Wrist-Worn ‘Nike+ FuelBand’ Latest in Daily Fitness-Tracking Gizmos

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Joining the ranks of wearable fitness trackers from the likes of Jawbone’s “Up” and Fitbit, the new Nike+ FuelBand aims to quantify the amount of exercise you’re getting each day with a new metric Nike’s calling NikeFuel.

The company says “NikeFuel is a proprietary technology that measures your activity through the movement of your wrist,” which sounds simple enough. Like competing products, the wrist-worn Nike+ FuelBand measures the number of steps you’ve taken and the amount of calories you’ve burned, but relies on the NikeFuel metric – which, proprietary though it may be, appears to basically monitor your arm movements – to compel you to be more active.

(MORE: Nike’s Sensory Training Technology Takes Hold in the NFL)

According to Nike:

Unlike calorie counts, which vary based on someone’s gender and body type, NikeFuel is a normalized score that awards equal points for the same activity regardless of physical makeup.

Users set a daily goal of how active they want to be, and how much NikeFuel they want to achieve. The NIKE+ FuelBand displays a series of 20 LED lights that go from red-to-green as the user gets closer to their goal. The FuelBand syncs with the Nike+ website through a built-in USB, or wirelessly through Bluetooth to a free iPhone app, to record activity and track progress every day. The app interface also provides encouragement and motivation as goals are achieved.

The FuelBand’s built-in Bluetooth connection that allows it to interface with the iPhone app helps justify its $149 price tag somewhat, and we can probably expect to see the social element of being able to compare your NikeFuel score to others (you can post it to Facebook and Twitter via the iPhone app or Nike+ website) inspire some healthy competition.

The Nike+ FuelBand is available now for pre-order at $149.

NIKE+ FuelBand makes life a sport [NikeInc.com]