We are developing a “wireless exercise monitoring and feedback system” for people to optimize workout routines without incurring the expense of contracting a personal trainer.

As we age, we increasingly find ourselves searching for healthy alternatives and styles of living. For exercise, people often work out according to prescribe routines which list tasks to be repeated in order to condition the body. Although common, this paradigm often works people too hard or too little, lacking the personalized minute-by-minute feedback offered by human personal trainers.

Our product, Digi Trainer, sets out to address the dearth of feedback information available to exercisers. Attached to and monitoring various states on a set of exercise equipment, Digi Trainer adjusts workout advice based on real-time workout stress measured through a combination of physical monitors on the exerciser and acceleration, velocity, and pressure sensors monitoring exercise equipment.

After answering a series of questions through a web-interfaced expert system, a user is assigned a workout plan. When in the gym the user puts on an ‘arm-band mote’. As the exerciser uses the machine, heart rate and blood pressure are monitored by the arm-band mote. On the exercise machine, for example an exercise bike, acceleration and velocity are measured by a mote attached to the bike. All data collected is transmitted to the base station. If the user exceeds the acceptable workout stress, based on his/her workout plan, the display on the machine warns the user about it. Similarly it prompts the user to increase the rigor of the workout if the user is going slowly. At the end of the routine, the display outputs a graph charting the user’s rate of exercise, performance and additional advice about increasing performance.