using fitbit in academic research

[Syncwind]

Hello.

I'm a scientist. I would like to use you products in my experiments. However, I need to ensure that the product is fit our needs. I will appreciate if you can provide me the following information:


1. What is the delay between data recording by the sensor and receiving it  by phone/computer? In other words, what is the transportation time of the data ?

2. Can we have API for a *raw data*?

3. We would like to record simultaneously a raw data from two  devices and to receive real-time data  on one PC.  Does it possible?

I will highly appreciate your answer with clarifications.

Thanks,

Pavel

[JeremiahFitbit]

Hi Pavel,

1. Fitbit devices sync every 15–20 minutes on their own when around a Fitbit Bluetooth dongle or a paired mobile device.

2. Please email api@fitbit.com with the client key of the application you registered at dev.fitbit.com and explain your use case. You might also be interested in Fitabase.

3. A single computer can sync any Fitbit device nearby. It is not in real time, but on the device's 15–20 minute sync schedule. However, if you want all the data from a specific device, you'll need to have one Fitbit account for each device.

(Happy to answer these questions, but we've answered them before in the forum. To help keep the forum easy to use, we encourage everyone to search for similar questions before posting.)

[vsahai]

I am looking to sync up to 30 fitbits to a single computer but mulitple accounts and then be able to download aggregate data for all 30 accounts collected over 6 months on to an excel file for a project. Is this possible?

[JeremiahFitbit]

@vsahai: You can sync all devices from a single computer, but each user will have to sign in if you want to force sync each device. You can then use the Fitbit API to obtain the data or the Fitbit data export tool. You might also consider buying a product like Fitabase.