A new body-scanning mirror
could soon have you asking, "Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the fittest
of them all?" But unlike the magic mirror from Snow White's tale, this new
device will objectively respond with your body dimensions, weight and muscle
mass, all displayed on a 3D avatar of your physique.
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Naked Mirror uses Infra-red light to scan a person's body & create a 3D model. |
The device, called Naked, is
the first 3D body scanner and fitness tracker designed specifically for people
to use in their homes, said Ed Sclater, co-founder of Naked Labs, the
California-based company behind Naked.
Naked consists of a mirror,
scale and smartphone app. The full-length mirror is equipped with sensors along
a black strip, which runs down the side of the mirror. The sensors contain
Intel Real Sense Technology, which uses infrared lightto scan your body. This
is similar to what an Xbox Kinect does.
The scale sits in front of the mirror and rotates 360 degrees in 20 seconds. As
you rotate on the scale, ideally wearing minimal, skin-tight, workout clothing,
the sensors create 3D depth maps of your body at around 30 frames per second,
Sclater told Live Science.
"We stick all those
[maps] together to create your 3D body model," he said, which is accurate
down to one-tenth of an inch.
Once
your 3D body model, which is essentially a mini black-and-white avatar of
yourself, is complete, the image and data are sent to an app that you can open
on a phone or tablet. This happens within a minute after you step off the
scale. You can rotate your avatar, zoom in on parts of your body and display
your body measurements, including body fat percentage.
This measure is calculated
using a method similar to a hydrostatic dunk-tank test, which compares how much
you weigh in water versus on land to get your accurate volume. If you weigh
significantly less in water, meaning you are more buoyant, you likely have a
higher body fat percentage, because fat is lighter than water. Naked is
"essentially a virtual hydrostatic dunk tank test," Sclater said.
But, instead of using water, Naked uses your 3D body map to extract your
volume.
The system can also pinpoint
changes in muscle and fat for different parts of your body by analyzing shapes,
Sclater said. For example, the shape of your arm and thigh will look very
different if those body parts are dominated by fat or muscle; fat is generally
rounder and less shapely, Sclater said.
The app allows you to
understand your body and really see changes, the company said. The app displays
bands that stretch across your neck, shoulders, chest, arms, waist and legs and
shows their measurements and percentage of muscle and fat. The app saves
successive measurements and allows you to compare them to each other, Sclater
said. For instance, "If your biceps increase in size but your body fat
percentage went down, you can assume that that change is a muscle increases,"
Sclater said.
Being able to see progress
can encourage people and help them to stick with workout routines, Sclater
said. In fact, only around 20 percent of people stick with health club routines
after joining the sites at the beginning of the year, he said. When he looked
into why those 20 percent stuck with their workouts he found that they stayed
because they saw progress, "and that progress motivated them to
continue," Sclater said.
To help motivate the 80
percent of people who lose their workout motivation, Sclater and his business
partner, Farhad bakhshian, created Naked, aiming to give people a visual
context for the changes happening to their bodies, Sclater said. "This
product is for literally anyone who wants the knowledge to take control of
their health and wellness," Sclater said, whether it's the casual
exerciser to the goal-oriented athlete.
Sclater and Farahbakhshian said
they have received positive responses from people who have tried Naked. Almost
every person who has tried the system has said, "Wow, I look better than I
thought I did," Sclater said. It seems that an objective view is always
better than people's perception of themselves, he added.
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