If you've been to an Apple Store lately, you've likely seen the Lark, a sleep-tracking bracelet with a vibrating alarm. On Monday, the company announced a new bracelet, the Larklife, designed to track your entire day. The larklife will clock how long you sleep, what you eat, and when and how much you exercise, then use that data to help you make better decisions about your health.
The Ammunition Group-designed bracelet has a center core with a three-axis accelerometer to track movement and flashing lights that provide instant feedback, and an associated app to give you a deeper dive into your data. Swappable wristbands -- a sweat-proof one for daytime use and another softer band for the night -- provide power to the core, and charge when not in use. While the accelerometer tracks movement and sleep, you can add in meals either via the smartphone app, or simply by tapping the bracelet's core. It communicates all that to an iOS app via Bluetooth. Lark CEO Julia Hu told Wired that the bracelet is designed to make tracking easy and attainable for people who aren't elite athletes or quantified-selfers.
There are already several other products in this field -- everything from the smash hit Nike Fuel Band to the just-announced FitBit Zip. What makes the Larklife intriguing is the way it not only tracks but also provides feedback based on your circadian rhythm. It can use push notifications to send alerts to your phone to let you know, for example, that you've been sitting for a long time and it might be a good time to get up and take a walk, or that you didn't get enough quality sleep last night and should have something to eat.
Another interesting feature is the device's ability to become more knowledgeable about its wearer over time. The company says the bracelet uses machine learning to get better at tracking your exercise, so it can tell, for example, when you are walking and when you are running -- or whether that gentle rocking motion means you are on a bike or the subway.
Larklife will be $149.99. Although no shiping date was announced, the company says it will be available before the end of the year.
