Xbox One wearable monitors couch potatoes’ heart rates

Microsoft is said to be working on a fitness wearable that would work alongside its Xbox One games console. Source of the rumours is Joe Officer, who leads Xbox One component supplier Exertis.

“The wearable market is always growing and we can expect to see Microsoft rolling out a spate of devices next year in this space,” he said. “These will be linked to the Xbox One which has loads of health and fitness apps already in it. Add that to real time heart rate monitors, health bands, scales and video sensors and users will have day in, day out, real time monitoring of themselves.”

The Xbox One console is already well served by fitness applications, with the Kinect motion tracking sensor used by software like Xbox Fitness to make sure a player is performing exercises correctly. Though the Kinect’s camera is claimed to be sensitive enough to track a user’s heart rate, a wearable would allow for more accurate readings, and would let the wearer take their Xbox Fitness regimen beyond the living room. Though Microsoft’s Band proved disappointing last month, a device integrated with the gaming system would offer much more reason to be excited.