Activity trackers (e.g. the FitBit) are becoming more popular for tracking fitness goals. As fun as this is, you could always just build your own with, you guessed it, an Arduino! You’ll also need a battery, a Bluetooth module, an accelerometer, as well as some custom software on your smartphone or other device.
According to the author, “this shouldn’t be called a ‘smart band’ since it has only simple features.” That’s probably fair, but like nearly everything featured here, the implementation is ripe for modification. With an expansion of the software or hardware, something like this has all kinds of possibilities.
For a great place to start, you can find the source code for both the Android and Arduino side of things here. Alternatively, you can download the Android code on the Play Store. I didn’t see files listed for the 3D-printed case, but this shouldn’t be too difficult to design.
Although this is a clever hack, I’ve always wondered how effective devices like this really are. Sure, you might feel good that you’ve burned 200 calories doing what you normally do in a day, but that was the same level of activity that led you to become 50 pounds overweight. Maybe in addition to this, you’ll need to make your own DIY workout equipment!
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