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The Bioband is a continuous waveform accelerometer, intended for assessing physical activity of human participants during daily life conditions.
The project was initiated in 2009 by the Medical Research Council's Epidemiology Unit (Cambridge, UK) in partnership with UK Biobank to explore its potential for assessing physical activity in large-scale epidemiological studies, e.g. UK Biobank (n=500,000).

The development squad (DevSquad) was led by Dr Soren Brage (MEU) and included the following members:
Vincent van Hees
Marcelo Pias
Salman Taherian
Michael Catt
Chris Martin Jones (electronics consultant)
Jim Rayner (firmware/software consultant)
Kishen Gohil (Product Design consultant)

Several routes were explored before deciding on the current stage design, which was then tested repeatedly on the bench and during field conditions.

The current status of the project is that the accelerometer consistently records 50Hz triaxial acceleration data and ~0.25Hz temperature data on a single charge for 7 days during bench testing. This is achieved, even when the device is put in standby state for 5 days prior (to simulate remote initialisation of monitor, mail-out to participant, followed by 7 days of human data collection). During real-life conditions, however, data collection is sometimes interrupted before the programmed end of collection for yet unknown reasons. We can achieve successful data collection in the field if we seal the connector (with silicone-based bathroom sealant), so our suspicion is that there is some vulnerability of the connector.

The metal used in the connector is also liable to corrosion over long term exposure to water

(after 16 hours of immersion in water)

For more information click on the following links:
Design
Implementation
Toolchain
Build
Flashing the BioBand
Debug
Information Sources
PC software
Hardware