Body Sensing Comes to Smartphones

October 12, 2010 | Source: New York Times

BodyMedia FIT (BodyMedia)

BodyMedia has announced that its armband sensors will be able to communicate with smartphones, and wirelessly, using Bluetooth. Its health sensors will be one of the first devices, other than ear buds, that link to smartphones with Bluetooth short-range communications.

It opens the door to allowing a person to monitor a collection of the 9,000 variables — physical activity, calories burned, body heat, sleep efficiency and others — collected by the sensors in a BodyMedia armband in real-time, as the day goes on.

GoWear fit Armband (BodyMedia)

The Bluetooth-enabled armband costs $249 and the BodyMedia data service costs $7 a month and go on sale next month. In the past, BodyMedia users had to consult personal data downloaded to a Web site or observe a few measurements on a special watchband display, sold for $100.