Show HN: Flexbug is a hands-free, voice-controlled workout logger for iOS
flexbug.comI use paper + pencil to track my Simple Fit workouts now and have never used a voice-controlled app for fitness.
A few questions:
1. Have you considered adding a demo video? Although your screen shots are well done, I'd love to see the app in action.
2. Can you do more than track reps & sets? I find that most fitness apps are not flexible enough for Simple Fit or interval type training.
3. Can you talk about the app development process? How was the original idea formulated, validated, etc? Did you outsource the development? Any other interesting insights?
1) I'm going to try and get a demo video added soon.
2) I primarily built it for myself, and I mostly do weight training at a gym. So there are a few features that may be helpful for interval training (superset support automatically advances forwards and backwards when you add a new set, rest timer buzzes when its time to get going again), but I'm not sure how helpful v1 would be for you. I want build on this to make it useful to as many people as possible. I'm not very familiar with Simple Fit, so if you have any ideas on how a voice controlled logger would ideally meet your needs, please let me know.
3) Sure. The idea came about pretty simply -- I tried out every possible workout app because I don't like carrying a pen and paper around with me. I found every one to have the same weakness -- they require you to take out your phone/ipod after every set to input data. I was already using a headset with a microphone to listen to my music while I exercised, so I figured why not put it to use? I didn't validate the idea at all. I figured that worst case scenario, I would build an app that allowed me to track my own workouts and manage my progress how I wanted it to be done. I did the development myself over the course of several long months. One of the features that I find most useful is that saying "skip track" will automatically skip to the next track in itunes. Because the iphone/ipod dont have hardware skip buttons, this is really helpful because I used to have to take out my ipod, unlock it, go to the music app, and tap skip. There are a few features like this and I don't think I would have been able to come up with them unless I was building it for myself and constantly testing it and finding its weaknesses.
you can skip a track by double clicking the microphone button. Center button if you have the three button microphone.
whoa, didn't know that. thanks for the info.
I've thinking about things like this since Nike+ made it sort of mainstream. I think it's pretty neat because I'm never disciplined enough to do a full log after the fact.
As a matter of practicality, though, is it 100% voice controlled? Do I have to count out my reps? Because with any significant amount of weight, I'm not too articulate.
You don't have to count rep by rep. Here's an example of how it would work
You say "Bench Press." The app confirms with a beep.
You want to add the some weight to the bar and tell the app how much weight you are going to use. So you say "135 pounds". The app confirms with a beep.
You do your set, and you were able to squeeze out 9 reps. You say "9 reps." The app confirms with a beep.
Repeat.
It is 100% voice-controlled. I try to log my workout without taking my iPod out of my pocket the entire time I'm at the gym. At the end of the workout, I'll review all the sets because occasionally the voice recognition will get a few numbers wrong (ie, it might mistake 5 for 50).
I have a similar idea, because I'm unlikely to actually record all my metrics after a workout.
My current solution is to take one picture of the machine's output display per workout, then I (hopefully) add them to a Workout album.
What I'd like to do is have an app which scans these photos and pulls the numbers out to log them and draw graphs automagically.
So it would only target cardio machines, correct? I haven't included any support for cardio machines yet, mostly because I didn't think a voice interface could improve the process of logging a cardio workout. One thing is that the type of cardio that you're doing would have to be provided some other way -- I think it'd be nearly impossible to extract the type of machine that you're using from a photo, although picking out the workout details from a photo of the display should be possible.
You're correct. I'd also like to experiment with what could be done wirelessly as well -- I notice the ZigBee protocol is quite popular in fitness & healthcare. Have you explored that at all?
How useful is the API for speech on iOS? Do you have a link to the docs for it? I did a quick search for "speech recognition API for iOS" but I didn't see anything official from Apple on the results. (Is there an official one?)
I've been using the Strong Lifts 5x5 app for a few weeks and have felt that the need to fiddle with it after each set is a drawback. This looks like it solves that problem and adds charting. Very cool. I'll check it out.
Your landing page images look great. However, instead of the slider, I think a static version with all of them on the page would be provide a better user experience.
really dig the UI! good work!