In the corner of the crowded Barcelona Convention Centre, I might have looked a little unusual. As other smartly dressed MWC 2024 attendees walked by, chatting amiably, buried in their phones, or staring at the latest technology, I received at least several strange looks. This is because I was immediately running fast and running hard, trying to get my knees up every time, even though I was wearing jeans and flat-soled trucks.
In front of me was a camera connected to a smart screen along the mirror, guiding me through some simple exercises. I had to run on the spot, jump from side to side, and do a single squat jump. There was also an Xbox Kinect-style “pop the bubble as fast as you can” cognitive reaction game played on the smart touchscreen.
Behind the scenes, the AI was analyzing my performance, and once the trial was completed, it provided me with the kind of information you'd expect to get on the best Garmin watches: measuring my explosive power, speed, coordination, agility, and more. Scales, all in simple scores out of 100.
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This was one of the more fun interactive displays I've been involved with at MWC, but behind the running, jumping and bubble-popping lies a lot of cutting-edge technology, which could have major ramifications in the fitness tech scene. ai.io has developed 3D Athlete Tracking, or 3DAT, which uses artificial intelligence and YOLO (“You Only Look Once”) to detect objects for “human tracking,” identifying key points on the body and providing biometrics based on movement.
It is currently being used for football players: the UK-based aiScout app allows young amateur players to record their training drills and connect them with coaches. Coaches can then use these AI-generated metrics to identify promising young candidates.
However, football is not the only use case: in conversations with ai.io representatives and engineers, they revealed that discussions were ongoing with organizations such as the NFL, and that specializations such as running were “on the roadmap.” This is great news for me: as an avid runner, I can only imagine the possibilities. Do you give yourself a gait analysis to improve your running performance at your home or at the nearest gym that has a treadmill, instead of booking an appointment with a specialized running store to choose the best running shoe to suit your running style? Involve me.
My only question is how reliable these metrics are: no two objects are the same, and sometimes a human mind is needed to distinguish certain characteristics. But you could say the same thing about smartwatches: Several times a week I fight to increase Garmin's Endurance Score, which uses my VO2 Max data and Garmin's algorithms to provide a single number that tells me how I'm doing. This is just an evolution of that methodology, using a single camera and some software instead of using an expensive piece of hardware.
I'm excited to see where 3DAT goes from here, as just one example of tracking athletic performance using AI. If technology improves, it will almost certainly do what AI seems to do best: disrupt. I predict in the not-so-distant future, we'll see more personal trainers, professional trainers, and fitness enthusiasts alike whipping out their cameras instead of relying on power meters, heart rate monitors, and even the best smartwatches.
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