Joining a suddenly crowded market of on-body sensors, Basis officially launched today. It's a watch-like activity and sleep tracker laden with sensors, and it's designed to deliver insights about your activities and help you form better health habits.
The Basis does far more than most wrist-worn sensors. It not only has an accelerometer to track movement, but also an optical blood-flow monitor for heart rate tracking, a perspiration sensor to measure exertion and skin and ambient temperature sensors. These sensors help it do things other activity trackers cannot. For example, while the Jawbone Up and Fitbit One both have sleep-tracking modes, they must be set manually by pressing a button at bedtime. The Basis provides automatic sleep tracking. Likewise, thanks to the sweat sensor and heart rate monitor, it can tell that you are, say, working out on a stationary bicycle even though the accelerometer isn't picking up movement.
It uses that sensor data to measure day-to-day activity and sleep patterns, and presents it as raw data and in an insight mode. But the big idea is that it helps you form healthy habits. It ships with 10 habits you can choose from and try to cultivate — stuff like getting to bed at a regular time each night or getting up and moving around once an hour.
A really interesting philosophical note about this device is to see what it has actively chosen not to do. For example, it opts out of diet tracking altogether. You can't, with the current software, count the calories you are taking in. Similarly, although it has a Bluetooth radio, the device is launching with that turned off — it manually syncs via the charging cable, and there are no iOS or Android apps yet (and Bluetooth radio activation will follow those). All of these were conscious decisions, says Basis CEO Jef Holove, meant to focus the product on its core strengths. Holove notes that the platform will allow functionality to expand, but for now, he's keeping it tight.
"From a user experience design the best device is not the one that allows you to do most," Holove told Wired, "it's one that requires you to do least."
Basis comes in white or black, costs $199 and is available to purchase online starting today. Wired expects to have the device in for a full review before the year's end.
