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A VR Cycling Experience for $40
- Symbiote 11y agoVR cycling reminds me of the animated film "Les Triplettes de Belleville": https://vimeo.com/12292589 https://vimeo.com/12292589
- petepete 11y agoI saw that film a long time ago and had no idea what it was called. Thanks for the link! Also, it would be a great idea for fun exercise if this technology could be used to make multiplayer cycling games (think Mario Kart, but on bikes.. or maybe Road Rash) that allow people of varying fitness levels to compete, race, and get fit while playing.
- nl 11y agoAlso, it would be a great idea for fun exercise if this technology could be used to make multiplayer cycling games (think Mario Kart, but on bikes.. or maybe Road Rash) that allow people of varying fitness levels to compete, race, and get fit while playing. http://zwift.com/ http://zwift.com/
- ojbyrne 11y agoAlso http://expresso.com/Home http://expresso.com/Home No VR, but other than that... One question I'd have about the VR display would how well would they handle sweat. Looks to me like a. I'd sweat more with that thing on my face and b. Lots of it would pool inside the goggles.
- elif 11y agoYep. That is absolutely the case. I tried rift gearVR on my trainer. It was fogging up within 5 minutes.
- sdrothrock 11y agoIt would be really neat if this could be used with Google Streetview. Another cool addition would be an accelerometer on the handlebars to enable steering (though I guess that would be problematic with a stationary bike).
- jasoncartwright 11y agoThere are already some training bikes that license Google Maps data - https://www.ifit.com/products/tdf https://www.ifit.com/products/tdf
- jc4p 11y agoAgreed - It seems trivial to build a Street View API integration into Unity or Unreal Engine 4.
- thirdsun 11y agoI always wondered why games like Euro Truck Simulator never tried to use real geo data (not necessarily street view, but just accurate streets, shapes, cities and distances) for their games. After all, trying to rebuild a miniature europe seems like a dead end at some point and, maybe I'm alone with that, but using real world times to drive from Amsterdam to Berlin on a realistic route feels way more interesting to me.
- jc4p 11y agoBuilding realistic looking modes of the real world is a lot harder than building graphics in games like that looked, the last time I played one.
- moron4hire 11y agoAlso, licensing issues. Map data for commercial projects is not cheap.
- lfowles 11y agoSee X-Plane, which uses OSM data and extrapolates from that.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- Tepix 11y agoThis is really nice. At a street corner the rider could just look at where she wants to go next.. no need for steering.
- SatoshiRoberts 11y agoI can see this as a new feature for gyms
- justin_hancock 11y agoZwift and Bkool already have offerings in this area. Zwift is outstanding.
- ojbyrne 11y agoAnd http://expresso.com/Home http://expresso.com/Home
- kriro 11y agoReally awesome. I'm all for more tinkering with VR. I hope Unity Engine's Linux client will get out of beta soon. A setup of Android based phone, viewer and Linux based 3d Engine environment would be pretty cool. I think there would be tremendous value in actually teaching "low cost tinkering" classes. We have a lot of expensive gizzmos at our university (Oculus DK2, ReactTables etc.) but at the end of the day I feel a cheap solution that you can take home and play around with would be superior form a pedagogic point of view.
- eropple 11y agoWhy Linux? The Windows machine or the Mac that people already have is likely of significantly lower cost than any Linux machine that has the hardware to push what you describe, and is something people can take home and play around with.
- lpeancovschi 11y agoThere also should be a fan connected in front of the cyclist. The power can increase/decrease depending on how fast you cycle.
- 83457 11y agohere you go http://www.petalfan.com/ http://www.petalfan.com/
- TranquilMarmot 11y agoWow... I wonder what other kind of things we'll start to see tailor-made for VR? I've seen a couple of vests that simulate getting hit, and of course there's the Virtuix Omni. I'd love to see arcade-like places open up once everything is available where they have these ridiculous setups and all these peripherals so you don't have to do it all yourself.
