When the global pandemic hit in 2020, cancelling both hackathons and yoga classes, Ma decided it was time to execute on his idea to build a platform for virtual yoga classes using AI for pose-estimation. Ma teamed up with co-founder Sarah Han, an experienced software developer and yoga instructor, to make it happen.
By using artificial intelligence to analyze students’ yoga poses, MixPose provides customers with insights on their performance and progress to help them improve their skills. That information is sent back to the instructors, allowing them to tailor each class to the specific needs of each student. Students can join classes using any device—from mobile phone to smart TV—allowing them to access a range of live yoga, dance, and fitness classes with expert teachers from anywhere.
“Real-time engagement is extremely important for yoga instruction. By adding AI pose estimation to our live and interactive online classes, we allow students and teachers to gain even more insights than would be possible with in-person practice.“
With MixPose, yoga students can now receive instruction from professionals worldwide, opening up new possibilities from live Hatha Yoga classes with instructors in India to interactive Samba dance classes with teachers from Brazil.
MixPose found that incorporating real-time engagement into the platform helped with growth as well as retention. Users who have their cameras turned on are 300% more likely to come back than the ones that don’t. Additionally, AI pose estimation adds a new dimension to yoga instruction, allowing both students and teachers to gain more insights than would be possible with in-person practice.
When MixPose was looking for a solution for live interactive audio and video, they were concerned about the challenges of layering AI pose analysis over live video while maintaining a high quality experience. But Agora’s customer support team ultimately won them over with an implementation that met all of their needs.
Agora’s interactive live video SDK makes it possible for teachers to see their students, and for students to see their teachers and each other. This interactivity helps to build the yoga community while reinforcing the relationship between instructors and students.
For MixPose, providing HD video and audio to customers on any device (phone, tablet, laptop, smart TV, etc) is essential. Agora ensures that MixPose classes look and sound great for customers no matter what type of device they are using or what type of connection they have. This ultimately creates a more engaging experience for students, encourages them to come back again and again.
“We chose Agora because of their vast developer ecosystem and excellent developer support. Running artificial intelligence in real-time on a video feed was a daunting task, but Agora’s support team made it easy to customize the API specifically for our needs.“
SARAH HAN, CO-FOUNDER, MIXPOSE
“Agora’s real-time engagement helps MixPose with both growth as well as retention. We found that users who have their cameras turned on are 300% more likely to return for another class.”
SARAH HAN, CO-FOUNDER, MIXPOSE