The company, which is preparing to release its wrist band monitor soon, is fresh off raising million in funding from Norwest Venture Partners and DCM. And today it’s announcing that it’s brought on a new CEO Jef Holove, a former vice president and general manager at Logitech who was lured away from Eye-Fi, where he was CEO. It’s another good sign for what could be a very ground-breaking device with the potential for bringing online behavioral tracking to a much wider audience.

As we’ve noted there are already some popular options for people on the market like FitBit and Runkeeper. But they’re primarily measuring motion using accelerometers. But Basis, which is expected to sell for 9, is outfitted with not just an accelerometer, but also an optical blood flow sensor to measure heart rate, a sensor to measure body heat and also a galvanic skin response sensor. Put it all together and you have a lot more data to measure not just how active someone is, but how their heart rate is doing, how their temperature is faring and how much stress someone is experiencing, which can be measured by changes in the skin and sweat.

“We’re providing a lot of data that enriches the picture of your health,” said Holove. “We can correlate different things. We can compare heart rate to low movement and find out if this is a stressful moment or something else is going on.”

Holove said Basis’ form factor is also critical because it doesn’t require strapping on an unfamiliar device like some heart monitors. It can be worn all throughout the day, which ensures that a lot of data is being gathered.

Basis isn’t just designed to gather information. It works with online tools to help people analyze the information and what the implications are for people. And there are game mechanics built in to motivate users to keep up their activity level. Those parts sound like other solutions on the market. But the real key here is that, provided Basis actually works as advertised, you’re getting a river of data that should help reveal a lot about how people are living. And if people can keep using the sensor because of its watch design, it will help ensure that the feedback loop continues. We’ll know more when the device goes on sale. Holove wouldn’t commit to a launch this year though the company is taking pre-orders.

There is a big opportunity here to improve our health through mobile devices as they take on more functionality at a more affordable price. People also want to take more control over their health these days, but it sometimes takes helpful tools to get them going. At 9, Basis is still not cheap. But it still has a good shot at winning over people if it can do what it says, not just gathering data but providing good analysis and encouragement behind it. If this can work, it will also put us further down the road toward the idea of the quantified self, a concept of helping people understand themselves better through self tracking.

Disclosure: Fitbit is backed by True Ventures, a venture capital firm that is an investor in the parent company of this blog, Giga Omni Media. Om Malik, founder of Giga Omni Media, is also a venture partner at True.

Related content from GigaOM Pro (subscription req’d):

• The Internet of Things: What It Is, Why It Matters
• The Case for Increased M&A in 2011: Actions and Outlooks
• The Structure 50: The Top 50 Cloud Innovators

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Related Products

Like all Brando junk, this thing makes no sense yet makes perfect sense. It’s a battery that you wear like a wristband. The site has this to say:

Have you ever had experiences that devices are running out of battery while in use? It is disturbing when you are playing the PSP/NDS game or chatting happily with friends on the phone, etc. Now! USB Wrist Band Battery won’t let these situations happen anymore! You can charge your devices in a flash before battery exhausts!

Don’t let these situations happen! Just don’t!

The kit costs $35 and charges via USB.

Think of it as an extender for your BlackBerry, or a wrist-mounted dashboard. It won’t place calls or compose texts; it’s really just there to give you a heads-up and preview whenever your BlackBerry mothership gets a call, receives a message, or has some other, being-a-BlackBerry-related news to share with you. Also, yes, it’s a watch, for telling time. It may not do a whole lot, but the hardware sounds nice:

* 1.3″ full colour organic light-emitting-diode (OLED) display
* Bluetooth® v2.0+EDR
* 150 mAh lithium-ion polymer battery
* Glass lens and full metal body
* 22mm interchangeable wrist band
* Vibrating motor
* Micro-USB port (for charging)
* Over-the-air firmware updates
* Dimensions: 51mm height x 38mm width x 12mm depth

Allerta, which totally sounds like a prescription mood drug, says the watch’ll last for four days on a single charge, which is respectable considering that it doesn’t look too hideously large. The InPulse will communicate with any BlackBerry running OS 4.3 or above by means of a free companion app. The watch, though, isn’t quite as cheap: It’ll ship for $150 in February, though it’s available for preorder now.

One thing though: This is a nice render and all and the product doesn’t smell like vapor, but why can’t we see a picture of this thing?

UPDATE: About that! Eric from Allerta shot me an email:

Ah, it’s your right to talk vapour because we don’t have tech demos ready yet…I’m actually quite sorry about that. We’re a new CE startup, so it’s tough going from the get go. We actually have near-complete prototypes, but they’re made out of brass right now (easier to CNC mill). We’re currently in the month-long process of making molds for casting stainless steel. We didn’t want to publish too many pictures of the brass watches, in case it confused people.

Which is fair enough. They’ve posted a few of the early prototype pictures here, in case you’re curious. This is what they look like now—just keep in mind, these aren’t meant to look nice, yet:
[InPulse via CrackBerry]

Weird, weirder, Thanko. The Tokyo-based gadget makers are unstoppable when it comes to USB stuff, including household products. They already gave us the USB-powered boob warmers, the heated USB wrist band and the USB lunch box warmer. And today it’s time for the USB-powered shaver [JP].

It takes 3.5 hours to charge the shaver through a USB connection, enough for a 35-minute non-stop shaving session. The thing is sized at 54×99×19mm, weighs 80g and comes with a cleaning brush.

Priced at just $15, the shaver doesn’t look too promising quality-wise. But hey, it’s a Thanko gadget, so the idea behind it counts. It’s not listed yet in the company’s English online store though.

This bracelet supports a unique cause: 8GB of wearable storage!

(Credit: Meritline)

It’s rare enough to find an 8GB flash drive for less than $20, but one you can wear? Meritline (yeah, it again) has the 8GB Bracelet Wrist Band USB Drive for $12.35 shipped.

That’s after…

Originally posted at The Cheapskate