The Intelligent Carpet, engineered by students at MIT, is a fitness-focused motion-tracking mat that can record users' workouts. The mat is a budget-friendly way to record activity on its surface, costing only $100 in materials. The Intelligent Carpet covers a 6-foot by 6-foot section and has over 9,000 pressure sensors which track tactile interactions. The data gathered from these sensors is run through a neural network which then estimates the body position. The mat can accurately determine 15 different actions like squats, pushups, and rolls with a 97.8% success rate.
The Intelligent Carpet has numerous potential applications beyond the scope of fitness. The low-profile mat could potentially provide fall alerts to staff in care homes, offer emergency alerts to security teams, or even track movement in VR video games.
Fitness-Focused Motion-Tracking Carpets
The MIT-Engineered Intelligent Carpet Tracks Workouts
Trend Themes
1. Fitness Motion-tracking Mats - The development of fitness-friendly mats with the capability to track user’s workout presents an opportunity for designing innovative fitness equipment and building interactive gyms.
2. Smart Flooring Technology - Smart flooring technology has disruptive potential beyond fitness, as it can be used for fall detection in care homes, emergency alerts to security teams, and movement tracking in VR video games.
3. Affordable Home Fitness Equipment - The use of affordable motion-sensing mats for tracking fitness progress and developing customized workout programs for home gyms is an area of opportunity for fitness businesses.
Industry Implications
1. Fitness Industry - The use of motion-sensing mats can present opportunities for fitness companies to develop interactive and customized workout programs with real-time feedback and monitoring.
2. Healthcare Industry - The application of motion-sensing mats to provide fall alerts in care facilities presents an opportunity for healthcare providers to enhance patient safety.
3. Gaming Industry - The use of motion-sensing mats for movement tracking in VR video games presents new opportunities for the gaming industry to develop immersive and interactive gaming experiences.