April 6, 2016
Originally published on www.dailydot.com
PE may never be the same.
Interactive Health Technologies introduced a wearable activity tracker designed to be used in K-12 physical education classes.
The IHT ZONE is a wrist-only heart-rate monitor that lets PE teachers track the performance of their students so that they can adjust their curriculum accordingly. The device tracks heart-rate and workout intensity. It has NFC built-in for tap-and-go syncing, battery life rated at five days, and a flexible strap designed to fit wrists of all sizes.
The fitness tracker will become an integral part of IHT’s Spirit System, a combination of hardware, software, and education geared toward improving PE programs throughout the country. The ZONE will sync up with IHT’s assessment software which houses all of the student’s heart rate statistics as well as teacher’s curriculum. It also sends e-mails out to students and parents with a summary of the student’s daily workout.
IHT is keeping the price of the system down by requiring only one set of ZONE trackers to be purchased for an entire class. Students simply turn on the device to get it to start tracking heart-rate and workout intensity. Once the device is turned off, information is sent to the appropriate parties, and the tracker is then ready to be used by the next student.
IHT has put measures in place so that the device is not destroyed or stolen. Teachers are given the location of each tracker every time the screen is swiped, and according to IHT’s website, the device is “extremely durable.”
The IHT ZONE is available for purchase through IHT’s website. Pricing packages start at $995 and go up to $14,995.
The ZONE addresses a serious issue in the United States, where the hope is that the statistics it provides to students and teachers act as a call-to-action to get healthy.
IHT began the Spirit Challenge, a program to get teachers and students to be more active. Last Spring 16,000 participants started pushing their bodies to try to achieve the highest use of the Spirit System heart-rate monitor for a chance at winning up to $5,000 in apparel.
