Takara Tomy Minutes Gym: digital fitness trainer

The success of Nintendo's Wii Fit has prompted many companies to look to the TV as a potential exercise prompt.  Takara Tomy's Minutes Gym lacks the real-time interactivity of the Wii Fit, but with its animated gym instructors comes in a whole lot cheaper.

A compact white box, the Minutes Gym plugs via composite connection into your TV.  You then enter your personal details – gender, height, weight, etc – and hold the two contact-points: that lets the Minutes Gym work out your body fat percentage.  From those details a custom exercise routine is figured out, led by one of six animated characters (including a dog).

There are apparently over 100,000,000 different guided workouts, each lasting three-minutes, and the Minutes Gym can store and display up to three months of your workout history.  It weighs just 10g and measures 48 x 120 x 24mm, running off three AAA batteries; that means it's easy enough to take on holiday with you.  It's available now for $73.

[via OhGizmo!]