- radiorental 11y agoYeah, I started thinking about rolling my own motion seat. Can be done for <$500-700 Picture this setup with a VR headset, it would be quite immersive https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIFUcbLby2Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIFUcbLby2Q However, I haven't found a way to get telemetry data out of a console. PC only
- ChuckMcM 11y agoWhen it gets to a chemical bank hooked up to an mister so that you can get the right smells, then I'll know it has gone too far :-)
- teachingaway 11y agonoooo! this isn't a software problem. Just hook the fan up to the bicycle wheels! Pedal faster, fan goes faster. Product already exists (though somewhat expensive at $200) http://www.amazon.com/Kreitler-Killer-Add-On-Headwind-Fan/dp/B001C6BDOI http://www.amazon.com/Kreitler-Killer-Add-On-Headwind-Fan/dp...
- icebraining 11y agoAs someone who did a similar build in high school (though with a screen - no fancy VR smartphones back then): a cheap laser mouse actually works quite well as a speed measuring device, and requires no electronics hacking. I just calculated the speed of the cursor and translated that into game speed - and reversing comes for free :) We also had a turning detector using a rod to connect the front-wheel to a 8€ USB joystick. It actually end up costing us ~20€, not counting the PC, bike and stand.
- exelius 11y agoAlso, a standard inductive sensor (i.e. a magnet attached to a spoke and an inductor) attached to the raspberry pi would be a much better option.
- smokeAndMirrors 11y agoThe benefit of taping a piece of paper to the wheel is that you could apply the same technique to something like a treadmill where you wouldn't want a magnet to be traveling along with the tread. The benefit of Arduino is lack of OS overhead/risk.
- peterept 11y agoIf you are going with a visual piece of tape, then you could replace the arduino with a simple mobile app that recognised the tape via camera and transmits speed via UDP to the app. I wonder if the camera on a typical phone could keep up ?
- exelius 11y agoYou could do the same with an inductive sensor wired to the headphone jack. This worked for Square to read magstripe data, which is significantly more complex of a signal to parse than simply counting the number of local maxima per second. Inductive sensors are cheaper, simpler and more foolproof; cyclists have used them for decades to gather both wheel speed and cadence.
- dharma1 11y agoHere's a similar hoverboard demo, using Wii balance board, Kinect, Rift and Leap Motion https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wO6Yh_XLQNY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wO6Yh_XLQNY
- amelius 11y agoOf course, it will seem as if you are riding a tricycle.
- JDDunn9 11y agoYeah, riding a tricycle in the sky (no resistance)
- jordache 11y agotrainers do have resistance.
- smokeAndMirrors 11y agoThis.
- martinaparicio 11y agoThis reminds me to Black Mirror's S01E02 ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2089049/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2089049/ )
- radiorental 11y agoShut up and take my money Seriously, I love to cycle but have a really hard time pounding away on the trainer. This would make the winter experience much more bearable
- zimpenfish 11y agoHave you tried something like the Sufferfest videos? They certainly alleviated boredom when I was doing trainer work. http://thesufferfest.com/ http://thesufferfest.com/
- cuu508 11y ago+1 for Sufferfest videos. Spinning at low intensities gets boring and requires lots of willpower. I've watched movies, tv shows, played PC games with xbox controller, listened to audiobooks, watched TdF stages, watched XC world cup events from redbull.tv, watched twitch, watched youtube shows etc. etc. The trick that works for me is–raise the intensity and there's no time to get bored. You're focused on just getting through the interval. And workouts can be only 1-1.5 hour long, because you're working harder. Sufferfest videos are all pretty hardcore. Through the winter I normally use trainerroad.com and their base training plans, and save Sufferfest videos for special occassions like 20-minute FTP tests ;-)
- davidw 11y agoAre those videos that much better than, say, a Youtube video of the Ronde van Vlaanderen or something? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pmo7Z38fYEA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pmo7Z38fYEA I have a hamster wheel (err...indoor trainer) arriving tomorrow, and am hoping to get the most out of it by not getting completely and totally bored out of my skull with it. Zwift sounds like one option. Don't want to spend a ton, though...
