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The 3-D accelerometer has transformed mobile gaming (hello, iPhone), console gaming (thanks, Wii!), and now...fitness? The tech that accurately measures your movements has birthed a new generation of health monitors that track your daily activity and present it through a data-rich Web site. The big question: Can all that data be translated into a healthier lifestyle? I signed up with a group of Fast Company coworkers to test-drive one such device created by Philips; it's called DirectLife.

Philips is marketing the DirectLife device primarily to companies, which may be eager to front the initial costs of the program in exchange for healthier employees and thus lower health-care costs. But the device is also being sold directly to consumers. It costs $99, plus $10/month for access to the Web site and coaching after the initial 12-week program.

The device: The DirectLife monitor is housed in a slim, sleek square of white plastic can be worn around your neck, in your pocket, or in a customized belt pouch. And no need to be delicate: Philips tested DirectLife by running it through the washing machine and driving automobiles on top of it, so it can follow you into the pool or shower.

My take: The first three days of wearing DirectLife in my pockets, I marveled aloud at how awesome it is--So light! So slim! So barely detectable!--until the evening of the third day, when I realized it was no longer resting in my shallow pockets (oops). Now nervous about losing my replacement device, I wear it as a necklace, enduring a day's worth of cocked eyebrows and questions before I slipped the device under my shirt, where it dangles like an external pacemaker.

The plan: Participants wear DirectLife for an eight-day assessment period, then sync it to the Web site to learn their average daily caloric burn and their weekly and 12-week goals. They can compare activity with other users and coworkers (as a percentage of each person's goals) for added competition motivation.

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