Wrists are so yesterday: You wear this activity tracker round your neck

By Andy Boxall December 8, 2014

fineck kickstarter fitness tracker campaign neckband

At the moment, we expect to strap fitness and activity bands to our wrists, but the team behind the Fineck says our necks are a far better place for a tracker. However, the Fineck isn’t about counting steps, it’s designed to monitor and improve your posture, plus get rid of ailments and pain which all stem from the neck.

Made from silicone and titanium, the Fineck tracks neck movements, your balance, posture and movement, then provides advice on how to improve these aspects. Fineck says a high percentage of people suffer from neck pain and associated problems, caused by extended periods of sitting in front of a computer, or using a mobile device. A fitness band like the UP24 may encourage activity, but the Fineck is about “micro-fitness,” where looking after specific parts of our body can bring significant benefits.

Interestingly, the Fineck app comes with several games specifically designed to train the neck. It’s like a targeted version of the Tao WellShell we saw at CES 2014. The Fineck is waterproof, and connects to your iOS device using Bluetooth 4.0, although an Android app is in development. The titanium body contains a battery which is apparently good for seven days use, and takes an hour to charge up, plus an accelerometer and a gyroscope. We think the Fineck looks great, and it makes a pleasant change from the many, almost identical wristbands flooding the market.

The Fineck is available through Kickstarter at the moment, but the campaign isn’t very clear on the device’s additional features. For example, it doesn’t mention simple step counting or sleep tracking, or if it will deliver vibrating notification alerts from your smartphone. However, even if it doesn’t come with any of those features, the Fineck is extremely well priced. If you’re quick, it’s still available for $70 as an early bird special. Pay another $10, and you’ll get a special gold Kickstarter edition. Should the campaign reach its modest $20,000 goal, the Fineck will ship in April next year.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Senior Mobile Writer

Andy is a Senior Writer at Digital Trends, where he concentrates on mobile technology, a subject he has written about for…

Mobile

Android Wear 2.8 update brings readability updates for your wrist

android wear

Android Wear has risen like a phoenix from the ashes, with 2017 giving us some of the world's most desirable smartwatches from fashion and watch brands alike, as well as the old smartwatch holdouts like LG. There's never been a better time to grab yourself a smartwatch and stay constantly appraised of your updates, when and where they happen, without having to ever look at your phone's screen.

We're massive fans of Android Wear, and that's why we keep as close an eye as possible on the latest news and updates to the system. Android Wear 2.0 has been and gone, and the upgrade to Android Oreo on Android Wear is rolling out as we speak. But that doesn't mean that the updates have stopped; quite the opposite, in fact. Google has switched over to a "more-is-more" approach for Android Wear, pushing out smaller updates more frequently -- so if your smartwatch is slated to receive those updates, you should see it constantly evolve over time.

Photography

Fitt360 records point-of-view videos while hanging from your neck

fitt360

Camera glasses offer hands-free recording but what about 360-degree shots? That’s where the neckband camera with 4K 360 shooting comes in. Developed by Samsung Creative Lab and teased in 2017, the Fitt360 is a wearable 360 camera launching on Kickstarter.

Fitt360 uses three HD cameras inside the neckband to record a 360 view with a 4K resolution once stitched. Light and portable, the Fitt360 can also be used for lifelogging, creating a personal “Street View,” and a number of other hands-free 360 options.

Emerging Tech

Spire’s tiny health tracker tags can smarten up your dumb clothes

spire health tag kubik 170920 5929

We’ve covered smart clothes before at Digital Trends, but a new product from health monitoring company Spire promises to do something a bit different from its competitors: Give you the tools to make any item of clothing into a smart wearable. Called the Spire Health Tag, it’s a tiny device that adheres to your clothes and then -- it claims -- offers you real-time data relating to heart rate, sleep, stress, and other assorted daily activities.

“Health Tag attaches to a wide range of clothing -- because people like to wear a wide range of clothing -- but it’s clothing like pajamas, underwear, or bras that keep the device in contact with your core,” Jonathan Palley, CEO and co-founder of Spire, told Digital Trends. “The custom sensors that we developed for Health Tag collect 20 billion data points per day from continuously tracking your activity, heart rate, and heart rate variability and breathing. Together with the advanced algorithms in our Insights Engine that analyze the data, we can identify periods where your breathing reflects stress and calmness levels, along with physical activity and sleep quality.”