ArmStrong

In this global product development project, we collaborated with students from other universities located across HK, China, and Korea from problem identification to product prototyping. During the semester we mostly collaborated online, and also met offline at each of our universities.

The problem we identified was in people's desire to exercise but lack of time/money to go to the gym, especially for beginners. Also many people wanted to exercise at home, but did not know how to exercise in a correct form. Existing solutions include instructive videos on Youtube, but people may not be able to follow correctly just by watching videos. As a solution, we came up with a smart mat that can provide real-time feedback as the users exercise. Real-time verbal feedback is effective as the user can know exactly how to fix their current posture, and verbal feedback can provide further encouragement in exercising.

In our prototype Armstrong, we focused on push-ups, which is a very basic but essential exercise. Using pressure sensors and ultrasonic sensors with Arduino, Armstrong is able to keep track of the number of push-ups, and detects if the force is unbalanced. Arduino sends data to the mobile phone device through bluetooth, and the mobile phone then gives appropriate verbal feedback.

Poster designed by Fangyu