The FuelBand is the natural evolution of the Sportband, that has been on the market since 2008. The FuelBand can track all of your activities, and boils them down to a simple metric called “NikeFuel”. The band allows users to easily toggle between time, distance, calories burned and “Fuel.”

You can also establish goals for your fitness, and as you accomplish then, the FuelBand LED lights turn from red, yellow to green. It’s made frome durable rubber, plastic, magnesium and stainless steel, and is water-resistant, so it’s fine in the shower or rain (but not safe for the swimming pool, ocean or tub).

The FuelBand comes equipped with built-in USB, an accelerometer and a tracking algorithm.  It syncs wirelessly with your iPhone over Bluetooth, and can track your progress on either an iPhone app or the Nike+ website. You can also share your achievements on Facebook and Twitter.

The Nike FuelBand already sold out of its first batch of pre-orders for $149 (USD), and expects to start shipping in late February.

[via Cool Hunting]

She updated that app roughly 125,643 times over the course of the day. I can only imagine that with all the kids in the country with OnStar service in family vehicles calling to check on Santa that many times each and it will be a very long night for those folks at OnStar.

The OnStar tracking will start at 7am on Christmas Eve and will be available until 5am Christmas Day. “We see this holiday tradition as staying true to keeping subscribers connected in ways they never thought possible,” said Terry Inch, OnStar vice president, Sales, Marketing and Business Development. “We know many of our customers will be glad to know Santa’s location information is just one blue button press away.”

The management firm had antennas and software installed from a company called Footpath Technology. The software allows the malls to see the path that shoppers take through the mall using triangulation of the unique device ID of the mobile phones most of us carry. The reason for the tracking is to see how people flow through the mall to help optimize retail space and merchandising.

The malls say that nothing personal is tracked about the user. The tech claims to not be able to capture phone numbers, texts, or calls. I still think most people won’t like this at all. That said, malls have been using similar tactics using video cameras for quite some time now.

[via CNN via PhysOrg]

Each of those pooches has to have its own GPS collar and then one Astro 320 unit can track up to ten of those collar-wearing dogs at once for up to nine miles on flat terrain. The handheld unit has a color screen that can be read in direct sunlight too. The strange part about his system to me is what good would it be to have your hunting dog nine miles away? If you can train that dog to activate his GPS when he sees some prey, maybe having the dog so far away would be a way to hunt.

I guess this would be a cool system for people with escape-artist dogs too. I once had a Jack Russell terrier that was too smart for his own good. He could escape from anything, and I would end up prowling the neighborhood looking for him. You have to be serious about your pet tracking though to buy this tracker. The Astro 320 is $649 (USD) with a single collar.

The guys at Waterloo Labs rigged up an eye-tracking contraption using electrodes placed around each eye, then mapped through a custom circuit and a Single-Board RIO system to convert eye movements into joystick movements on the NES.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Frankly, the whole “look up to jump” thing seems a little ridiculous. There’s nothing quite like looking away from the screen to control a game. Still, it doesn’t look much sillier than trying to play Microsoft’s Kinect.

[via Wired via Gizmodo]

One morning, Eric thought he accidentally put his precious electronics into the trash (how, we don’t know). Using the iPhone’s GPS, MobileMe and his friend’s iPad, he managed to track his lost gadgets all over town. By setting his iPhone to beep via MobileMe, they eventually found them. Check out the complete story in the video below:

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

In the end, it turns out that they weren’t in the trash after all. They fell off his car and got run over, and a crew of roofers picked them up, and stopped along the way for some wings at Hooters (GPS doesn’t lie.) Once recovered, the iPhone was still working, but the screen was cracked. The iPad’s screen wasn’t cracked, but the aluminum unibody was bent out of shape and it wouldn’t power on. Not that it would have gotten found without the iPhone companion – he didn’t have the 3G/GPS enabled iPad anyhow. I guess now Eric might buy one to replace it.

Moral of the story: Hang on to your precious gadgets, and don’t mix them up with the trash.

[via Wired]

Stash a Zoombak in you kids’ backpacks and you can tell exactly where they are at all times. Or stick on in your glovebox and find out where that valet is really going with your car. Just load up the iPhone app, choose your tracked item, human or pet, then click “Find Now”. You can even enable a continuous tracking mode, which will watch the movements of your Zoombaks at five-minute intervals.

