Indore institute develops 'AI Coach' for yoga practitioners

Indore, Jun 2 (PTI) A city-based technology institute has come out with a ‘Yoga AI Coach’ which can distinguish between correct and incorrect yoga postures and guide a practitioner in real time.

Trained with the help of some 2.80 lakh photos, the AI model can analyse 104 yoga postures, including Surya Namaskar, and is set to be tested during an event on International Yoga Day on June 21.

The AI Yoga Coach was developed by researchers at the state-run Shri GS Institute of Technology and Science (SGSITS).

The project received a grant of Rs 7.10 lakh from the Madhya Pradesh Council for Science and Technology (MPCST), institute officials said.

“Many people around the world want to practice yoga, but they don’t know the correct postures. Our AI model

detects mistakes in a user’s yoga postures in real time and suggests improvements,” Lalit Purohit, the project’s principal investigator, told PTI on Tuesday.

Upendra Singh, the project’s co-principal investigator, said that agentic AI, deep learning, machine learning and computer vision techniques were used to develop the model.

Special attention was paid to the accuracy of body angles during yoga practice, said Singh. For instance, if the hands are supposed to be at a certain angle in a particular ‘asana’, the AI model can detect even a minor deviation, he said.

It can take into account the size of a group performing yoga, identify male and female participants, analyse their facial expressions and come out with performance scores.

If financial support for hardware and maintenance is available, efforts will be made to make the AI model available for free, said Singh.

During a mass yoga event on June 21, the developers will assess the model’s accuracy by analysing the participants’ postures using drones, officials said. PTI HWP MAS KRK