By David Ponce
To borrow Greg Giraldo’s words, we live during an obesity epidemic. An epidemic! And as some astute readers might have noticed, consumer electronics manufacturers are jumping at the opportunity to help you combat the cheese cakes and fried chicken with a bevy of gadgets. We personally took a look at the FitBit, a small plastic device which tracks your every step and reports online. It was a great little device, but it was only able to tell you how much you walked and how many steps you took. Now, thinking heads at the University of Pittsburgh claim to have developed a similar gadget, but one that one-ups all the others by being able to automatically record what you eat, where you’ve been, how long you sat your bum in front of the TV or a computer, how long you were outside, which restaurants you visited and what you ordered. It’s called the eButton and represents the end of the era of self-accountability. We’re not entirely sure just how it goes about determining your calorie intake automatically, but Mingui Sun, lead investigator and Pitt professor of neurosurgery and electrical and computer engineering, says the eButton uses “cameras, GPS and an array of other sensors” for the task. We bet they’re using Mechanical Turk.
In any case, the eButton is not ready for prime-time as it’s in the middle of a study to determine if it actually, you know, works properly.