Thu 27 Dec 2007
I can’t help but confess that the past few days, after getting Orange Box for Christmas, have been excellent for me, but a total waste of time for everyone else. I spent the past two days playing Half Life 2 and Portal and not much else.
The apology aside, I have become quite curious about the Nike+iPod gift that June received. The box contains exactly what it shows: one foot sensor and one receiver for the iPod Nano. I have seen a few teardowns (1) (2) and am pretty impressed. Just for the record, neither of the devices are serviceable, so the shoe sensor must be replaced every after every “1000 hours of use“. The basic idea is that the shoe sensor has a piezoelectric sensor to measure acceleration (even though many people think there is a MEMS sensor) that sends it’s identification code to the iPod receiver. The two are coupled and supported by the latest iPod Nano firmware, which then provides voice notifications and on-line tracking.
Over all, this is a nice technology that demonstrates power conservation practices (runs from a 3.6V li-ion cell). The design is sleek and efficient. I hope to post the details to make an adapter for this device to another shoe brand soon. I hope this did not sound too much like a sales advertisement for you, the smartest reader on the internet, to see.
Finally, there is a paper from U of Washington which basically outlines how to track someone based on their Nike+iPod gear. They outline the serial communication protocol between the attachment and the iPod.
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