A new VR startup wants to make fitness-focused gloves and eventually fitness-focused headsets as well.
Vi was founded by XR entrepreneur Cix Liv, who previously co-founded VR livestreaming tool LIV and VR fitness tracker YUR. Liv said he had been working on a mixed reality esports game called REK since 2022, but cited low viewer interest and technical and practical issues with using headsets outdoors. , was canceled last year.
Joining Cix at Vi will be Eugene Nadyrshin, an engineer who designed a VR glove with haptic feedback in 2018, and who has experience in consumer electronics, including the Quest Pro and Quest 3 before they were announced based on leaks. I’m Marcus Kane, the product designer who created this rendering. CAD schematic.
A prototype of the Vi Fitness Glove has been tested with Apple Vision Pro.
Vi gloves are designed for strength training. It has a pressure sensor that can sense the weight of the dumbbell you’re lifting, and his IMU (a chip with an accelerometer and gyroscope) that can sense the number of repetitions. Vi claims the goal is to be able to track resistance bands, push-ups, pull-ups, dumbbells, barbells, kettlebells, and more. First of all it supports Apple Vision Pro and it communicates via Bluetooth as shown in the video above. Vi says he is considering supporting Quest, but how Meta has locked down his Bluetooth stack may make that impossible.
The Vi headset, on the other hand, seems more like an aspiration than a solid plan, at least for now. Liv told his UploadVR that the headset is based on his Snapdragon It is said that it will realize a design that looks good. Vi targets his 60-90 minute battery life, which is in line with Liv’s claimed maximum time for his typical VR fitness session. Liv says the headset should arrive in late 2025 or early 2026.
Vi’s plan is to sell the hardware at cost and make money from fitness services that the headset launches and subscriptions for the only applications it will support at launch.
As always, it should be noted that mass production and shipping of consumer electronics is extremely difficult and many (if not most) startups are unable to make it happen.
