Jawbone VP of Software Jeremiah Robinson said the next step for the company's wearable activity tracker, Jawbone UP, is using data from users to help the device better fit into their lives.

"We're still in the phase of correlations and it's hard to run a massive human AB trial in free living data, but we are seeing some really cool things," Robinson said at the Wired Data Life event in New York City.

Robinson shared a few findings about UP users in New York City. For one, the city has the most steps of any city, thus it seems that users in New York are generally healthy. But, he said, another metric shows that New Yorkers also sit the most during the day. To combat these kinds of contradictions, Robinson said the company wants to give people more insight into their behaviors so that they, in turn, can make changes where they are needed.

Modifying and evolving the technology that Jawbone UP already offers is one way to go about helping users make those changes, especially with current Jawbone features, like idle alert, which offers reminders to users if they are inactive.

"Right now [idle alert] monitors you from 9 am to 5 pm," Robinson said. "You can set it up however you want. If you're idle for 30 minutes it will buzz at your wrist... but we do get people who say 'Hey, I'm driving a long distance' or 'I'm in a meeting. It's sort of frustrating when you give me this.' So we can now ingest your calendar from your iPhone and see what your schedule is with meetings and we can say -- rather than buzzing you during the middle of your board meeting -- we can actually wait until the end and give you some insight. Better yet, we can look for a 30 minute block in your calendar and actually block it off for a walk. 30 minutes, 3,000 steps."

Jawbone UP can also follow aspects of the user's life, like sleep goals, to notice whether the user is getting the right amount of sleep. The device can then help the user meet those goals by, for example, asking if he or she wants to start receiving bedtime reminders.

"Some of the approaches have been so rote," Robinson said. "[Other companies say] I'll tell you what your goal is, and whether you hit it or not, and I'll tell you go to bed at this time. But a one-size-fits-all solution doesn't work and you have to really understand the context of people to get it right."

Algorithms that enable these kinds of new features are, in part, because of recent hires (like Monica Rogati who joined Jawbone as head of data science from LinkedIn earlier this year), Robinson said, but he finds it takes more than just algorithms to inspire change.

"Oftentimes we want the machine to answer all the questions for people, but actually if you take the time and engage them in the system, simply asking them a question, can lead to a great amount of change," Robinson said.

Robinson also said the company is conducting a few clinical trials. One came about because the team noticed correlations between sleep and Body Mass Index for users of the wristband. This trial is investigating that seeming correlation and is being done at Stanford. Another trial, similar to one Fitbit has done, tracks patients after they have undergone cardiac surgery to see how active they were doing in the days after the surgery and how that effects readmission.