PineTime Research Platform
Open-source wearable platform for research
About
The PineTime Research Platform is an open-source wearable data collection system built on the PineTime smartwatch — an affordable (~$27), open-hardware device designed for hacking and research. The platform aims to provide chronobiology researchers with a low-cost, fully transparent wrist-worn sensor for continuous data collection in naturalistic settings.
The project comprises two components: a custom firmware fork optimised for research data collection, and a companion web app for wireless device configuration and data offload.
This project is currently in active development.
Components
pinetime-research-firmware
A fork of InfiniTime — the primary open-source firmware for the PineTime — with modifications oriented toward research use. The PineTime hardware includes a triaxial accelerometer (BMA425), heart rate sensor (HRS3300), and Bluetooth Low Energy radio, making it a capable platform for continuous actigraphy, heart rate monitoring, and step counting in free-living conditions.
infinitime-webapp
A companion web app that communicates with the PineTime over BLE using the Web Bluetooth API. It allows researchers to configure the device remotely (sampling rates, recording windows, participant IDs) and offload collected data without requiring any native software installation.
Why PineTime?
Commercial research-grade actigraphy devices are expensive, closed-source, and often require proprietary software for data export. The PineTime offers an open alternative: the hardware schematics and firmware are fully open, the device is inexpensive enough to deploy at scale, and the community ecosystem means firmware modifications are well-documented and maintainable.