Personal analytics has become a legitimate hobby of sorts for a lot of folks over the last few years. So far, though, people have had to discipline themselves into recording every bit of relevant data to come up with quantifiable numbers. The Jawbone Up should help make data collection on some of those projects just a little easier.
A health and wellness gadget, it’s a hardware and software system that will track data about your movement, sleep patterns and nutrition, so that you can see what you’re actually putting your body through on a regular basis.  The idea is to get quantifiable numbers so that you can adjust your behaviors accordingly, all while being able to monitor results over time.
The Jawbone Up’s hardware consists of an electronic wristband that you’re supposed to wear all day (it’s waterproof, so you can wear it in the shower). It comes loaded with sensors for tracking the necessary data, which it can then transfer to a smartphone app for processing. While details are scant, the app will supposedly perform the needed analysis to give you a rundown of how you’re doing on the sleep, nutrition and physical fitness fronts. Best guess is this will involve a whole lot more numbers beyond calories consumed and burned, so it’s actually pretty interesting.
We’re not quite sure if there are even micro-sensors that can monitor sleep and food intake, so this is the curious part for me.  I’ll be pissed if I have to input consumed food and sleep times, though — I can do that on an Excel sheet without wearing an extra wristband 24/7.
Jawbone claims that the Up wristband will be available later in the year. No pricing has been mentioned, however.
