Amazon Brings Movement Health to Halo

Amazon announced today that it is bringing a major new feature called Movement Health to its Halo health wearable.

“At Amazon Halo, we’re always looking for new ways to help you understand and improve your health, combining our expertise in artificial intelligence (AI), computer vision (CV), and machine learning (ML) with the work of experts from across the wellness world,” Amazon’s Njenga Kariuki writes. “That’s why today, we are excited to announce our newest feature addition to the Halo experience: Movement Health.”

As Amazon explains it, Movement Health is based on something called functional fitness, which is your body’s readiness to execute the everyday movements you do without thinking. These movements include bending, reaching, lifting, twisting, pulling, pushing, and walking, and they can occur you’re your performing activities like carrying groceries, reaching for an item on a shelf, lifting a child, picking something up from the floor, running, and so on.

So how does Amazon measure Movement Health with Halo? Well, it’s similar to the controversial body scan feature I discussed in my review. That is, the Halo app on your phone uses your camera to watch you perform a series of five movements—single leg balances, forward lunges, overhead squats, overhead reaches, and feet-together squats—and then evaluates your body position to identify limitations in your stability, mobility, and posture. You’re then given an overall Movement score, from 0 to 100, plus information about your stability, mobility, and posture.

Amazon says this process takes less than 10 minutes, but it will need to be redone every 2-4 weeks to assess your progress. Halo will also provide a personalized program of corrective exercise videos to help you improve in specific areas like stretching, balancing, breathing, and more.

The Movement Health feature will be available to Halo members in the coming weeks via the Halo app, Amazon says.