Runtastic VR Fitness Application From CES 2015

At CES 2015, Austria based Runtastic showed us that virtual reality can certainly be extended far beyond the gaming and entertainment space. The company demonstrated a prototype concept on the Oculus DKII, translating their workout technology from existing application and making it a virtual reality application.

In the demonstration, a trainer appears in the virtual world, and the user would follow the trainer’s workout. We were asked to perform squats with the virtual trainer, and an indicator light would show us whether we were squatting down far enough.

Runtastic CEO, Florian Gschwandtner was excited to share with us about Oculus’s consumer virtual reality goggle, as the virtual headset will integrate accelerometer that enables users to movement around in the virtual space, and able to precisely track their movements.

However, Runtastic is not a headset developer so they are still need to reply on headset developers to deliver smaller, lighter, and wireless version that is more suitable for active workout.

Although Runtastic is still in the early stage of development, we find fitness technology a fascinating concept for virtual reality. Another good use that we can think of is using the technology for learning things like martial art that requires accuracy in movement, scoring points when the student matches the same movement as the teacher.