Artificial Withings Data for Software Development

In this post, we are going deeper into the Dynamic Data project, looking at the Withings dynamic data (library available here on GitHub and at NPM). Opening the library, you’ll see there are fifty-one types of data objects: Getactivity, Getgoals, Getintradayactivity, Getmeas, HeartList, Heart, Sleep, SleepSummary, getDevice, getUser, getWorkout.

Learn more about dynamic data generators and the benefits of artificial data in software development.

About the data source

Withings is a consumer electronics company that develops several products related to Health Monitoring:

• Smartwatches
• Scales
• Blood Pressure Monitors
• Sleep Tracking Mat
• Thermometer

These devices collect metrics related to Sleep performance, Steps taken, Heart Rate, Blood Pressure, Temperature, etc. Through the use of their Health Mate (iOS|Android) app, the health data from these devices can be retrieved, analyzed, and reports can be created which can be shared with your doctor .

Approach used

Withings have released their Official Developer Documentation with access to their API. Using the API reference, several JSON objects were created and stored from the data types recorded. The index file of the package imports these data objects and exports them as a collection called Data, These mockup files make up the withings-data package.

The withings-mockup package imports the file above and goes through each attribute generating artificial (new) data using proprietary functions, such as those found in the utils package.

For example, with the GetMeas object:

Static GetMeas Object

Artifical GetMeas Object

Use case ideas

• Health & Fitness applications
  
• Data visualization widgets
  
• etc
  

Ideas to combine with some other data sources

• Combining with other Health devices to provide greater context towards some data e.g. Fitbit, Garmin, Strava, Oura.
  
• Motivational quotes to your screen depending on if the user does not meet weight loss goals
  
• Adjust dietary/exercise recommendations based on weight loss calculated
  
• Or with some entirely different segment data, like air quality, weather, location or similar to find interesting new applications for the data.
  

Open-source data library

We welcome contributions and forks to this data set, and look forward to seeing what developers build in our Liberty. Equality. Data. Slack channel.

Considerations for next version/improvements

General Improvements:

• Return sensible data for performance variables (e.g. heart rate, calories, etc)
  
• More reliance on the Utils package
  

With Prifina developers can use the Dynamic Data Libraries natively in the App Studio to build direct to consumer apps where individuals can run them with their own user-held data.

Join our Slack community; Liberty. Equality. Data. to brainstorm and collaborate with other app developers, designers, and our team.