Complete real-time sleep feedback loop: Zeo device provides raw data

by Andy Oram | @praxagora | +Andy Oram | Comment | 19 November 2010

In a radical application of modern health philosophies--feedback loops, patient empowerment, open data--the Zeo company has recently added a new feature to their consumer-priced sleep device that puts out sleep phase and brain wave data every 30 seconds, allowing a program to collect the data and act on it to alter your sleep experience. One hacker wrote about his program to wake him during light sleep in the hope of producing more RPM sleep. Zeo CTO Ben Rubin told me that other promising applications provide the sleeper with some audio or tactile stimulus in particular sleep phases to help the sleeper enter another phase.

The Zeo is a small box priced at $199, which thousands of people have been using to collect data on their sleep. At the back of the device is a serial port that was unused up until recently, but that now outputs the raw data that the Zeo has been using to calculate, store, and display sleep patterns. Zeo also provides an API that stores and manipulates data in simple, standard formats such as JSON, and that lets people derive useful information without even uploading the data to the web site. But the web site has its value too: the data that individuals upload each night not only helps them figure out what might be impeding their rest, but has become a major source of useful information for sleep researchers.

Rubin recognizes that the Zeo company can't create all the useful applications people would like to use with their device. Between the raw data feed and the APIs, he expects to see hackers as well as professional developers jump into the breach. "In the new wave of personal biometric devices," Rubin says, "Zeo is the first to really open up the data and the platform."

tags: embedded systems, health care, health IT, medical, sleep, sleep deprivation, sleep monitoring, Zeo