June 10, 2010
VITAband Bracelet
By: Rock
Just ran across this little article/trinket that I found really interesting and figured I'm geek-out a
bit and share...lol:
Athletes no longer need to lug around a wallet full of cards and money while they exercise
thanks to a new hi-tech wristband.
Similar to a dog tag or medical bracelet, this new wristband displays an ID number that links to
an online database of the wearer’s medical information. Called VITAband, the bracelet is also
embedded with a pre-paid “card” that lets runners, cyclists and other fitness enthusiasts make
purchases on the go.
Co-developers Jason Brown and David Waxman don’t have a firm date for the commercial
release of the product but hope it will be late summer or early fall of this year.
Personal connection
Brown came up with the initial idea for the hi-tech ID bracelet while out for a morning run three
years ago. While long, early morning runs are normal for Brown, this one was out of the ordinary
in that he was in an unfamiliar place without someone knowing where he was.
“I was probably four or five miles into the run on some twisting roads with blind corners and
nearly got clipped by a car,” Brown told TechNewsDaily.
“I would have been out in the middle of nowhere with nobody knowing where I was and
potentially pretty badly hurt."
The VITAband was designed with this in mind and it also has the added benefit of being able to
make purchases without “shoving dollar bills in your socks or pockets,” Brown said.
ID technology
The medical-profile piece of the new wristband includes a unique ID number, which the
developers call a VITAnumber. This number links to a database with a pre-loaded medical
profile – your name, emergency contact, ailments, allergies, medications, doctors names, and, if
you want, your insurance company.
“It would have been really cool to store the information locally on the bracelet but paramedics
and hospitals don’t have a standard format for extracting that information,” Waxman said. There
are also security issues, he added.
The purchase-on-the-go piece of the wristband relies on an embedded RFID-chip that links to a
specially setup account preloaded with up to $200. To make a purchase, the wearer needs to
hold the bracelet within one to two inches of a terminal that accepts this type of payment.
(Banking and network partners are handling this end of the product.)
The bracelet will initially sell online before hitting retail stores. After that, the co-developers are
exploring form factors other than a bracelet for their technology.
via Tech News Daily
Click here to see VITAband on Kno-Where