Review: mPort iPhone 3D scanning app details your body’s health
The mPort app uses Apple iPhone depth sensing technology to build a complete dossier of your body health.
The days when you assess your health simply by checking your weight on bathroom scales are passing. One measurement doesn‘t tell the story. That’s where tech health company mPort comes in. mPort is known for its scanning booths in Australian shopping centres which have rolled out since 2013, starting at Westfield centres in Sydney.
Now it‘s adapted its scanning to smart phones to assess your health. It uses Apple iPhone infra-red and depth sensing technology not only to record measurements, but also posture and metrics around your skeletal frame. The depth sensing can classify fat and muscle regions.
I tested the system and scanning your body using your phone camera isn’t hard. Videos guide you on what to wear and how to perform the two separate upper and lower body scans. However, it’s not instantaneous either.
You wear minimal close-fitting workout clothes such as a tight-fitting T-shirt, tights and no footwear. The upper body scan requires you place your hands on your head and successively turn 90 degrees in four movements. You fit your head to your hips into the phone display frame.
Similarly you fit your hips to your feet in the smartphone frame for the lower body scan, successively turning 45 degrees until you’ve gone full circle, as directed by the app.
mPort says the scans are entirely harmless health wise, and the app never takes actual photos.
The app uploads the scan data to mPort’s cloud for processing, which takes up to 15 minutes.
mPort is not the only application that can produce a 3D body avatar in this way. Developers are producing body scan apps both to assess health and to take measurements you can send to an online retailer to get a perfect fit for clothes.
Taiwan’s TG3D app, MySizeID, Tailor Guide and Sizer are among apps that take body measurements.
The mPort app initially is building your 3D avatar to assess your health but mPort founder and CEO Dipra Ray says it’s only a matter of time before mPort scans can be used to measure you for clothes. He says mPort has developed an API so that tailors and retailers can access your body measurements, with your explicit permission of course. So one body scan can be used for both assessing your health and measuring you for clothes. The API is available from this week.
I did find the app somewhat fussy. It took me three attempts to be properly in shot and standing straight before I generated any measurements. However, I’ve put this down to a learning curve, next time will be simpler.
Eventually the app gave me a set of measurements – biceps, chest, narrow waist and stomach, hips, mid thighs and calves. There was BMI, waist/hips ratio, waist/height ratio, BMR, target heart rate, body fat percentage estimate, fat free mass, fat free mass percentage and ideal weight range.
It’s hard to measure the accuracy of this information although I could compare some metrics to my Withings Body Analyser scales. My lean mass and fat mass readings were 5kg apart however my BMI was exactly 25.2 on both systems. That my body scales and phone camera scan agree about this is impressive.
I would have drowned in mPort’s sea of stats if not for the six-page mBody report PDF that offered context, avatars and graphs. Not only did it summarise body mass metrics, it classified my posture, gave measurements of my trunk surface areas, told me I had a balanced “somatotype”, offered relevant nutrition and exercise tips, and gave percentile ratings for BMI and body fat estimates.
I wouldn’t use this app every day; it’s easier to jump on body analyser scales to see day-to-day trends. But if you have time each week or month, you’ll be across trends you wouldn’t otherwise be aware of.
The app also lets you set and monitor goals for slimming down, bulking up and key body metrics, you can redeem free trials to gyms and dietary services, and watch a selection of yoga, pilates, meditation and nutritional advice videos.
The mPort app is for Apple iPhone’s only from iPhone 10 onwards, given it uses iPhone depth sensing technology. The existing Google Play app version works in conjunction with the shopping centre booths.
mPort scans are free if you’re just after body core metrics such as hip, waist and chest measurements. Otherwise you pay $79.99 per year for unlimited scans and mBody reports. mPort plans to add a monthly subscription of about $9.95.
following a phone scan.