Friday, October, 18, 2013 - 9:09:43 AM

photo by Gord Bowes

Anita Kaiser (left), Melissa Bennet and Michelle Marie Boutilier demonstrate yoga poses along Sabrina, dressed in a bumble bee costume for the occasion, to promote "Downward Facing Dog-A-Thon," a fundraiser for the Hamilton/Burlington SPCA Oct. 27.

Yoga lovers gather to support SPCA

Yoga lovers are uniting for a fundraiser to help the Hamilton/Burlington SPCA. Its the Downward Facing Dog-A-Thon and its happening this Oct. 27 at the 245 Dartnell Rd. animal shelter. Were hoping the dog lovers of Hamilton will come out to support a good cause, says Melissa Bennet of the SPCA, who is organizing the event along with Anita Kaiser and Michelle Marie Boutilier of Yoga Loves Hamilton. Registration for the morning yoga marathon begins at 7:30 a.m.; the event runs from 8 a.m. until noon. Along with four different yoga classes, there will be a prize for the best photo of a pet in a Halloween costume and a veterinarian will be on site to answer questions. No prior yoga experience is necessary. Registration is $20. Registration is free if you raise $50 and a free T-shirt is handed out to anyone raising over $100. For more information or to register, email yogaloveshamilton@outlook.com.

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Yoga lovers gather to support SPCA

April Flowers for redOrbit.com Your Universe Online

Most yoga classes depend on the participants watching an instructor to learn how to properly hold a position. For the blind or those who have problems with their sight, this type of class can be frustrating. Now, a new software program that watches a users movements and gives verbal feedback on what to change to accurately complete a yoga pose has been developed by a team of University of Washington computer scientists.

My hope for this technology is for people who are blind or low-vision to be able to try it out, and help give a basic understanding of yoga in a more comfortable setting, said project lead Kyle Rector, a UW doctoral student in computer science and engineering.

Eyes-Free Yoga, the new program, employs Microsoft Kinect software to track body movements and offer verbal feedback for six yoga poses in real time. The poses included Warrior I and II, Tree and Chair poses.

Rectors new program instructs the Kinect to read the users body angles. It then gives verbal feedback on how to adjust his or her arms, legs, neck or back to complete the pose successfully. The program might say Rotate your shoulders left, or Lean sideways toward your left to help the user.

[ Watch the Video: Yoga For The Blind ]

The end result is a video game used for exercise an exergame for yoga that would allow people with little to no sight to interact verbally with a simulated yoga instructor. The research team, which includes Julie Kientz, a UW assistant professor in Human Centered Design & Engineering, and Cynthia Bennett, a research assistant in computer science and engineering, believe that their program can transform a typically visual activity into something that blind people can also enjoy.

I see this as a good way of helping people who may not know much about yoga to try something on their own and feel comfortable and confident doing it, Kientz said. We hope this acts as a gateway to encouraging people with visual impairments to try exercise on a broader scale.

The team programmed about 30 different commands for each of the six poses based on rules deemed essential for each position. A number of yoga instructors worked with the research team to develop the criteria for reaching the correct alignment in each pose. The program first checks the users core and suggests changes to their alignment. Then the Kinect moves to the head and neck area, and finally the arms and legs. The program gives positive feedback when the person is holding a pose correctly, as well.

To develop this technology, Rector practiced a lot of yoga, deliberately making mistakes in order to test and tweak each aspect of the program. The result of this testing is a program she believes is robust and useful for the blind.

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Microsoft Kinect-Based Program Can Help The Blind Learn Yoga

Conventional yoga classes with an instructor up front demonstrating positions to the class aren't generally a viable option for the visually impaired, but a team of computer scientists from the University of Washington (UW) is set to open this healthy activity up to such users with the help of Microsoft's Kinect.

The UW team, led by doctoral student Kyle Rector, has developed a program called Eyes-Free Yoga that uses the Kinect's skeletal tracking capabilities to read a user's body angles and then provide auditory feedback on how to perform poses in real time.

