Meet Chris Dancy, who has between 300 and 700 systems running at any given time that capture real-time data about his life. This 45-year-old has always been tech-savvy and has a background in IT. He explains that staying connected has allowed him to get more out of the
way he lives.
"I started five years ago when I noticed my doctor was having a hard time keeping up with my health records,"
"Around the same time, I worried that the work I did on the Internet could be lost if [there's] a service shutdown. In an effort to collect this information, I started looking for ways I could gather data when I didn't have time to write things down."
"I've lost 100 pounds and learned to meditate," he says. "I'm much more
aware of how I respond to life and take steps to adjust to my
environment. I've also formed better habits thanks to the feedback I'm
getting."
Dancy's lifestyle involves covering his wrists with a variety of wearable technology, weighing himself on the Aria Wi-Fi scale, using smartphone controlled Hue
lighting at home, sleeping on a Beddit mattress cover to track his
sleep... even his pet dog gets tracked via Tagg, to logs its daily
activities. Dancy says his favorite wearables are the Body Media fitness tracker and the Pebble. He also prefers products that offer contextually aware information, such as Google Now and Google Glass.
Although Dancy believes more people should infuse smart products into their lives, he cautions when to share personal information. But the way things are going, it's really only a matter of time before everyone adopts a lifestyle closer to his.