Apple Watch, Meet This Banana Fitness Tracker
This is what it will actually look like. (Via YouTube)
For centuries, bananas have been known as the world’s most efficient travel fruit. But what else, aside from supply your essential daily dose of potassium, has a banana really done for you lately?
This was the dire problem that the brilliant minds at Dole Japan set out to solve when they created the “world’s first edible wearable.”
These high-tech bananas will premiere at the annual Tokyo Marathon on Sunday, on the wrists of two incredibly special runners. The banana peels will be equipped with LED displays (per the GIF above) that will show participants’ heart rate, lap time, and any encouraging words sent their way via social media. The bananas will also have GPS. Each smart banana will connect to a separate device via a cord, which the runner will have to carry.
The Wall Street Journal, who clearly called a Dole spokesperson to make sure this was not some bizarre stunt, confirmed that the banana will be edible post-race.
Dole’s promotional website for the “wearable banana.” (Via Dole).
“The banana will be peeled first to remove its content, and then resealed after a LED display and a smaller banana is put inside,” the spokeswoman told the paper.
This seems to be a natural evolution of Dole’s Tokyo Marathon sponsorship. Since 2008, Dole has sponsored the Tokyo Marathon by providing bins of its excellent fruit on the sidelines of the race.
The Japanese, in particular, are known for being inventive with their fruit. Take, for instance, the country’s square watermelons—a trend that sprouted many other iterations of the fruit, including Godzilla Egg, heart, and bomb watermelons. In other instances, Japanese farmers apply stencils to the surface of apples, as a way of including designs on their skin.
Now, it seems that enthusiasm is melding with another Japanese specialty: technology. This is also evidenced by ketchup maker Kagome Co,’s latest invention, a wearable tomato-eating machine.
I patiently await the first vine of Wi-Fi equipped grapes. It’s about time, people.
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