Striiv tells me I walked 8,686 steps at CES today (video)

Striiv is a little keychain gadget with a display that counts how many steps you take in a day. I used it at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas today and it told me I walked 8,686 steps, or a little over 3.7 miles.

Knowing that gives me a goal for tomorrow, my last day on the show floor. I can try to beat that score and earn various achievements in the footstep-counting game that is built into the screen.

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Striiv launched last fall as a $99 portable device which you can hook up to the web if you want to analyze your stepping patterns. It is one of many on the show floor that “gamifies health,” or makes it more fun to engage in exercise. It is part of a larger movement toward “the Quantified Self,” which promises self-knowledge through numbers. By measuring your physical activity, Striiv can show you how active you are and give you goals to beat.

Lexi Franklin, head of design and strategy at Redwood City, Calif.-based Striiv, said in an interview that the company is showing off social challenges this week at CES. In this case, you can use the device to send a challenge to a friend and see if you can outdo them in a real-time walking challenge.

It’s hard to make out the screens in the video below, but they basically show how fast you are walking and how many footsteps remain in the challenge, measured against how fast your friend is walking. Whoever gets to the goal first wins the challenge and gets achievement points. Franklin challenged me to a walking match, and you can see the results below.

Check out our video interview with Franklin at the Digital Experience Party at CES earlier this week.