Product
<a href=”https://yogifismart.com/”>YogiFi Smart Gen 2+ yoga mat</a>
Promises
Billing itself “the world’s smartest yoga mat,” Yogifi claims . . .
“Take your yoga to the next level with this innovative mat equipped with AI & built-in sensors that track your movements, providing real-time feedback and guidance on your alignment and balance. It’s more than just a mat – It’s your personal yoga studio and a coach.”
Plus the mat will:
- celebrate my progress
- unlock my potential
- find my inner balance
- strengthen my core
- provide real-time AI feedback
- sync with my Apple watch
- track my progress
- connect me with a live expert coach and community
- I will prioritize and achieve my wellness goals
- etc. etc.
There are quite a few promises.
Privacy
It’s really not clear what data is going to be tracked from the video. It’s at least tracking where and how I’m touching the mat. The camera also appears to be capturing and analyzing data because it specifically talks about tracking my upper body. I found out more in the terms of service. My heart rate, endurance, strength, etc. will be tracked.
The privacy policy does say it won’t sell or rent data to others. Health-adjacent data like this always makes me nervous.
Tradeoffs
I have done yoga at home via YouTube instruction before. So the basic pattern is something I’m not adverse to. I would get some level of personalized AI-feedback on my yoga and don’t have to pay to go to a yoga studio.
The AI-interaction and guidance sounds really wooden. There’s also a weird gamification pattern with chimes and encouragement (A chime and then “You got it exactly right!”) that doesn’t seem to fit with my limited knowledge of yoga practice. I’m left unsure how good the feedback is or can be given the limited perspective from the camera.
I don’t really fear manipulation in this case. The data concerns are medium. I struggle to read both the privacy statement and the terms of service. They really are just a mess (not just for this product).
Final thoughts
I'd be really interested in what a yogi would think of the general framing and specific instructions. The mat is $175 and ties into an online community. It has an app. There's lots of stuff going on. I'm not sure if it requires a subscription. Everything seems to.
I am amazed that an AI yoga mat exists.