The system calculates the required angles using simple geometry and the law of cosines based on data of the user's body collected by the Kinect's cameras. It then instructs them on how to reach the desired pose, starting with the user's core, suggesting alignment changes if necessary, then progressing to instructions for the head and neck before finally giving directions for the arms and legs.

The system can provide around 30 different commands based on a dozen rules essential for each of the six poses the system is capable of providing instructions for, which include Warrior I and I, Tree and Chair poses. The instructions are in simple language, such as "Rotate your shoulders left,"or "Lean sideways toward your left." The system also provides positive feedback when the correct pose is achieved.

While practicing yoga herself as she developed the technology, Rector tested the program with 16 blind and low-vision people around to Washington who provided feedback. Although some of the test subjects had previously practiced yoga regularly, several had never done yoga before. However, 13 of the 16 said they would recommend the program and nearly all would use it again.

Although Rector says that the Kinect does have some limitations in terms of the level of detail with which it tracks movement, she chose it because of its open source software and wide market availability.

"I see this as a good way of helping people who may not know much about yoga to try something on their own and feel comfortable and confident doing it, says Julie Kientz, a UW assistant professor in Human Centered Design & Engineering who collaborated with Rector on the system along with research assistant Cynthia Bennett. We hope this acts as a gateway to encouraging people with visual impairments to try exercise on a broader scale," Kientz added. To that end, the team plans to make the program available for download online for use with a PC and Kinect.

Details of the system's development and testing is detailed in a paper (PDF) published in the conference proceedings of the Association for Computing Machinerys SIGACCESS International Conference on Computers and Accessibility in Bellevue, Washington.

Eyes-Free Yoga is demonstrated in the following video.

Source: University of Washington

Excerpt from:
Researchers turn Kinect into a yoga instructor for the visually impaired

Oct. 17, 2013 In a typical yoga class, students watch an instructor to learn how to properly hold a position. But for people who are blind or can't see well, it can be frustrating to participate in these types of exercises.

Now, a team of University of Washington computer scientists has created a software program that watches a user's movements and gives spoken feedback on what to change to accurately complete a yoga pose.

"My hope for this technology is for people who are blind or low-vision to be able to try it out, and help give a basic understanding of yoga in a more comfortable setting," said project lead Kyle Rector, a UW doctoral student in computer science and engineering.

The program, called Eyes-Free Yoga, uses Microsoft Kinect software to track body movements and offer auditory feedback in real time for six yoga poses, including Warrior I and II, Tree and Chair poses. Rector and her collaborators published their methodology in the conference proceedings of the Association for Computing Machinery's SIGACCESS International Conference on Computers and Accessibility in Bellevue, Wash., Oct. 21-23.

Rector wrote programming code that instructs the Kinect to read a user's body angles, then gives verbal feedback on how to adjust his or her arms, legs, neck or back to complete the pose. For example, the program might say: "Rotate your shoulders left," or "Lean sideways toward your left."

The result is an accessible yoga "exergame" -- a video game used for exercise -- that allows people without sight to interact verbally with a simulated yoga instructor. Rector and collaborators Julie Kientz, a UW assistant professor in Computer Science & Engineering and in Human Centered Design & Engineering, and Cynthia Bennett, a research assistant in computer science and engineering, believe this can transform a typically visual activity into something that blind people can also enjoy.

"I see this as a good way of helping people who may not know much about yoga to try something on their own and feel comfortable and confident doing it," Kientz said. "We hope this acts as a gateway to encouraging people with visual impairments to try exercise on a broader scale."

Each of the six poses has about 30 different commands for improvement based on a dozen rules deemed essential for each yoga position. Rector worked with a number of yoga instructors to put together the criteria for reaching the correct alignment in each pose. The Kinect first checks a person's core and suggests alignment changes, then moves to the head and neck area, and finally the arms and legs. It also gives positive feedback when a person is holding a pose correctly.

Rector practiced a lot of yoga as she developed this technology. She tested and tweaked each aspect by deliberately making mistakes while performing the exercises. The result is a program that she believes is robust and useful for people who are blind.

"I tested it all on myself so I felt comfortable having someone else try it," she said.

Read more here:
Yoga accessible for the blind with new kinect-based program