Jawbone Up wristband sensor: Design for your health

Jawbone is well-known for its stylish Bluetooth headsets, but the company's forthcoming Jawbone Up is designed for a completely different task -- tracking your activity, sleeping, and eating activities.

Packaged in an attractive wristband that comes in a range of bright colors, the Up is loaded with sensors and communicates with a companion app on your iPhone or Android phone. For food intake, it's expected that the app will use a photo-based technology like that built into the PhotoCalorie app -- take a photo of your food and the calories are estimated.

After it has monitored your movements for a while, the UP and accompanying app are expected to make suggestions to help you live a healthier life. Travis Bogard, Jawbone VP of product management gave Co.Design an example of this in a recent interview, stating "For example, if you haven't slept much, when you wake up the app might suggest a high-protein breakfast and an extra glass of water."

Thinking of the UP as a Livestrong wristband with brains, it's easy to see how people would wear such a device constantly for health monitoring purposes. Up is expected to be out by the end of the year, and though the company hasn't set a price, they say it will be "affordable."