Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Gimbal: Can Location Data Improve Your Health?

Can knowing where you are during the day help you become healthier? That's the idea behind a new project being run by San Diego-based Gimbal, the Qualcomm spinoff, in an effort with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) IDEA Lab. The two said this week that they've started a new research project which is using a person's location to help improve human health, by cleverly timed messages based on what a person is doing and where they are. The two said the project uses information on a user (are you near an elevator and stairs?) to then send a message to help them make the healthier choice ("take the stairs!"). Gimbal said the project uses strategically placed beacons (at the stairs, water fountain, vending machine, etc.) to help send messages to users and award points for good decisions. Gimbal recently spun out of Qualcomm as a separate business. The new "Project Boundary" uses proximity beacons from Qualcomm, and also uses Apple's iBeacon technology.