healthmedicinet

Hearing consumers say they “gotta have it” is the dream of anyone launching a new product. Susan Spencer of “48 Hours” shows us a case where that dream came true:

Tony Bass’ watch tracks his every move — steps taken, calories burned, hours slept. He wears it all the time, even while taking a shower.

Would he otherwise miss some calories burning from scrubbing? “That is absolutely true, because it’s still tracking activity in the shower,” he said.

Bass is senior vice president of Polar USA, which makes a wide range of activity trackers, the latest in fitness gadgets you only recently realized you need.

Too sedentary? “Every hour, if you’re not moving, it will send a vibration to you to say that it’s time to move,” Bass told Spencer.

“How annoying!” she laughed.

“Not really. It is annoying when I’m driving home at night and I’m in traffic, it tells me it’s time to move and I can’t even change lanes. There’s nothing I can do!”

Bass’s model even gives him pep talks. “It says, ‘You’re a star — so much activity and exercise today!’ It shows you that I burned for that day 3,173 calories. I took 12,575 steps.”

Spencer said, “This is like your mother, right?”

“Somewhat, yes.”

But motivation like that isn’t cheap: Polar devices cost from $100 to $500.

Last year, Americans forked over $622 million on various brands of wearable activity trackers. Roughly one in 10 U.S. adults now owns one.

• Smartwatches: Eat your heart out, Dick Tracy! (“Sunday Morning,” 06/29/14)
• Smart bracelets hit the fashion runway (CBS News, 09/04/14)
• What can you learn from a sleep tracking device? (CBS News, 07/25/14)

So what are we doing with all this fascinating information?

Some are making the information public. “You can send it to Facebook, to Twitter. Others make comments about it,” laughed Bass.

Spencer said, “This sort of reminds me of people who email pictures of their lunch. Do you think as a society that this sort of reflects a level of self-absorption that may be a little unhealthy?”

“Not at all!” he replied.

In fact, Polar is so serious about health that its devices require a chest strap heart monitor to ensure accurately.

As Spencer discovered, all this feedback can be a bit … depressing. “I can’t believe I’ve only burned 15 calories,” she laughed on the treadmill. “That seems impossible!”

At the risk of oversharing, she burned 180 calories in 25 minutes.

So, where are products like this headed? “I think that there’s definitely the need for this category to continue to grow,” said Bass.

But what more information about us can we possibly mine? Bass said, “Only time will tell.”

• Are fitness trackers worth the money? (CBS News, 02/19/15)
• Netflix staffers hack Fitbit to detect sleep, pause videos (CBS News, 02/28/14)
• The rise and fall of fitness trackers (CNET, 01/01/15)

For more info:

• Polar USA