Most fitness tracker technology comes to us in the form of wearables, which makes sense since they focus on tracking activity. We’ve even come across smart workout clothes that log workouts and monitor technique. Naked, on the other hand, isn’t a wearable – it’s almost exactly the opposite. It doesn’t track activity in real-time, but its ability to produce actionable fitness data seems to rival some of the best wearable devices on the market.
The 3D fitness tracker looks like a scale and a mirror, but don’t let its cosmetic simplicity fool you.
The mirror in Naked’s fitness tracking system uses RealSense by Intel with sensors positioned at three different points under the surface of the mirror to analyze every inch and angle.
The weighing scale has a turntable-like mechanism that rotates when you stand on it. While you’re being spun around slowly, the mirror scans your body head to toe, producing 3D images at 30fps in the process.
Once you’ve done a full 360, a smartphone app (Android/iOS) uses data sent from the mirror to stitch together detailed images of your body. The full-body 3D images serve as helpful yardsticks for those expecting to see gains and losses, but what really enables users’ fitness goals is the detailed data the device dredges up.
Naked can tell you your weight, body fat percentage, measurement of arms, hips, calves, thighs etc., and waist-to-hip ratio. Additionally, the app produces a heat map of your body to visually represent the location and extent of muscle and fat gains and losses. Essentially, it tracks every parameter on which you need to keep an eye if enhancing the functional abilities and aesthetics of your body is something you take seriously.
Over time, the device can graph the evolution of various body parts as you’ve worked on them, showing which areas you tend to focus on and which could use a little more attention. This information can be displayed in the app using its time-lapse feature.
The measurements produced by Naked are accurate to 1/16th of an inch – pretty impressive for a home-use device. Users’ body fat percentage is calculated using volumetric analysis; the results produced are a lot more precise than impedance-based methods like BIA.
Units of Naked can be reserved on their website for $95. The full price of the device, if booked before May 15, is $499 (plus $50 for shipping); the price will be increased to $999 after that date. The team is still testing the product and mass-manufacturing hasn’t hit full stride, so deliveries are expected to commence in March 2017.
And if you’re wondering, you don’t actually have to be naked for the body scanning mechanism to work; having underwear on will get you accurate enough results, according to the makers. So Naked may be a bit of a misnomer, but right or wrong, it sure got our attention.
