Is functional jewelry the next trend in fitness? Mobility lifestyle company Jawbone certainly plans to make a play in that category with UP by Jawbone. UP is a wristband that monitors your activity including movement, diet and other vitals.
Jawbone first entered the market with a noise-reducing headset for mobile phones that transmitted sound from vibrations on your jawbone instead of using a microphone. According to the CDC lifestyle diseases such as heart disease, diabetes and some forms of cancer cause more deaths than communicable diseases. The company believes eating healthier, getting quality sleep and moving more can prevent many of those lifestyle diseases.
UP by Jawbone will be available later this year. Jawbone started talking about the device, which connects to the iPhone via an app, at the TEDGlobal conference. “We are excited to share our vision at TEDGlobal because this epidemic will take an entire community to affect a global change,” said Jawbone CEO Hosain Rahman. “TED is a community of thought leaders that can help propel this idea into a global movement.”
UP integrates robust computing and sophisticated sensor technology in the form of functional jewelry. It tracks your movement, sleep patterns, and nutrition and gives you feedback on how you’re doing based on data. The wristband connects to a mobile app that analyzes the activity, and an open platform that motivates you with personal social recommendations and challenges tailored to your goals.
“We’re passionate about creating products for the mobile lifestyle that people love to use every day. And now we’re harnessing that passion to approach a major global issue – health,” Rahman said. “We are focused on creating a highly accessible solution for this particular space that integrates seamlessly into a user’s daily life with the goal of making it absolutely easy for them to live better.”
It’s still early for details on the UP device, but Jawbone is collecting email addresses for notification when it’s ready for use.
Official UP by Jawbone site.