VR fitness – Page 8 – Augmented & Virtual Reality Confabulation

Pedaling a stationary bike is kind of a sad metaphor for life: try as you may, you’re never going anywhere. But thanks to virtual reality, there might be an exercise machine coming to your local gym or arcade that promises to gamify what many people not only find to be an existential commentary on their personal failings, but also a painfully boring experience. VirZOOM, makers of VR arcade exercise games and the VirZOOM Bike Controller, recently announced a partnership with AMD that promises to provide the graphical horsepower to drive VirZOOM experiences in gyms and arcades, bringing their collection of VR games to gym-quality upright and recumbent bikes around the world.

VirZOOM (pronounced ver-ZOOM) has created a collection of VR sports games designed to combine strategy, coordination, and fitness. The software itself can be downloaded at home for free, as it supports Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and PlayStation VR headsets (with Gear VR coming later), but the company’s proprietary VirZOOM Bike Controller, an integral piece of kit, costs a little under $400—available at VirZOOM, Amazon, Best Buy, Gamestop, Target, and Walmart.

While the compact bike is designed for in-home use, VirZOOM is branching out further by retrofitting their VR games suite to gym-quality equipment across the Discover Series Life Fitness SE3 fitness bike line, making VR fitness that much more affordable considering the cost of a gaming PC, VR headset and a special exercise bike.

“Virtual reality brings new excitement to traditional fitness equipment. One of our goals is to continuously enhance the immersive exercise experience on our premium products. Combining the interactive and engaging VR experience with the performance and durability of our Life Fitness products is an example of two innovative technologies coming together. Exercisers forget that they are working out because they are so in tune with what’s going on in the game, it’s been pretty fun to see. We want to continue finding new ways to keep people engaged and moving, and partnering with VirZOOM is a testament to that,” said Amad Amin, Life Fitness product director of digital experience.

The setup will use small form factor PC’s created by AMD to go along with HTC Vive VR headsets. Besides their partnerships with Life Fitness, HTC, and AMD, ViRZOOM is also partnered with Fitbit, providing integration into the app so you can keep an eye on your distance pedaled, workout duration, heart rate, and calories burned—all automatically patched into the Fitbit app on your phone.

Games include multiplayer games like traditional cycling, horse racing, F1 racing, tank battles, and even flying on the back of a pegasus. Competitive and cooperative matches can be played by up to 8 players, including head-to-head challenges and time attacks. To further gameify fitness, you can choose your own workout and goals while collecting coins along the way to upgrade your avatar.

“Partners like AMD, HTC and Life Fitness have been instrumental in making our vision of VR exercise games in a gym setting a commercial reality. The AMD and Radeon teams have gone above and beyond to create a powerful PC experience for high-end virtual reality suitable for a commercial gym environment,” said CEO Eric Janszen.

VirZOOM was founded in early 2015 by Eric Janszen and Eric Malafeew in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Since coming out of stealth, the company has raised over $4M in their first seed round from 3 investors.

For more info in upcoming locations, visit VirZOOM.

The post VirZOOM Partners With AMD to Bring VR Fitness Bikes to Locations Across the Globe appeared first on Road to VR.

Field in View: Is An HTC Vive Better Than Your Gym?

I used to think VR fitness was a dud. We talk about so many potential applications this technology has, but I just never saw the appeal of putting on a Rift or Vive and going for a workout. Surely getting hot and sweaty inside a plastic shell is a recipe for a misty, nauseating mess?

Well, maybe not.

This week I played Paulo’s Wing (look for the review early next week), a sword-wielding wave-based survival game in which you have to hit enemies as hard as possible and duck and dive out of the way of incoming fire. It’s biggest talking point is that all of the art was created inside Google’s Tilt Brush — and it is indeed a sight to behold — but there’s another part to the game I hadn’t been anticipating: it’s exhausting.

Seriously, you have to swing your Vive controllers like a mad man here, and you can work up a sweat in just a few minutes. As enemies begin to swarm around you you’ll throw yourself to the ground, moving your shield as fast as possible to defend yourself, and hammering down on the devil-like foes with all your might. In between rounds I’d lean down to catch my breath, loudly exhaling and laughing at the thought of how ridiculous I must look.

After just over half an hour my arms were heavy and I could feel the sweat soaking into my Vive’s face cover (apologies to the next person to use it). I took the headset off and sat down. Minutes later, my arms felt heavy. As I write this about six or so hours on, they ache like I’ve just been to the gym for the first time in years. Granted this was the first bit of exercise of this type I’d have in a while, but I do consider myself to be in decent shape.

But I didn’t feel sick, overly hot, or dazed. No, I have to admit all I felt was highly entertained. I’d had a lot of fun.

And I’m not the only one. Earlier this week we wrote about Job Stauffer, the Telltale Games developer that had lost an astonishing 50lbs playing his HTC Vive. Before that we’d also told you about Tim Donahey and I recently spoke to a man that had cycled the entire length of the UK all from the comfort of an exercise bike in his living room.

Clearly, I’ve been missing something. VR finds the fun in fitness in a way that no other entertainment medium can offer. Remember when we all thought the Wii would have us shedding weight? Well this could actually do it. The trick is to disguise it; empower the player by making them feel like a hero and making them work for their victory. I still don’t think content purposed as a virtual gym is perhaps the right approach; you have to make me forget that I’m here to work and convince me that I’m just playing.

Is VR better than a gym? It depends on the person; as was the case with Stauffer, many people don’t have the time or motivation to get to one after a busy day at work, and the prospect of going home and playing a game is far more attractive to me than spending a few hours there. I know if I keep playing Paulo’s Wing for a little while I’ll definitely be in better shape (though I still need a day or so to recover), and I’m interested to see what other experiences out there could also help me keep fit.

I gave VR exercise a hard time and maybe you do too. But this week I learned not to knock it until you’ve tried it.

Tagged with: fitness, htc vive, VR fitness