible, weighs less than 30 grams and just do not notice that you’ve been placed in the wrist . This is very important if we quantify our dream, as we shall see we can do. If it turns out an uncomfortable product, by evening we would want to let go of it, luckily not the case with the Basis Peak.

Good differentiator quantifiers of this bracelet are its water resistance. We’re not talking that you can get wet but allows us to submerge up to 50 meters, which gives us possibility to use it by swimming .Not many bracelets admit market so if you’re swimmer, with Peak do not have to let go of the bracelet in those minutes High activity really want to post to your everyday life. What still makes Peak is to identify which are making swimming to register as a main activity. For now the Body IQ technology is limited to the activities of walking, running or cycling.

In its technical specifications, the Basis Peak stands out as submersible and reliability of your heart rate sensor…

The battery has a capacity of 190 mAh, which may seem small but given how much we’re talking about a quantifier with few aspirations to be Smartwatch, we get three to four days of autonomy on average. The figure is acceptable but neither stands out from the pure quantifiers that can reach a week of use.

Nor is it a model to perform a fast charge. The total battery employs about two hours to charge almost completely (90% according to the manufacturer). Unless you let the charger overnight, do not expect to get 100% because it goes beyond three hours. We need an adapter to charge, something we do not understand with this design because we expected a direct microUSB port.

But as we shall see it is logical that we Basis Peak permanently synchronized with your smartphone, if we get out activities or long trips without paired phone close watch supports at least 7 days of data before it starts to clear the oldest.

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Continuous monitoring of our activity

If the design interface or control, the Basis Peak unable to get us a good appreciation, the opposite must be said of its sensors and the information it provides. This quantifier is supported by four main sensors for real-time data of the cardiac rhythm, movement (steps and distance thanks to a three-axis accelerometer), skin temperature and galvanic skin response.

The temperature of the skin or sweating are curious contributions quantifying the Basis Peak, while more motivating as altitude coverage runs out its own sensor…

The first two sensors are quite reliable (although it is very curious and somewhat disappointing but not longer distance to stay in hangouts steps taken and calories), but what is even more the heart rate measurement. Intel has made every effort to be the best general quantifier in this aspect and he succeeded.

In heart rate we have not noticed little margin variation from the measurement bands reliable chest, but even with high activity data remains are more faithful to specialized sport devices that hops that give us the smartwatches including reader pace heart on the dial.

The two sensors of this curious Basis Peak are responsible for measuring the skin temperature and galvanic response of the latter to offer extra information when performing exercises. The temperature information and breathability lets us know how it is being thermoregulation during exercise and observe patterns that indicate possible dehydration or heat stroke.

Given the full quantifier character Basis Peak, we believe that the inclusion of an altimeter had been a success because measuring plants or build vertical meters on a daily basis can serve as a powerful motivator for users. Nor does it include GPS but we can use the smartphone so that when we perform activities such as running or cycling, remaining record of the places we’ve been through. If you are using Runtastic, Basis Peak application feeds the data from your heart rate.

In addition to the activities during the day, the Basis Peak includes algorithms to measure and analyze the dream. Since it is very comfortable to wear, this functionality can be exploited enough. Sleep identification is automatic, no need to tell you when we went to bed and got up, and the information collected is quite comprehensive in this segment of the consumer quantifiers and very accurate about bedtime and rise.

Besides sleep duration is no data to know the time in REM sleep, deep sleep or movements we do (and if we have woken up in the middle of the night), and with them, as we shall see in the software section, we can know how we sleep based on a score that the system gives us. While applying these data we can see, it is on the web where all information takes thorough and highly manageable.

An extra it would bring this to their function Basis Peak quantifier is the smartwatch. The result is quite limited, and for example no support for third-party app notifications and is limited to the system as messages, calls or alarms. Really providing notification function to watch is almost anecdotal and in fact is disabled by default. If you want to use you should know that the ads are vibrations that are seen enough, and that the look or discarding them is done with a touch on the screen.

A quantization level the best of this Basis Peak is the reliability and accuracy of measurements of the heart rate sensor and quantification of sleep automatically…

The vibrations are separated from those having to do with posts (one), with calls (three vibrations) or notices of activities, which are two. If you’re in the middle of an exercise, this combination and movement between screens is quite confusing.

Emphasizing the software

Comfortable to wear all day, with sufficient battery and ready sensors to collect enough information everyday users. It is not always mix is used by the application or software of a quantifier. However, the Basis Peak and makes one of the most comprehensive ways we have seen in a while. Basis Peak is one of the most promising and ambitious in personal quantification applications. It is well designed and Intel being behind, we should expect even better things in the future.

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Data found in the application of our movements or activities in real time. The collection of the data is organized automatically and Basis gives us a lot of feedback about us. It is not limited as other quantifiers to collect and ready. Let us even export data in a direct and simple way (CVS data we send them to our e-mail account with which we have created an account on the platform).

Basis Peak records the activities of walking, running or biking automatically, but even a walk of more than 5 minutes identifies and registers as a separate activity

The statistics of our business every day and the challenges that let’s implement, are an excellent way to motivate not only to move but to carry the gadget with us. For the challenges, there are quite varied, but we must go to fulfill in order to unlock some others. It is perhaps the part that we see less refined performance Basis.

It organizes information in the application is the activity log. When recorded, it does automatically with walking, running or cycling. It’s great that the system may be able to identify itself when we started but by default creates an activity every time we walk a few meters straight, which is quite annoying if we are to keep track of real more strenuous activities. At the end it is generating too much noise on that side of the application. On the other hand and given the level of the application, we hope soon to see algorithms to identify other activities such as swimming.

The social issue is perhaps the most neglected by the Basis application. If all the data it collects and orders we are motivators, as well as challenges or graphics, it would still be better with access to a community where you can compete. Here, as in all quantifiers we tested, we miss any possibility, simply and directly, to compete with data from other quantifiers. For more tech news visit http://daypowermedia.com/.

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