Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Nike+

I bought one of these in Portland:



It's basically a wireless accelerometer that connects to an iPod. The sensor sends data to the receiver and the iPod counts how far you traveled. You can also upload the saved data to Nike's website and track your progress. My sister had one but it either broke or ran out of battery power so she bought another one. To "encourage" me to go out and walk more, we have a bet: the first to reach 25/50/100 miles receives $25/$50/$100 from the other person.

I tried it out earlier tonight. I walked around several blocks near my house for ~30 minutes. The sensor was designed for special Nike shoes that includes a slot in the insole for the sensor. Since I don't have the special (and expensive) shoes, I stuck the sensor under the shoelaces of my cheap Reeboks and held it in place with some packaging tape. I walked ~1.6 miles and it worked pretty well though my mom said she'll make me a little pouch for it. You're supposed to calibrate the sensor, especially if you use a non-official shoe and the sensor is not parallel to the ground. I checked my route on Google Earth and it was pretty close... 1.6 miles on the map vs. 1.56 shown on the sensor.


No Nike+ running shoes? No problem!

2 comments:

Andres Moran said...

Ha, I use the same method to strap my sensor to my shoes, though instead of tape I use a ziploc bag!

We started a company that will give you rewards for your runs with Nike+. You can find us at www.earndit.com

Best,

Andres

Anonymous said...

i see a lot of ways to cheat.

there is no way N can place it on one of the kids to get the step count up?

i guess that's me. looking for ways to get around actually having to do work.