PIE is a Smart Tape Measure for Your Body

Tape measure takes your body size data, tracks it to give a picture of overall health.

The engineers at Bagel Labs developed the Bagel as a smart tape measure in 2016. Their basic complaint was the idea that users spend too much time trying to read tape measures and that takes away from evaluating and acting on the measurements. The Korean group is back again with PIE, another smart tape measure but geared toward the body.

PIE measures waist circumference, a statistic that the group says is vital to for people who want to track the effects of their lifestyle on their body. Scales can sometimes be deceptive as our bodies change metabolism, hormonal changes, and burn fat. Bagel also says that body size can be a leading indicator for predicting health risks like diabetes, cardiovascular problems, and hypertension.

The unit function mainly as a tape measure, but with all of the bells and whistles you can imagine attached to a standard tape measure. A gear on the corner of the body lets you fine tune the measurement and pressing a button sends the measurement to the PIE app. The app collects data, lets the user set goals and track progress, and can measure in inches or centimeters. Several body parts can be measured beyond the waist, including neck, shoulder, inseam, bust, thigh, chest, hip, arm, calf and biceps. There’s also a setting for the user to include their own custom body measurements. The tape runs out to 59 inches, and Bagel Labs is touting a measurement accurate to within +/- 1/32 inch. The body fits in a 65 millimeter square and is 24 millimeters thick, and the unit runs on a 400 milli-Amp hour lithium polymer battery.

PIE is a great example of adding useful functions to an item that everyone is familiar with and can already use. My only real complaint with this design is that the focus on health care means that the tape isn’t long enough to use for most of the applications where I currently use a tape measure. The crowdfunding campaign has passed its goal and ends on June 16, with first units currently scheduled to ship in July 2018.