Final: 1UP wearable activity monitor

My final project is a small wearable device that encourages physical activity by monitoring the number of steps you've taken during the day and abstracting this information into either an "upvote" or "downvote," similar to the voting apparatus used on Reddit.

 If the green arrow is lit, your physical activity is trending positively, and if the red arrow is lit, you need to get some exercise. The device will use your daily average number of steps to determine whether you should be upvoted or downvoted.

The biggest technical challenge is that I have been unable to obtain the Blend Micro or a Bluetooth LE TinyShield, as one is out of stock and the other takes weeks to ship. Even if I had ordered several weeks ago, it would have only arrived next week. I am exploring alternatively options, including using a TinyDuino to demo the device as if it was paired with my iPhone.

Today before class I am going to fabricate the acrylic pieces, and mock up the other components to get a sense of its size.

Vizstep

For my final wearable, I am considering a simple display of my daily steps. My phone is constantly tracking my steps through an internal pedometer + accelerometer. But I have no easy way of sharing the information about my activity with anyone in public, besides showing them the screen of my Health app. Instead, it would be nice to have a meter displayed publicly on my body so that anyone could be aware of my physical activity that day.

I imagine a simple LED meter for this prototype, perhaps ranging from blue (low activity) to red (high activity). The meter would be connected to a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) device, possibly the Blend Micro, which in turn would interface with my iPhone in order to read my step data using the HealthKit API provided by Apple.

Having such a device would eliminate my need to check my Health app several times a day to monitor my activity level, but it would also allow my activity to generate a conversation with anyone who noticed it. Yesterday I walked 8.89 miles in the course of various errands and travel to and from school. I wanted to bring it up but it felt a little braggy. And maybe this wearable would be braggy as well, but I think it could provide a way to reinforce healthy behavior while sharing something about my life with others in a passive way.