Virtual Walks

[anime]

Hi All,

I just found out this excellent application and wonder what else we
can do with this. Long back i did a small project using arduino and
motorized treadmill to create a virtual walk through a park or a
beach. Basically a video is shot at walking pace and converted into
individual JPEG images. Attach a sensor on the treadmill wheel to get
pulses as the person walks on it and play the images sequentially. I
put together a small arduino board to read the IR pulses and send back
to the computer for displaying images. The system worked beautifully
but needed a computer and little hacking on the treadmill and tackling
the EMI problems the treadmill motor generated.

Imagine a person walks into the gym with android phone and a laptop,
he straps the phone onto his legs and the laptop displays the virtual
jogging track of his choice. All the phone needs to do is send out a
signal for every step via Bluetooth and the heavy lifting can be done
by the laptop.

People will enjoy completing a full circuit around central park rather
than looking at a dull electronic meter in treadmills. Also they can
download a track of their choice around the world. Something similar
exists for cycling, but it is free running video and really not
connected to the bike.

If interested i'll post the screenshot of the app i developed.

Cheers
Kannan