The challenges and programs are free to try, no sign-ups or subscription required. (We do ask that you sign-up to save your stats). Just swipe down on the paywall. As a heads up, challenges and programs have pre-set strictness, so you’ll need to perform them with proper form.
I created a story-based workout where you start in a room, progress through increasingly difficult levels, and earn badges. I wanted to make the workouts more engaging - Solo Leveling and Lord of the Rings were a hard inspiration! Let me know your thoughts!
Background
We're three friends from Virginia Tech. Starting our journey, we had no idea what to build...until our CTO, who had never worked out before, created a rep-counting app to help himself. That’s when we realized we also forget our rep counts! We looked at other fitness apps and felt they were all the same, just with different designs. You can check out our building process here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5CAK40wTwo&t=195s
But, after talking to a lot of people, we discovered three major issues:
1. Proper Form: It's hard to know if you have proper form until someone points it out. You either watch tons of videos, use a mirror/record yourself, or rely on a buddy to check if your form is correct.
2. Cost: For beginners who can't afford personal training services or smart gyms, this gives them an alternative option
3. Accountability: Our app only counts reps done with proper form using full range of motion (depending on the form strictness level you set).
It took a looonngg time...but we finally got the core feature working! We prioritized building a reliable pose tracker that accurately tracks fast movements. (Our old versions lagged in its detection, making the feedback triggers unreliable...cause you'd want to hear the feedback as soon as possible). Because of this, we were able to create our own exercise library, allowing us to control when and where to trigger feedback for form mistakes like 'Go Down lower' or 'Raise Your Right Arm Higher'. Also, form strictness adjuster and workout customization are a premium feature. But the challenges and programs are free.
Please exercise safely and would appreciate feedback! Hope to help a lot more people, please let us know what helped you start your fitness journey! Thank you!
Otherwise it looks great, but that turned me away. Yes, I know Apple forces you into transparency about it on the app store, but I don't buy products from companies that employ these patterns.
- 1 Month $9.99
- 6 Month $39.99
- Ultra 3 Month $24.99
- 12 Month $19.99
Hope you got to see some of the stuff we made! If you got any tips on what helped you on your journey, I'd like to hear that too! Appreciate ya :-)
http://zoom.interoscitor.com/PetersonEnterprises/resume/logo...
http://zoom.interoscitor.com/PetersonEnterprises/Consulting/...
http://zoom.interoscitor.com/PetersonEnterprises/resume/down...
It could adjust the stick figure size to match the persons height and controlled a video tape deck via RS-232 to single step the video. The stick figure data was digitized from films of golf pro's at a high frame rate and the frames that best matched the 1/30 second frame rate of video were used. A genlock superimposed the graphics over the video. Wrote the software under contract and got a percentage, but the business never took off. It was somewhat cumbersome to use (roll the big rack shown in the picture out onto a golf course), they charged a lot, and they had no proof it actually helped improve golf swings, though they gathered some testimonials. The results of an analysis were difficult for a customer to use as well, for example "slow down your swing in the early 8 o'clock part of the swing", how do you do that? How much do you do it? It was difficult to translate the differences in swings into a kinesthetic sense of what your muscles should be doing. Perhaps adding an accelerometer wrist/ankle strap could provide additional data that would help with that.
We talked with a baseball academy facing a similar issue where their previous software analyzed recorded videos really good, but the analytics were too confusing for coaches to understand and took too long to set up.
From what we learned, form is the main aspect. Regardless of speed, form varies by individual, and any deviations can impact the results. In our case, we fire a feedback like "Bring your hips down lower" after every rep attempt until the user completes their workout. From working with martial arts instructors and their students, short and direct feedback that guide you work the best!
And yes, would love to integrate more data for the user! Maybe using the user's apple watch features! Thank you for sharing!
People can workout on their own so tracking in real-time vs watching yourself through a mirror isn't much different. We made is so that the app audibly tells you how to correct your form in real-time (make sure to turn up the volume!)
So instead of uploading a video and wait to receive your analysis, you can correct yourself on the spot and make adjustments. Post-analysis is a great option for in-depth analytics but can be confusing to interpret. This was mentioned during our conversation with training academies. Again, great if you want more in-depth knowledge for sure!
Thank you for taking the time to comment!
I ask, since I don't think a general body pose estimator is fit, and an app potentially giving improper pose advice for exercise might do more worse than good.
If you have something substantial, please provide credible evidence, research and benchmarks.
