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Reviewed on 7/13/06 Release date: 7/13/06 When the Nike + iPod Sport Kit was announced almost two months ago, the general public was thrilled, skeptical, or constructively critical about the high-tech iPod fitness system, in which a Nike shoe “talks” to an iPod Nano wirelessly. We’ve seen digital pedometer/calorie counters before, but the Nike-Apple union had us wondering how far this concept could go. So this morning, when the kit became available, we ran down to the local Niketown store in a pair of New Balances and returned in a pair of new Nikes in addition to the requisite Sport Kit.

The Nike + iPod Sport Kit may not be for everybody (certainly not for Adidas-sportin’ Creative fans), but the way the system works is pretty cool even from the sidelines. It requires that you have an iPod Nano with the latest firmware (1.2), the $29 Sport Kit, which includes a tiny adapter that attaches to the Nano and a tiny medallion of a pedometer that fits inside the shoe, and special Nike + running shoes (actually, you don’t have to buy the shoes…more later). To get the most out of the experience, you’ll need to upgrade iTunes to version 6.0.5 or higher and you’ll need Web access to log and study your data on Nikeplus.com.
We picked up a pair of silver Nike + Moires for $110 (other styles are available now or will be soon). The store wasn’t swarming, but a few early adopters were champing at the bit when it opened. The shoes themselves are lightweight and attractive and come in a variety of styles. The Nike + branding tells you that there is a 1.25-inch elliptical hole buried beneath the insert in the left shoe. In addition to being an ideal place for your stash, the hole is where you stick the sport kit pedometer. This device tracks your steps and communicates wirelessly (using a proprietary version of 802.11) with the adapter on the Nano. The Nano itself records and displays–in near real time–statistics such as distance traveled, pace, calories burned, and time elapsed.

Obviously the system is set up so that Nike sells more shoes, though we wonder if consumers will buy an iPod Nano just for this feature. We’d prefer to see a system that was less proprietary, though you could pick up only the Sport Kit and use it without Nike shoes as long as you had a way to secure it (think: those skate shoes with hidden pockets, or a tiny fanny pack for your shoe). Which leads us to an important caveat: the pedometer does not have a replaceable battery, so it will die in time. The Nike salesperson told us it would last about 1,000 miles or one year for the typical customer, so that’s a new Sport Kit a year on average (Apple states 1,000 hours, not miles). You can and should, however, turn the pedometer off when it’s not in use; in fact, you’ll need to turn it off on an airplane “to comply with government regulations.” Outside of investing in a new pair of shoes (or not), the overall system is inexpensive for Nano owners–and well worth it for data-driven runners.

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A scanner using T-rays, a form of electromagnetic radiation believed to be harmless, could make that possible, researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory said Tuesday.

“At airports we have to take off our shoes,” Ulrich Welp of Argonne’s Materials Science Division said in a telephone interview. “It is kind of a nuisance.”
Using T-rays, it would be possible to examine travelers’ shoes without the need to disrobe, he said.

T-rays have been difficult to generate without using a host of bulky equipment. But researchers at Argonne have found a simple way to generate T-rays–terahertz radiation–using special, high-temperature superconducting crystals in a compact device.

“We developed a new source for terahertz radiation,” Welp said. The work, done with researchers in Turkey and Japan, represents “a big step forward,” he said.

T-rays are part of the electromagnetic spectrum that lies between microwaves on the low end and infrared radiation on the high end.

Unlike conventional X-rays, which can cause cell damage, T-rays do not have enough energy to alter cell ionization, which can lead to radiation sickness or cancer.

And while they cannot see through metals or water, they can penetrate many common materials like leather, fabric, cardboard, and paper.

“Terahertz radiation is sensitive to characteristics of a lot of chemicals,” Welp said, offering the promise of new uses in airport scanners or detecting illicit chemicals or weapons that could not be picked up by an X-ray.

T-rays can also penetrate about four-tenths of an inch through human skin, offering some medical applications as well.

“Tests have shown this could be a viable diagnostic tool for skin cancer and the spread of skin cancer under the surface of the skin. You could diagnose without having to do an operation,” Welp said.

“It has been demonstrated that it can detect tooth decay without having to take an X-ray,” he said.

Welp said he and his colleagues still have a lot of fine-tuning to do, but the discovery offers a lot of promise.

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