Nike Inc. unveiled the Nike+ FuelBand, a wristband meant to track activities and provide wearers with NikeFuel scores.  The ergonomic Nike+ FuelBand captures and displays four different metrics: time, calories, steps and NikeFuel – a new metric that will be the ultimate measure of your athletic activity.

The proprietary technology that measures your activity through the movement of your wrist  and “motivates athletes to do more with a NikeFuel score that makes movement fun, meaningful and comparable, letting you compete with athletes of all levels in most activities.”

“The NIKE+ FuelBand is a way for Nike to further evolve the exciting possibilities of merging the physical and digital worlds,” said NIKE, Inc. President & CEO Mark Parker at the NIKE+ FuelBand launch event in New York. “Nike has always been about inspiring athletes, and the NIKE+ FuelBand will help motivate them in a simple, fun and intuitive way.”
Nike said it worked with some of the world's top experts in science and sports to engineer NikeFuel algorithms based on oxygen kinetics. Unlike calorie counts – which vary based on someone's gender and body type – NikeFuel is a normalized score that awards all participants equal scoring for the same activity regardless of their physical makeup. A user can also choose to also receive a calorie count to understand how many calories are burned versus how much NikeFuel is earned.

As a user wears the FuelBand throughout the day, the built-in three-axis accelerometer measures their motion and translates it into NikeFuel. Each day they can set your goal for activity and the level of NikeFuel they want to achieve. As they move closer to their goal, the band's series of 20 LED lights go from red to green. The user-friendly interface provides encouragement and motivation as you hit and exceed their goals. The NikeFuel score resets at midnight.

All of the data you capture on your wristband also connects to a rich web and mobile experience. It syncs with the Nike+ website, through a built-in USB, or wirelessly through Bluetooth to a free iPhone app to record activity each day and track progress. Nike envisions that wearers will then upload their NikeFuel totals online and share them via social media. As well as Apple, it has partnered with Facebook, FourSquare and Path; the social networks will go live with NikeFuel content in March.
Nike said the wristband's battery has a four-day life; the FuelBand also has a built-in USB and can connect wirelessly using Bluetooth to an iPhone app. The NIKE+ FuelBand will be available for preorder starting January 19 in the U.S. at Nikestore.com for a suggested retail price of
$149 (U.S.).

This isn't Nike's first foray into letting people digitally track themselves. In 2006 it launched Nike Plus, which connected shoes to iPods to measure runners' performance. Nike Plus currently has 5 million members, highlighting the appetite for performance feedback and measurement. The company hopes NikeFuel will also tap that desire.