Champions of Health & Fitness 2010

Gadget Gurus: James Park and Eric Friedman

Ask engineers to pimp out a pedometer and this is what you get: a step counter that tracks when you're most (and least) active during the day as well as the quality of your sleep. A tiny device you can wear on your bra that uploads your data wirelessly to the Web. A gadget that turns exercise into a game. In other words, you have the $99 Fitbit.

The brainchild of entrepreneurs James Park and Eric Friedman isn't just another souped-up tracker, though. The two men had a loftier goal for their device: to make exercise a habit. "My idea was to do something similar to the Nintendo Wii but in a portable form, so that you could get the wellness benefit all day," Park says. As a result, the business partners may have finally cracked the problem that has long stumped health officials: how to get couch potatoes on their feet.

-- Caroline Hwang