MOL
New York
From grappling with a smartphone to using social media, for some people, technological advances can be a headache.
But one man has embraced a lot of them and uses 700 systems at once to monitor his every move and mood.
Chris Dancy, who is accepted to be ‘the most quantified human’ in the world, uses a range of sensors, devices, services and applications to gather real-time data about his body and the environment around him. His connected lifestyle means he knows himself better than anyone and all this monitoring has even allowed him to lose 100lbs (45kg) by tracking how much he moves and eats.
Mr Dancy, 45 from Denver, said: ‘When I touch something, I try to make sure it’s a something that I can get information out of so I can track, then search it, visualise it and share it with people who might want that piece of it.
‘I know now what to drink, what to eat, when to sleep and when to actually make myself get up. Very simple things like that. ‘It’s body and mind hacking. Just like we hack computers and any type of data, your body and your mind is the greatest information system humanity has ever known and understanding it makes it hackable.’
Mr Dancy has a plethora of wearable technology on his person at all times, including a Pebble smartwatch and Google Glass to a BodyMedia armband and Blue heart rate monitor.
His home is also hooked up with numerous sensors for products such as the smartphone-controlled Hue lighting system and a Beddit mattress cover, which collects data on his sleep.
The dedicated technophile also tracks the progress of his two dogs by collecting data on their daily activities via pet GPS system, Tagg.