Leapfrog Leapband: Children’s Fitness Tracker

Keeping fit and healthy is not just for adults. With the advent of fitness bands, people have more of an incentive to keep track of the lifestyles.  Now, thanks to Leapfrog, kids can get in on the action.  The children’s tech toy company has recently announced the LeapBand, an activity wristband for children that are aged between 4 and 7 years old.

The LeapBand will be available from August this year and will cost $39.  The band will come in three bright colours blue, green and pink. Early previews of the prototype LeapBand say it is engaging and intriguing, although it is a little chunky on the wrist.

The idea is to get kids moving instead of being sat in front of games consoles for hours on end. To this end LeapFrog uses a rewards system, which exchanges movements for points. An energy bar, which frames the page will fill up as the user completes specific activities or movements, these are detected by the device’s onboard accelerometer.

The LeapBand will inform the user to “leap like a frog!” and after a ten-second countdown, (this is the time the user is to jump around) the energy bar will then move from the top right corner of the display to the center right side.

As the device will be used by the ‘destructive demographic’ (kids), Leapfrog have chosen to not to use a touch screen, but the LeapBand uses a shatter-proof 1.44-inch TFT display.  The device has three physical buttons below the screen and an activity button above it. The user can press left and right buttons at the bottom to toggle back and forth through different environments.  The center button is a home or return key for either confirming selections or returning to the main page. The device is also water-resistant and is manufactured to withstand bumps and knocks.

The LeapBand screen has a Tamagotchi-esq pet. Each band comes with eight customizable digital pets.  The user can choose from animals such as; a panda, penguin, dragon, robot or cat.  These are from LeapFrog’s PetPals franchise.  Of course to make the LeapBand more interesting to the user, you can interact with the pet in a choice of different games, such as Pet Dance, Pet Chef and Pet Parlour.

Each LeapBand is pre programmed with 14 activities, but parents are able to download up to 50 different commands through LeapFrog’s connect app (on iOS, Android devices and LeapFrog’s Ultra tablet).

Personally, I think this a great way for young children to keep on track with fitness and at not too higher price, either.  Come August, my eldest daughter may receive a surprise gift in the mail.

[Images via leapfrog & mashable]

SOURCE: http://www.tomsguide.com/us/leapfrog-leapband-specs-price,news-18719.html#xtor=RSS-980