On Thursday, athletic-goods manufacturer Nike unveiled a new digital device, called the Nike+ FuelBand, which marks the company’s ongoing efforts to tap the increasing interest that athletes have, of late, been showing in devices that help them track their movements.
Priced at $149, the Nike+ FuelBand not only keeps a track of all of the user’s movements, including running, swimming, walking or dancing, but also gives them the ability to measure those movements and set personal goals.
The wristband is a very useful device as it can keep a precise account of the calories expended by the wearers, the exact number of steps taken by them, and the time of the physical activity. All the information, marking the users’ score, is presented on an LED display. The score is based on an algorithm which assigns points to different movements.
In helping the users keep track all their physical exertion activities, the high-tech wristband – which is a flexible black strip featuring one single button - serves as a motivating device in terms of prodding the wearers, in an amusing manner, to become active when it comes to their workouts and other day-to-day activities.
Revealing that the Nike+ FuelBand measures the intensity of the activity “by quantifying the change in oxygen uptake between rest and being active,” Stefan Olander – Vice President of digital sport at Nike – said that the circuit boards of the device have been made flexible so as to ensure that “all the components on it to move inside the shape of the band.”