This compact smart home gym should help get you fit (hands-on)
The Move It smart home gym is a set of training equipment that links to a pair of smart handles that in turn talk to your phone to help you keep track of your workouts.
You can preorder the Move It smart home gym through crowdfunding site Indiegogo.
I'm the last person you'd expect to find in a gym, but if Move It has its way, I'll be turning into a gym rat in the comfort of my home. The company's eponymous debut product, the Move It smart home gym, is a set of training equipment and a pair of smart sensors that connect to your mobile phone. The gear makes an elegant package that wouldn't be out of place in an upscale modern home.
Costing $229 (around £160 or AU$300), the Move It is currently available for pre-order via crowdfunding platform Indiegogo. It was designed by a bunch of Hong Kong Canadians with impressive pedigrees from the IT industry. The CEO, Ivan Ho, formerly worked for Microsoft and Chinese social network YY.com, while co-founder Oscar Wang has ties to the health industry.
So what exactly is it?
The four workout tools included in the Move It are a resistance band, an ab wheel, a jump rope and a pushup stand. While these are the most basic of fitness gear, the real smarts lie in a pair of handles that connect to the exercise gear. They have sensors such as a six-axis accelerometer, a gyroscope, a capacitive sensor, a pressure grip sensor and infrared for measuring distance. When you connect the handles to the gear, it automatically detects the form of exercise you'll be doing and sends the data to the app on your phone. When not in use, all four tools as well as the handle are stored away neatly on the stand.
Based on my quick hands-on with the tools, Move It seemed pretty accurate, and through the app, you can select workout regimes designed by CrossFit trainers, or challenge your friend to a competition to see who can do more push ups. Move It says the real fun is scoring on the leaderboards, though given how lazy I am when it comes to exercising, I'd more than likely to just do the bare minimum just to get my money's worth.
Ho claims the company got a friend who works at a BMW design studio to come up with its industrial looks, and I think this has really paid off. The company's Indiegogo site goes live today, 13 April -- in fact, it's already passed its goal.
The Move It unfolds to become four pieces of exercise gear that should help you get fit.
Key specs
- 401 by 381 by 209 mm (15.8 by 15 by 8.2 inches); 3 kg (6.6 pounds)
- Exercise gear: Jump rope, ab wheel, resistance band, push up stand
- Comes with charger and smart handles
- Requires app for fitness tracking