New Treadmill Uses Virtual Reality to Encourage Fitness
Virtual reality, or VR, is finding more applications as the technology matures. It is no longer only used for gaming or entertainment. One Texas-based company, Blue Goji, is using VR to improve health by making cardiovascular workouts more fun.
The company featured its prototype Infinity treadmill at the South by Southwest conference in Austin this year.
The treadmill is paired with a virtual reality headset worn by the user. Before starting the treadmill, the user is hooked up to a belt to prevent falls while running and playing a VR game.
The fully immersive experience transports the user into a virtual world where he or she can race against virtual people.
“You have much more motivation to actually get running and do something that pushes your limits. It was pretty cool,” said Leonardo Mattiazzi, who tested the Infinity treadmill.
In addition to encouraging better cardiovascular health, the combination of VR and physical activity also helps solve a common problem with VR technology, said Blue Goji’s marketing associate, Kyra Constam.
“A lot of VR experiences cause motion sickness because there’s a disconnect in the brain. You’re moving in the game, but you’re not moving in real life, and we have come up with the solution.”
However, users who tested the Infinity treadmill while wearing the VR headset each had a different experience.
“Pretty quickly you adjust to it,” said Mattiazzi, who took 10 seconds to adjust to running in the virtual world. “Going downhill, it felt like I was on a roller coaster,” said first-time user Mark Sackler, who added, “I don’t get motion sickness easily, but I got a little, felt a little queasy at one point when I was out of control.”
The cost for the hardware and software is fairly steep at $12,000. However, Constam said the virtual reality treadmill is ideal for high-end gyms, rehabilitation centers, and physical therapy clinics. Blue Goji plans to release the Infinity treadmill to the public in 2019.
