How many calories do you burn in an average day? The only time I come close to knowing how many calories I’ve melted away is at the end of a treadmill workout when I stare intently at the digital summary. And even then I don’t see how the numbers add up (All that pain for a measly 512 calories?)
Well, forget about treadmill and elliptical calorie counters, thanks to some ingenious college kids from Georgia Tech, we may soon be able to tell how many calories we’ve burned through basic daily movements. The students recently unveiled a carefully crafted round-the-clock calorie device that allows individuals to constantly compute the amount of calories they burn – even as they sleep.
According to senior Garrett Langley, the unit “provides complete fitness monitoring and management.” The students dubbed their invention “HappyHR”(the HR refers to the euphoric feeling that follows an intense workout – the “happy hour”), and say the instrument allows users to measure and compare day-to-day physical and caloric activity.
The small, rectangular-shaped device, which resembles a mini MP3 player, straps to the wrist or ankle. According to Langley, the student designed fitness monitor gathers data related to heart rate and exercise and transfers the information via Bluetooth to a PC, where the statistics can be analyzed through Web-based software.
The students say the HappyHR is still in the prototype stage and they hope to include additional health applications, including respiratory and glucose monitoring, in the near future. The tech-happy college coeds add that their fitness invention is ideal for a marketplace that currently lacks such technology.
According to Langley, “there are simple $30 pedometers, and there’s nothing in between that and $400 health monitors.” The HappyHR would change that. Langley says he hopes to sell the instrument for about $100 if it becomes commercially available.
“Ideally, this could change the way America stays in shape,” Langley said. “ ’Stay fit and be happy’ is the slogan. This is going to motivate people to exercise more and be happier.”
Langley is beginning discussions with manufacturers and says his goal is to have HappyHRs on store shelves by Christmas.
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