Reebok Checklight

Much of the hoo-hah here at CES has been surrounding ‘wearable tech’ and ‘the quantified self’ – gizmos that monitor elements of your physical output and status. Examples would include the Nike Fuelband, Fitbit and Fitbug and watch-type devices such as the Pebl and new offerings from Epson, Garmin, Sony and longer-established fitness brands such as Polar. If we’re honest, most are little more than posh pedometers that, when wedded to an appFrom Wikipedia: A mobile application (or mobile app) is a software application designed to run on smartphones, tablet computers and other mobile devices. They are usually available through application distribution platforms, which are typically operated by the owner of the mobile operating system, such as the AppleFruit, record label, world dominator in the slick boy's toys department App Store, GoogleStarted life as a mere search engine; now hell bent on world domination. More PhDs work for Google than any other single organisation and they're determined to know everything about everyone. For some reason Google thinks this inside info will help them and their chums sell us more stuff. Play, Windows Phone Store and BlackBerryOld fruit. Smartphone, most often with qwerty keypad that can only be operated by those with the fingers of an anorexic pixie. Mostly a business device that's good for emails but not much else. A misser of many boats. App World. Some apps are free, while others must be bought. Usually, they are downloaded from the platform to a target device, such as an iPhoneCostly but beautiful smartphone made by Apple. The standard by which all other smartphones are judged., BlackBerry, AndroidAn operating system for mobile devices developed by Google. It is now the principal competition to Apple's iOS (i operating system). It has gone through several versions, all of which have been given wacky nicknames. The latest is known as Ice Cream Sandwich. Those Google geeks are sooo hilarious! phone or Windows Phone, but sometimes they can be downloaded to laptops or desktops. For apps with a price, generally a percentage, 20-30%, goes to the distribution provider (such as iTunes), and the rest goes to the producer of the app. The term "app" has become popular, and in 2010 was listed as "Word of the Year" by the American Dialect Society. In 2009, technology columnist David Pogue said that newer smartphones could be nicknamed "app phones" to distinguish them from earlier less-sophisticated smartphones, allow you to log and compare steps taken, stairs climbed, calories burned etc. It gets a bit creepy when some wide-eyed accolyte explains how you can create a league table among fellow employees to see who’s doing the most exercise. And let’s not kid ourselves that the gym bunnies with something to brag about will want to remain anonymous; it won’t be long before the identity of roadrunner1 or whatever is revealed in the same way that sofasurfer666 will also be unmasked as a devout slob. TF finds this sort of competitiveness ever-so slightly ra-ra-American but, hey, whatever floats your boat; if you need an app and a wristband to know the difference between active and idle or to be ‘persuaded’ to exercise you might want to have a closer look at your life, lifestyle and priorities. Just sayin’

There is one wearable, though, that TF wholly endorses and it’s the Reebok Checklight.

Reebok Checklight

This bit of kit is integrated into a skull cap (a headband version is in the works) and displays the force sustained by head impacts on an LED display that sits at the back of the neck. Its primary application in the US is in American football, where it would be worn under a helmet, but any sport in which head-protection might be required – motorsport, skiing, cycling, rugby, amateur boxing – will benefit. While Reebok disclaim the Checklight’s ability to diagnose a concussion, a red-light impact would give objective rationale for sending that person for professional diagnosis. Checklight also logs total impacts as well their force. Men and boys are notoriously macho when it comes to shrugging off the force of an impact and the Checklight gets around such denial by giving an objective assessment of the degree of impact sustained.

The Checklight is expensive at $149.99 and isn’t available yet in the UK but it will be a life-saver.

More info at www.reebok.com/checklight