Apple:
Starting today, skiers and snowboarders can use Apple Watch Series 3 to track their activities via new updates to apps available in the App Store. Watch users can now record runs, see vertical descent and other stats, and contribute active calorie measurements directly to the Apple Watch Activity app.
I love this. Looking forward to the day when machine learning advances to the point where it is no longer necessary to tap and swipe to tell my Apple Watch what kind of activity I’m doing.
I’ve always felt that if a human can watch me and easily figure out what I’m doing, it’s within the realm of future possibility for an AI to do the same.
With access to a video of your actions even today’s AI could identify what you are doing. The issue is that the watch only knows your location (GPS), heart rate, and wrist movement.
i‘m pretty sure it would be easy to learn what one is doing just by analyzing the data of the watches accelerometer (x, y & z acceleration over time) similar to calibrating the non-gps watch for distance when one is carrying a phone and doing a walking/running workout. every workout-type has a unique signature – if you could tell the watch what is what for a few times, a connected phone could figure out that signature, average the data and send it back to the watch to recognize your (custom) workout from then on. imho that should be absolutely doable, even with yesteryear‘s soft- & hardware, no overly complex machine-learning needed. it‘s probably more a question of design, e.g. if apple wants something like that on the watch, and how to implement it (in a simple and reliable way).