Speakwell :: Well :: Summer 2005

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:: Martin Collis

Martin Luther King said, “I have been to the mountaintop”
and so have our Omron HJ105 pedometers.

They went up Everest and though they didn’t make the summit they were very, very high. One of the most successful advertising slogans for Timex watches was, “Takes a licking and keeps on ticking”, so it is with Omron pedometers. Speakwell speaker Rob Dyke took some Omron HJ105s to Everest where they logged millions of steps in the cold, thin air.

Omron pedometers are not advertised as waterproof, but we have documented stories of Omrons falling into toilets (3) and being taken swimming (2) and functioning perfectly once they had dried out. We did have to replace one this week that didn’t survive a session in a washing machine. All in all they’re pretty robust and even remain intact when used in schools. (The biggest problems with kids is that the pedometers seem to get lost.) We are just completing testing of 30 different pedometers at Speakwell, walking at 2mph and 4mph on a treadmill. The final results aren’t completely tabulated, as we looked at a number of criteria including: accuracy for fast and slow walking; type of clip; cover; price; reset buttons and special features. Looking only at accuracy of fast and slow step counting for 200 steps, 5 of the multi-function pedometers were really good. They were: