For Weight Lifters, a Glove Fit for Fitness

At first glance, the remote sensor technology embedded in UC Berkeley graduate student Keng-hao Chang’s weight-lifting gloves look more like a throwback to the virtual reality handsets of the 1990s than the latest in health care technology.

Yet, a cutting-edge invention is precisely what Chang says he and his team have developed.

The second-year graduate student and Taiwanese native said he first imagined a set of wireless sensors that would track weight lifters’ repetitions while he was lifting free weights at the gym.

Working in conjunction with John Canny, a professor of electrical engineering and computer science, and Mike Chen, a former member of the same department, Chang is now testing prototypes of the system he said he hopes to one day market.

Whereas treadmills and elliptical machines automatically track a user’s progress, weight lifters­—even those using machines—are left to count their own repetitions. Get caught up in a series of high-powered squats and you run the risk of forgetting everything else you have accomplished at the gym that day, Chang said.

His project, which he began last September, uses gloves and a weight-lifting belt to track the wearer’s motion. The technology is sensitive enough to know the difference between a biceps and a triceps curl or a push-up and a bench-press and smart enough to count the repetitions so the lifter doesn’t have to.

Chang’s system is composed of three parts. A sensor in the belt detects whether the wearer is sitting, standing or lying down, while sensors in the gloves track motion in three directions. The system can then predict and count the kind of exercises the wearer is performing with about 90 percent accuracy, Chang said.

“If you do a hundred, it will miscount ten,” Chang said.

Chang said he hopes his latest invention could join the ranks of already popular exercise software, such as the Nike/iPod pairing that links runners’ MP3 players with their sneakers to track distance covered and calories burned.

Like the wireless system embedded in these high-tech shoes, Chang said he envisions software that would allow the battery-operated sensors in the gloves and belt to transmit data directly to a user’s cell phone, allowing weight lifters to track their progress and share their routines with fellow gym members.

“It’s not only a personal trainer,” Chang said. “I think that the gym is really like a social environment. People who are really into muscle training can use this to improve conversations.”

The wired gym clothes are not Chang’s first health-conscious invention. While in Taiwan, he developed a kitchen table that could calculate the healthiness and caloric content of the food served on it.

“I’ve been interested in health-care technology for a long time,” Chang said. “I think I could make a contribution using technology in everyday life.”

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