events | mobile
Samsung at the MIT Grand Hack, Part 2: Insomniax
Diego Lizarazo Rivera
Insomniax For Mac App Store
Senior Developer Evangelist
- Insomnia is essentially a remake of LineageOS' Caffeine Tile, but with a few extra features. Caffeine is a feature that allows users to force their device's display to remain on for longer than the currently set timeout, but without actually changing that timeout. If the display is manually turned off, Caffeine deactivates automatically.
- This app is based on scientific research about how people can change their behaviors and thoughts to improve their sleep. This app does NOT replace professional care. Insomnia Coach is designed to be used daily for 5 weeks by following the Training Plan. After that, you can continue using the app to track your sleep and maintain good sleep habits.
In my previous post, I covered Samsung’s partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Department of Veterans Affairs to host and sponsor the MIT Hacking Medicine Grand Hack. The goal of this partnership is to foster creativity to solve some of the problems in the health care system.
In this post I want to highlight one of the teams that participated in the hack: Insomniax. With the clarity of their focus and how they integrated Samsung’s wearable devices in their pitch, they were able to stand out during the weekend’s activities and win the Department of Veteran's Affairs award.
InsomniaX is a featureless app that, disappointingly, has the potential to panic your system. There are plenty of better alternatives that serve the same purpose safely and efficiently. Should you download it? Since the app makes system-level chances and only serves one purpose, it is not of much value for the average user.
The Insomniax team participated in the mental health and professional burnout track, and created an application that uses biometrics and self-reported data to develop personalized recommendations for veterans with mental illnesses who also have poor sleep quality.
Their prototype highlighted the importance of having an easily accessible device that helps you track your daily routine and, with the help of an Artificial Intelligence system, gives you relevant advice to improve your quality of life.
Insomniax showcasing their app
The concept of the application they were working on was a way to combine data already collected by the Galaxy Watch’s multiple sensors (things like heart rate, sleep, stress) along with a nightly questionnaire on activities/pre-sleep habits. The combined collected data then would be sent to a server with a REST API, then the system would process the data and revise the user’s recorded medical history to provide personalized recommendations on how they can get better sleep.
The Insomniax Team
Their demo was developed as a web app using Tizen Studio, and it was deployed on the Galaxy Watches that were made available to the Hackathon’s attendees.
Insomniax App Store Download
These kind of apps can take advantage of the advanced features included in the Samsung Watches, like the Human Activity Monitor, that gives you access to and record human activity data from various sensors and recorders on the device.