Building a fitness tracker for wheelchair users

Tyler Hively works as a content strategist at Chaotic Moon Studios in Austin, Texas. He also uses a wheelchair.

Recently, Tyler was talking to his younger sister, an occupational therapist.

"She works with a lot of people in wheelchairs," he explains. "And we both came to the realization that there's not really anything on the market that is made to help track the fitness, and the movements, and the calories burned for people in wheelchairs."

Tyler brought this challenge to his colleagues at Chaotic Moon, and together, they created Freewheel, a prototype fitness tracker designed specifically for wheelchair users:

Tyler says traditional fitness trackers – like the Fitbit, or Nike Fuelband – don't apply to the way he moves.

"If you're walking, you're using your quads, or your glutes, or your calves. When you're in a wheelchair, obviously, you're not using those muscles. So the way that your muscles in your shoulders and your biceps burn calories is different from how they would in your legs. "

Beyond the benefit to any individual user, the sensor data from Freewheel could be used to create crowdsourced terrain maps. These maps could be used by anyone who wants to plan a route that factors in incline, decline, slope, and altitude.

Freewheel is still a prototype, and it's not clear if or when the project will be available as a product. Still, Tyler hopes it contributes to the conversation around technology, accessibility, and design. "My hope is that it helps to open eyes," he says. "If we start applying these technologies to more specific groups, then we can find interesting solutions that maybe we wouldn't have come across had we stuck with just making technology for the masses."