Stay fit with some focus and cool technology

Stay fit with some focus and cool technology

The future of fitness has arrived with technology as the wind in the sail of fitness pushing you along. New fitness equipment due out this summer in many exercise emporiums will let users do some sophisticated customizing using Life Fitness bikes, cross-trainers, and treadmills. Users will be able to simply plug an iPod nano into Life Fitness equipment at the start of their workout and record their results, while listening to their own playlists. When finished, they can upload the workout data to the Nike site to keep track of the statistics — an appealing feature to any engineer — and also download a new feature that will give them access to coaching tips and voices of famous athletes (Lance Armstrong for one) to give you encouragement, as well as add workout terrains, and music to move you.

Capture your data with the Life Fitness connector and cable.

Partnering with Apple and Nike and making this a reality was a real workout for the Life Fitness management team, according to company Vice President Bob Quast. They worked with Apple for about one and a half years to obtain a “Made for iPod” license that was imperative to get started on this trek. Once they had the license, they had access to the electrical specs to dock, communicate, and recharge while using the exercise equipment. Life Fitness designers had to work out how to charge the iPods since the bikes and cross-trainers are self-powered via generators while the treadmills plug into an electrical outlet. Then they had to develop a serial communications driver and an application layer that authenticates the device as an Apple product. Software also had to be developed to communicate with the iPod so users can navigate, track songs, and control volume through a touchscreen interface on the exercise equipment. Life Fitness is now starting the process to connect its equipment and the iPod nano with the Nike training Web site.

Paul O’Shea