This week’s Quantified Self roundup features a cap that intelligently dispenses pills, a project that makes sense of the Quantified Self revolution, and a call for the ‘Wantified’ revolution.

The ‘Wantified’ revolution

The quantified self revolution may be too much for some – the rapid pace of technology adoption has bumrushed us with fitness bands, trackers of all sorts, and an app for each and every one. Is this the life we want, where machines force us into health nuts?

Dr. Pritpal S. Tamber is leading the revolution to reimagine the role of healthcare in measuring what is meaningful for people’s lives.

The Wellthcare movement is described as a “new health-related value, defined by what people want to do, supported by their nano-networks. The arrival of new technologies and society’s willingness to embrace them provides an opportunity to explore and, eventually, embed, deliver and nurture Wellth.”

Dr. Tamber is leading a team of Wellthcare Explorers whose main goal is to find a way to identify what people really want in order for them to achieve a healthier life instead of focusing on health itself.

CleverCap

The quantified self revolution is all about getting to know yourself better through the use of fitness trackers and life logging apps. The end point is achieving the perfect, healthy version of yourself. But what if you need medication as well as exercise to achieve this perfect version of you?

CleverCap aims to address medication adherence by being able to alert a person when it’s time to take the pills and giving out the correct dosage. CleverCap was created by Compliance Meds Technologies; it connects to the internet to allow physicians or care providers to easily check if patients are taking their meds on time, and at the right dosage. The CleverCap connects to a mobile device or Qualcomm Life’s 2Net hub.

“[M]edication adherence information is more valuable for clinical and research purposes when analyzed in the context of synchronized, remote-monitored vital signs,” said Moses Zonana, CEO of Compliance Meds.

The best part about CleverCap is that it is reusable and can be programmed for other prescriptions.

Get your implant

Filmmaker David Cronenberg was given an eight-figure sum by BMC Labs to license a fictional biotechnology implant featured in one of his films. But before you gawk at the price of fame, know that BMC is also a fictional entity at the center of Body/Mind/Change, collaboration between TIFF and the CFC (Canadian Film Centre).

The project is designed to allow exhibit visitors to experience what it’s like to live in a Cronenberg film.

Those who visit the BMC Labs site will have a chance to sign up to be a recipient of a POD implant. Those participating will undergo three different simulations meant to educate an artificial intelligence entity called Kay. Through the simulations, Kay will learn emotional intelligence based on particpants’ answers, reactions and interactions, which will then be the basis for each individual’s biotech implant. As participants go through the whole process, an actual POD will be 3D printed at TIFF Bell Lightbox in Toronto. Each POD will be unique.

The whole experience is indeed real; it’s just that the POD will not really be functional but rather, it will be like an art piece. A playful take in the quantified self revolution.

“It plays into the whole data movement and our obsession with it and the narcissistic qualities of it,” Lance Weiler, the project’s creator and creative director, says. “As you’re playing the experience, we’re collecting certain data points. And in the museum space, we’re 3-D printing PODs based on your emotional intelligence. Data is being generated about our lives all the time, so I thought it would be fun to play with that idea of quantified self but have it manifest in something real.”

photo credit: AlicePopkorn via photopin cc