While Zoombak modules retail for $99 to $149 (USD) each, but I managed to find many modules for as little as $38 over at Amazon, which is a steal. You can grab the iPhone app here.

(Note: If you already have a Zoombak, you will need to update your devices to the latest software to use this app. Be sure to read the notes up on the iTunes store.)

Well now you can, thanks to this little bit of modern technology from Korea’s Selfic Technologies.The Selfic Cube 7100 mounts on the windshield or dashboard of your car, and captures your every move on a built in digital video recorder.

The tiny black box camera (appx. 1″ x 1″ x 2″) features a 360-degree swivel mount and can record each of your driving sessions, automatically tracking date and time stamps, as well as the speed of your vehicle, your exact GPS coordinates and any shock due to an impact. And it can also record audio, so if you decide to turn the camera on yourself and your passengers and shoot your own episode of Taxicab Confessions, you can do that too.

The Selfic Cube can capture video at 640×480 resolution at 30fps, and stores all of its images and data on either a micro SD (2GB) or micro SDHC card (up to 8GB). Here’s a little bit of sample video shot with the Selfic that I found over on YouTube. Not exactly thrilling footage, but it sure would come in handy if you got broad-sided by a moose.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Of course if you get hit from behind, you’d better hope you bought a second one of these for the rear window. At this point the Selfic Cube 7100 is only available in Korea, but if you’re willing to deal with the translation and currency challenges you might be able to grab one over at the Early Adopter Shop for 207,000 South Korean Won (appx. $167 USD).

Seeing Machines faceAPI is a developers’ toolkit which provides easy head tracking on all three axes. When combined with the proper game concept, this type of technology could provide for some really unique experiences, including the ability to interact with environments just by looking around.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Amazingly enough, it’s all feasible with a single, standard webcam, and no special hardware is required.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

In addition to tracking head movements, faceAPI can detect changes in facial expressions, regardless of skin color or facial hair, and even works you’re wearing glasses or makeup. It can automatically find the face in the current scene, and reacquire it if the subject leaves the frame. It’s also able to work in pretty much any visible or IR light situation, so it’s not overly sensitive to changes in lighting.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Currently, faceAPI works with any Windows compatible webcam, but the technology could theoretically be ported to other platforms if the demand is there. The faceAPI website isn’t live yet, but for now you can check out SeeingMachines’ product page for more specifics.

The LetterLogger is small enough to be concealed inside of a standard #10 business envelope, yet contains sophisticated GPS and motion-sensing technology which can record every movement along the letter’s travels. Not only can it record the precise position and timing of each location, but its motion sensors can detect the amount of time when the letter is sitting still, which could help ferret out wasted time during the delivery process.

They should slap one of these directly on every mail carrier too. I wouldn’t be surprised to see some delays at the neighborhood bar, donut shop and strip club.

[via Engadget via NaviGadget]

The PetsCELL phone is a special waterproof cell phone that provides GPS tracking of your pet’s whereabouts, but also integrates voice calling features. Now why, you may ask, would your dog need to make a phone call? Actually, the phone can be pre-programmed to call your house or another emergency number, so the person who finds your lost pooch can speak directly with you. You can also call your dog and speak to them through the built-in speaker, but I’m not really sure that they’ll be able to answer back with anything more than a “woof.” The GPS capability can also be programmed to automatically call you if your pooch leaves a pre-set boundary.

Thankfully, dogs don’t have opposable thumbs, so they shouldn’t be racking up a big cell phone bill ordering doggie treats. The PetsCELL should be available later this year.

[via Shiny Shiny]

Kodak has filed this patent application for RFID tagged capsules that could be swallowed to track activity in a patient’s digestive system. The capsules would contain a tiny tracking chip which could be used to monitor a patient’s medication history, or to transmit other medical information to a nearby RF data collector. The pills would be designed to break down over time without harming the recipient.

While the idea might seem a little odd, it actually has potential to reduce the need for invasive medical procedures, as well as to ensure that patients take the proper dosage of their medicines.

[via New Scientist]