The LifeBEAM Vi is a pair of smart earphones that comes preinstalled with an AI virtual trainer that offers fitness data in real time as you go. Hearables have been in the wearable tech for quite some time with brands like Doppler, LifeBEAM, and Bragi with products that are smart and speaks into our ears. The Vi headphones are all about fitness offering fitness advice personalised to your workout session using your biometric and fitness data.
Unlike Siri, Alexa and Google‘s Virtual Assistant Vi’s AI is designed to feel as human as possible with real human recordings employed in making it. LifeBEAM started as a Kickstarter project last year with the promise to bring the first true artificial intelligence personal trainer. The outward appearance of LifeBeAm’s Vi looks like a standard wireless pair of headphone with the same behind the neck design. However, it has managed to squeeze in some sensors like heart rate sensor, gyroscope, accelerometer, barometer and so on.
The Vi comes with a range of wingtip option to make it as comfortable as possible and find a good fit before heading out on the run. There is a short tutorial in the app to help you get a good fit as the heart rate sensors are only accurate when they are placed correctly in your ear. This means the first thing you should do on getting the Vi hearable is to learn how to put them in your ear properly.
It is light and comfortable enough to forget you even had it around your neck in the first place and the earbuds are fixed magnetically to the ends of the neckband as you have in most wireless earphones of the same design. This will prevent the earbuds from swing about on your neck when they are not in plugged into your ear as well as adjust the length of the wires.
There are three small buttons on the side of the neckband, a circular middle play/pause/on/off button and a plus and minus button on each side of the circular button. The two plus and minus buttons are for increasing and decreasing the volume, while a long press of these buttons will skip/rewind the song. On the right side of the earphone, there is a touch-sensitive pad that is used to interact with the Vi’s AI during your workout sessions.The top of one end of the band can be popped to expose a USB port for charging. However, the end remains attached, so there is no risk of it popping off.
Vi is a fitness coach and is only for outdoor running although this might change in the foreseeable future. There is a heart rate sensor on each earbud and a six-axis gyrometer which both measures your pace cadence and speed. However, there is no GPS on board so you would still need to bring your phone along to pair it with, which is where the GPS is taken from. The first time you pair the Vi app, it asks you for your fitness goals; whether you want to stay fit, improve your performance or prepare for a marathon.
The Vi hearable has a battery life of about 8 hours unless you are playing music with and should last for about a week of use without charge.
Take 30 Seconds To Share & Also Comment! TechVaz wants to hear from you. Show us some love by commenting in the comment box below…