- nl 11y agoYes, Sufferfest are better. They are pretty structured, and have enough humor to make the suffering somewhat bearable. Trainer workouts are boring enough you want to keep them short and hard. I think you can get (some of?) the Sufferfest videos free if you have a premium Strava account.
- tcfunk 11y agoThis is awesome! I have always envisioned stuff like this for exercise equipment, and I'm excited to see that it's becoming a reality :)
- cbuq 11y agoI enjoyed this video, but couldn't help but think about the irony when he started talking about this being "$40" project compared to Oculus + PC ($600 + $2000) while his entire project still required a $600 iPhone and a $2000 Mac book
- mmosta 11y agoI see what you're getting at, however the scene is rather simple and is actually rendered on the the phone.
- LeifCarrotson 11y agoIt also requires a bike and indoor trainer, but those are things that anyone interested in this project is likely to already have.
- ojbyrne 11y agoChances are if they have an indoor trainer, they'll also have an Ant+ Cadence/Speed sensor.
- radiorental 11y agoAt what point in time is the cost of tooling written off in your view? I'll grand you the $2600 price tag if you also tack on the 400K for the house to keep the setup dry and you assert that the creator only ever uses the laptop for this specific purpose. You can't factor in costs like that and then critique the DIY project because of it. I'm sorry, that's just not fair.
- cbuq 11y agoI'll admit my comment was overzealous. I just couldn't help but laugh when he was "splurging on a $10 case" to put his $600 phone in. If you already have the equipment, I don't see any difference between already owning a $600 phone and already owning a $600 vr headset. Both are probably purchased for reasons other than the DIY project
- jimrandomh 11y agoThis is a neat hack, but if you're going to invest this much effort it makes more sense to use a real virtual reality headset such as an Oculus Rift, Galaxy Gear or an HTC Vive rather than Cardboard. Low latency, better optics and position tracking are very important.
- joeriel 11y agoThe title of the blog post is "A VR CYCLING EXPERIENCE FOR $40" and if you read the article, it really didn't take that much of an effort.
- justonepost 11y agoMuch more trivial way to do this. Take your google cardboard to your gym. No $$ or computer or arduino required. Not even a bicycle. Just use the accelerometer to measure how fast your bobbing up and down as you cycle. Increase the sensitivity as required. (Unless you're one of those master cyclists who can keep your head totally steady while cycling.)
- smokeAndMirrors 11y agoI can assure you the number of false positives you get will make the experience the opposite of immersive. (I've tried)
- madaxe_again 11y agoThis is neat, but, well, have you ever tried working out with something strapped to your face? Worn big goggles while doing something that works up a sweat? First you fog up, then you notice the saturated sponge flolloping (as only a mattress truly can) against your face as you cycle. I had a "VR" cycling setup about 15 years ago for training in the winters in Durham (cobbled roads, snow, not so great on tubeless rims) - comprised my road bike, a standard rear wheel roller with a resistance adjustment cable attached to my handle bars, and most importantly an SVGA projector hooked up to the ceiling to project on the blank wall four feet ahead of me, keystoned to hell and back to not end up too distorted. On the projector I'd chuck up a POV cycling vid, either one that I'd shot with a camcorder strapped to my head the previous summer (oh what I would have done for a gopro), or a professional one. Manually adjust the resistance according to what you see on the screen (easy enough, just get to the point that you're matching pace with the head-bob on the video), job done. Surprisingly immersive setup for a pile of late 90's electronics.
- smokeAndMirrors 11y agoThere's no reason this has to be strapped to your face. You could build for a tablet and mount it as your dash. I'm sure this has been done to death already