If you’re into yoga, you’ve had the experience of contorting yourself into position to streee-tch those tight and achy muscles. But have you ever wondered whether you’re doing that yoga stretch properly?
Enter the smart yoga pants. Note I’m not endorsing this product, just intrigued by the idea.
A Kickstarter project for Nadi X recently achieved its crowdfunding target for these vibrating leggings. These pants are embedded with technology that uses Bluetooth to communicate with a phone app. It takes data from five points on your body to detect the position you’re in and delivers gentle vibrations to the muscles that should be activated.
Voila! Perfect yoga stretches, every time. In theory, anyway.
The sensation of the vibes is described as a “gentle encouraging massage” while the feedback you receive is compared to the “touch of an instructor”. I’m not sure whether that’s cool… or disturbing!
However, I can envisage other applications of this kind of technology.
Back straightening officewear – How about a shirt that vibrates when your back hunches past a certain angle? Or that beeps every time you’ve been looking downwards at your keyboard for more than 10 minutes?
Cover-up tradies’ pants – Work wear for tradesmen (or women). It delivers vibrations to your tailbone when too much of your (ahem) bum starts showing. Eliminate plumbers’ crack!
Territory pyjamas – Gift a pair to your bed hog! PJs that detect when your partner has crossed to your side of the bed and delivers a nice, little shock to keep them on their side.
Dynamic dancewear – Leotards that vibrate to indicate whether a dancer has achieved a perfect plie, grand jete or arabesque (a different take to the smart yoga pants, really).
Headache hat – Head gear that detects tight neck muscles or strained eyes and applies a “gentle encouraging massage” to your temples.
My daughter came up with the following ideas:
Sensation shoes – We do some work with a leprosy organisation. A common problem for people with leprosy is losing sensation in their feet so they can’t always feel it if they step on sticks, stones or other sharp objects. How about footwear that beeps if something injures their foot?
Sunburn shirt – A T-shirt that delivers vibrations to areas of your body that have received too much UV exposure.
Screen glasses – Eyewear that beeps when you’ve been exposed to a screen for too long.
What if question. What would you want smart wearables to correct? Let me know in the comments below!
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