One of the new trends, particularly with smart phones, are the various physical applications you can buy that work with your smart phone. That would include devices to connect to your bicycle so you can get distances and speeds from GPS co-ordinates, blood pressure machines and now wristbands. I have tired one called Up made by an American company by the name of Jawbone.

The wristbands track your movement, counting how many steps you take during the day and also monitor your sleep. When properly used, and I don’t think many of us have time to use these devices properly, they can record everything that you have eaten, how much sleep you’ve had, how much of it was a deep sleep and how much of it was a light sleep, how long you took to fall asleep and how often you got up during the day. As the image alongside illustrates, it al so counts all the steps you take in a day. The chart shows how little I move during the working day with a desk bound job and that its only after work that I went on a 55 minute walk.
The wristbands capture all of the data and then when connected to your smart phone, usually via the headphone plug, all the data is uploaded and analysed. Tracking what you eat takes a little bit more work and involves scanning bar codes, choosing images and you would need a lot more time to do that. The device works by including a motion censor and vibration motor in the wristband and while you sleep the band registers more subtle movements which are then processed via algorithms.