Meet Vi, the AI-based personal trainer that lives in your headphones

By Lulu Chang June 3, 2016

You’re not hearing voices — that’s just your artificial intelligence-powered personal trainer whispering sweet nothings to you (or rather, coaching you to success). Meet Vi, heralded as a first-of-its-kind AI personal trainer, whose recently launched Kickstarter campaign has already blown past its initial funding goal of $100,000. Contained in a set of high-tech headphones, Vi is a new kind of wearable, providing real-time coaching that is contingent upon its user’s physiology. Think of her as the angel sitting on your shoulder during workouts.

“The future of wearables is using AI to personalize our health and fitness in real-time, and we created Vi to lead this new frontier,” said Omri Yoffe, CEO and co-founder of LifeBEAM. “By improving a person’s awareness of their own behaviors, environment, and real-time physiology, Vi provides an inspiring and truly smarter workout experience. We call Vi an ‘Awareable,’ as it’s the first and only wearable with the power to actually be aware of a person’s activity patterns and coach their behavior in real-time.”

Vi’s power is based upon a number of biosensors that combine the processing power of an AI system with cloud based data aggregation. This means, theoretically, that Vi Wearables will give users immediate feedback on everything from their running pace to their heart rate, allowing for personalized training sessions on the go (and in your ear).

With aerospace-grade biosensors, Vi claims to measure everything from heart rate variability to elevation to motion, and processes this data to suggest “actionable insights” regarding health topics like weight loss optimization, exhaustion level management, injury prevention, running technique, stress levels, and adaptive training plans.

And perhaps most importantly, Vi claims to motivate consumers regardless of activity level, creating a personal relationship with users that continues to grow over time. This, the AI wearable says, incentivizes people to not only stay with their fitness routines, but to exercise more frequently as well.

Currently available to pre-order on Kickstarter, you can own your own in-ear trainer for $199.

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