Nike's FuelBand helps you to track your fitness in everyday activities

By: Aseem Gaurav on January 22, 2012

Nike has designed and launched a new data-tracking wristband called FuelBand, which it says will help people become more active. In a world when most of us find little or no time to exercise or to go for a routine walk, Nike+ FuelBand measures time, steps, calories and "NikeFuel” a metric devised by the company that awards equal points for the same activity regardless of physical makeup.

The gadget has been designed to be worn throughout the day and has ergonomic, user-friendly design that gives information about different activities through the movement of the wrist via a LED dot matrix display.

The black coloured wristband is elegant and has a simple flexible circuit board with two integrated curved batteries in a polymer casing. It comes with a 20 LED color dot-matrix display that shows how many points you have earned, and another 100 white LEDs to give you feedback, time of day, and many similar things. The whole idea is to push you to achieve a higher or equal score that you achieved earlier, hence making you work more. The more active you are, the more NikeFuel you’ll earn.

Nike says the device measures movement of all sorts, ranging from reaching out to a pizza, bicycling, jumping up and down or playing cricket.

The FuelBand can easily be connected via a built-in USB or through a special iPhone app via Bluetooth. The USB connects you to computers running Mac OS version 10.4 or later and Windows 7, Vista or XP. Since it is not waterproof, so it is not advisable to carry it for swimming. 

The device adds to the growing list of wearable fitness trackers available to everyday athletes and joins gadgets like the the Jawbone Up and Fitbit. 

“Flexibility of the circuit board was important in order to get all the components on it to move inside the shape of the band,” said Stefan Olander, Nike’s VP of digital sport.

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