[0] https://mediapipe-studio.webapps.google.com/home
We started out on Android but switched to iOS because everyone in our area had iPhones lol. In short, the skeleton (the white lines) kept flickering a lot so we made our own implementation. Feel free to check out our iOS version history too!
You can see our tracking capabilities from this stupid short: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/cGJs9pJW_nE (Skip to the last part where I wave my arms around quickly)
You're very right, the general body pose estimators are laggy and doesn't track very well. We worked full-time to implement our own solution that took YEARS XD. So this isn't smth that we just made. Admittedly, we were focused on building which I know isn't the best approach. But..at least, we got this tho ahaha
For our full iterative building process, you can view it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5CAK40wTwo&t=17s
But the most important aspect that you pointed out which I liked is safety. Like all AI, you shouldn't completely trust it 100%. The app is good at what it does, but it's just a tool that can assist your needs.
I tried to keep it brief, so I hope this is answered your points. Appreciate you!
Does that mean the processing is local on the phone? This needs more information of what data leaves or doesn’t leave the device.
This is how I know I’m old. :(
Great work, will try it out and get back to you!
I also wanted to build something similar but never implemented it fully!
The main problem I faced was, how do I get training data that represents correct form. Also when I started, I wanted to train it on compound lifts like deadlift, benchpress and others. But as someone else suggested, form is quite subjective and lot of videos vary a lot! How did you tackle this? Also for form checking, do you depend on things like knee ankle, slacking etc?
Feel free to share your project and why you started! I just met someone who wanted to build a smart mirror that counts reps. Think the idea was sparked by using the Vision Pro during their workout.
As far as training data, use yourself! Free, you have control of the camera, and you don't need to scour the entire internet for the perfect and ideal form with the perfect camera angle - it's not like you can't move like them. If you can't...then find someone who can XD
There's not going to be the one, absolute right way of doing each and every exercise. The general advice is full range of motion (going all the way up and down). Now, when using yourself, it's good to have a third-party give objective feedback on your form. So, I wouldn't advise you to just film yourself and use that off the bat.
We include a form strictness level during the workout session (gear icon), so reps are only counted based on the strictness you set. This lets users control how precise the AI is when counting their reps.
Oh man....having the user choose from like 10 different push-ups wouldn't make too much sense (I'm assuming) since most users wouldn’t know the difference. Instead, we use a default push-up and let users adjust their strictness preferences for a more convenient experience. By default, I'm referencing to how the average push-up form (i.e.back straight, hands near your chest, legs straight, etc.).
Yeah! We look at the white dots on your body to provide feedback! Hope this answered your questions! Thank you!
Personally, I'd consider pace secondary. To your point, time under tension instead of using your momentum would help a lot. Just an additional implementation layer. It's something that we're capable of doing - but like everything, it just takes time ahaha
With this version, we got the most important step down which is form. So on to the next! Thanks for the question! Let me know if anything else comes into mind!! This was fun :-)
Challenges and programs are free try! Just swipe down on the paywall. As one commentor mentioned, there is a paywall for workout customization features. Thank you!
The only mention I can find is: "How do we determine proper form? Firefly references the average exercise performed by credible fitness experts."
Also like others mentioned, your pricing is incredibly deceptive. Make it front and center to users, otherwise "Full Access (7-day free trial). Cancel anytime." is a hard no-install for me.
I appreciate you finding the quote on the website! For clarity, at the bottom of the homepage's FAQ section ("I already know how to do my exercises. Is this still for me?"), we’re not here to teach proper form since everyone is different. We just assist with accountability and using full range of motion. For premium users, we do have the option for users to freely control their strictness level when the app counts your reps.
The way we set the AI is by prioritizing certain body parts. For squats, we focus more on hip lowering than arm positioning. It's just making sure: Are you going all the way down?
No, we didn't work with a licensed physical therapist. We had certified trainers try it out and hear their feedback. This is just meant as a tool to keep you accountable on your form. If it's not to your liking, that's fine! Just trim down the level to your preference.
Last yes, we do place the pricing upfront after the onboarding pages. The challenges and programs are free to try after you swipe down on the paywall. I just didn't communicate the instructions properly. If you ever change your mind and want to give us constructive feedback, would love to apply that and help others!
I appreciate the comment and hope you have a good one!
My friend, the title of this post suggests that the app can correct your form.
Do you use this app when you work out?
Yes! Not for every single workout since I've been working out for a while. My friends and I occasionally do squat challenges and pull up challenges for fun. Think we set them at like 100% strictness whenever we do them. I have one where I do 100 squats at 70% strictness since it takes me like 5 minutes to do them. Shreds my legs lol