
A VR Cycling Experience for $40 - smokeAndMirrors
https://pauldyan.wordpress.com/2016/01/24/my-vr-bike/
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icebraining
As 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.

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exelius
Also, 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
The 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.

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peterept
If 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 ?

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exelius
You 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.

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treebeard901
Slightly off topic: You make an interesting point about Square. In the context
of Apple Pay, the move to take away the headphone jack suddenly makes a lot of
sense (for Apple).

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exelius
I don't know about that; the cheap Square reader is a piece of crap that is
really just a "starter" product (they're not well-made and fall apart after
even moderate use). Anyone who swipes more than 2 or 3 cards a day would be
better served by one of Square's commercial readers -- all of which connect
via Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or the Lightning port.

Also, Apple would certainly include a Lightning->Headphone adapter that would
also be usable for card readers. They just use the line in from the
microphone.

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madaxe_again
This 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
There'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

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lpeancovschi
There also should be a fan connected in front of the cyclist. The power can
increase/decrease depending on how fast you cycle.

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83457
here you go [http://www.petalfan.com/](http://www.petalfan.com/)

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TranquilMarmot
Wow... 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.

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radiorental
Yeah, 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

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sdrothrock
It 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).

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jc4p
Agreed - It seems trivial to build a Street View API integration into Unity or
Unreal Engine 4.

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thirdsun
I 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.

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jc4p
Building 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.

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moron4hire
Also, licensing issues. Map data for commercial projects is not cheap.

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cbuq
I 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

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radiorental
At 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.

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cbuq
I'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

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smokeAndMirrors
Valid point, but the reason why I didn't factor in the cost of the smartphone
is because I am assuming the vast majority of the intended audience already
owns a smartphone. A Macbook is not required to develop for Arduino + Unity.
Any cheap PC will do.

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martinaparicio
This reminds me to Black Mirror's S01E02 (
[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2089049/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2089049/) )

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Symbiote
VR cycling reminds me of the animated film "Les Triplettes de Belleville":
[https://vimeo.com/12292589](https://vimeo.com/12292589)

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petepete
I 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.

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nl
_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._

[http://zwift.com/](http://zwift.com/)

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ojbyrne
Also [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.

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elif
Yep. That is absolutely the case. I tried rift gearVR on my trainer. It was
fogging up within 5 minutes.

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kriro
Really 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.

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eropple
Why 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.

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radiorental
Shut 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

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didgeoridoo
Check out Zwift. Not "VR", but the gamified/MMO elements make it really
motivating. Not much can get me up at 6am anymore, but when I'm supposed to
meet my friend for a virtual ride, I can usually haul my ass out of bed and
hop on the bike.

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radiorental
Thank you very much for putting me onto this.

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justonepost
Much 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.)

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smokeAndMirrors
I can assure you the number of false positives you get will make the
experience the opposite of immersive. (I've tried)

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dharma1
Here'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)

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tcfunk
This is awesome! I have always envisioned stuff like this for exercise
equipment, and I'm excited to see that it's becoming a reality :)

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Tepix
This is really nice. At a street corner the rider could just _look_ at where
she wants to go next.. no need for steering.

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SatoshiRoberts
I can see this as a new feature for gyms

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justin_hancock
Zwift and Bkool already have offerings in this area. Zwift is outstanding.

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ojbyrne
And [http://expresso.com/Home](http://expresso.com/Home)

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jimrandomh
This 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.

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joeriel
The 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.

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amelius
Of course, it will seem as if you are riding a tricycle.

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JDDunn9
Yeah, riding a tricycle in the sky (no resistance)

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jordache
trainers do have resistance.

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smokeAndMirrors
This.

