RFID technology encourages healthy lifestyle among children
Freiker Inc., a bike-to-school program based in Boulder, Colo., received a grant from Trek Bicycle Corporation to help fund its Frequent Biker program among area elementary schools.
The program was founded to encourage children to ride bikes to and from school by tracking their progress and rewarding them based on the number of times they rode their bikes to school. Rides are tracked using RFID tags mounted to the riders bike helmets and are read by RFID sensors placed near the school grounds. Their progress is wirelessly uploaded to the Freiker Web site, where participants can go to track progress towards their riding goals.
The program has been implemented at five Boulder area schools and has expanded to Madison, Wis. and Bend, Ore. In addition to promoting exercise among children, it also encourages safety, since the tags must be adhered to bike helmets in order to be registered in the program.
