MayaFit: A Personal Trainer for Everyone

Ready to get fit but need a little bit of coaching, yet don’t have the time to actually hit the gym. How about a digital fitness trainer? Respondesign, which introduced its Maya system in 2005, will now offer this digital trainer to individual’s TVs and PCs.

The company, which is the original developer of Yourself Fitness, My Fitness Coach and Your Shape, has announced the release of the consumer version of its MayaFit software. This is the first shipment to feature the PrimeSense Open Natural Interaction (OpenNI) solution. The software is designed for TV and PCs, and adds to the existing MayaFit Training Station deployments in U.S.-based gyms and fitness centers that have been in production since late 2010. MayaFit software leverages the OpenNI framework to support motion-based fitness training for individual and group workouts.

“OpenNI provides a structure for us to incorporate gesture recognition into our line of digital fitness products. Fitness is a natural category and PrimeSense is providing a great enabling technology that allows us to build next-generation fitness experiences for our broad range of consumer and corporate clients. Motion tracking provides our trainer intelligence with real-time user feedback and makes the interaction easier, more fun and more effective,” says Ted Spooner, CEO of Respondesign.

This fitness training with motion tracking can now be utilized via home TVs and PCs with in-living room equipment such as the WAVI from ASUS. Together with the MayaFIT training system, the ASUS WAVI Xtion solution combines full HD wireless media transmission with the world’s first PC motion-sensing interface to transform existing PC’s and televisions into in-home gesture-controlled entertainment areas.

So how are you going to respond?

Respondesign Official Website

E3 2010: Shape Yourself with Microsoft’s Kinect

 

Smile you're on the Kinect camera for the Xbbox 360

Exercise games on the market still require you to grab or stand on a controller to get your workout in. Yourshape Fitness Evolved, just announced from Ubisoft for the Microsoft Xbox promises a much more casual yet engaging workout. Using the video and sound controls of the game console’s Kinect, you just have to make sure  you have space to move. The camera picks up your image and presents it as a polarized image or heat map-like image of you and captures all of your movements. Select cardio, toning or other activities and get to work. Yourshape Fitness turns some workouts into a game where you can kick and punch boxes that come into range. End your workout with a calming cooldown by doing Tai Chi and other relaxing exercises.

Check back all week for the latest fitness related news from the Electronic Entertainment Expo