I've been playing around with some of that personal area network software over the last few days. The kind that runs at a very local (body) level. Its really an extension of the cycle iPhone applications and I've been interested to see what is available for a few quid that boosts insight and maybe works with stuff I already own.
My old Polar Heart Rate Monitor is an example, as is the cadence detector and wireless speedometer on my hybrid bike. Add the GPS detectors from the iPhone, plus maybe a digital blood pressure reading and there's a lot of data available which can be fed through into the SportsTrackLive type of applications.
Maybe the embedded skinplex system and 6LowPAN options need to be ruled out at the moment; suitable for arctic predator monitoring but it involves physically implanting chips - I'll only do that in combination with a fish supper.
Wireless Body Area Networks(WBAN) running at 10 to 20 Mb per second are already faster than the design of early 2000 office networks. Thoughtfully, FCC Part15.209 has drafted radiated emission limits to stop us all from overheating with this stuff.
However, I suspect this technology will diffuse into the next generation of iPhones and similar. The ant + technology is -er- small and embeddable into the various monitors to then commune with items like gym equipment to track personal readouts.
Plus the emerging generation of applications like iBike Dash and iBiker , which will look so much neater with the receivers embedded like Bluetooth.
I shall be "monitoring" this body of work.
