Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “Black Box VR gym first workout”.
So I feel like I’m just in this giant stadium, where all of these people are standing around watching me do chest. Presses. Mhm., This is …, Mildly unnerving., ( laughing ). Would you be more or less inclined to exercise if you were wearing this on your face? We’Re about to find out.! This is Black Box VR..
It’S a Boise-based company that has designed a VR workout experience., The idea being that if you normally get bored or you just feel unmotivated at the gym that transporting yourself into a hypercompetitive virtual world will make you feel.. Not that way. Alrite we’re ready, Alrite Ready Yes.. Let’S go in the Black Box. Okay, so what I’m gon na do is we’re gon na …. This is the suiting up here..
So this is your left hand.. So go ahead and put that out and I’ll switch you up here.. These are hands free controllers that you strap to your wrists, so the app can track your movements..
You strap those on you put on a HTC Vive headset, which is tethered to the cable machine, and you enter a virtual stadium.. That’S where your opponent stands, waiting. And you’re, basically supposed to do more chest presses than they do. Put your back up against the pad..
There’S a pad right behind ya. And you’ll feel …. Perfect. Okay. Got it. Okay, and now you can just see start doing reps.. So did you guys also make this gym equipment Yeah.? So this is actually a patent pending dynamic resistance machine. That’S specifically built to work with VR..
So the idea there is there’s a dynamic resistance that can adapt to in-game elements. But yeah. So this is just a bite-sized piece of actual gameplay. In the full version.
You’Ll actually be able to select which movements you want to do and the machine will immediately calibrate for you. Ooh. It’S definitely getting harder. It’S getting heavy., (, laughs, ).
So the machine is adjusting because it knows my reps. Yep, it’s counting your reps., So you’re at probably on 10 or 12 right now. There, you go. Good job.
So if I … And I’m trying to defeat this person in front of me on the screen or is that me Yep, oh good, job. Yeah, that’s the opponent., Keep going it says.. So that’s the opponent. Okay.! So can I do this with friends? Oh, my good lord. No.
Okay. Aww., Give it your all. Yeah, so eventually, you’ll actually be able to do this ace league apprentice league with a friend.
You can actually battle them. Right now. This is just a computer, an AI, basically measuring your strength and adapting to it., And are you planning on selling this directly to people like me, or are you going to sell this to gyms So phase? One is we’re actually looking at later this year, opening up our own boutique gym..
So we’ll actually have these boxes inside our own gym. Where you can come in, there will be a hero trainer that will walk you through, make sure everything’s safe. And then go through a calibration phase, where everything is perfectly dialed in for your height, for your goals, for your strength for everything., So you’ll be going to A gym that’s entirely: VR experience, Exactly. And so..
Every station’s, VR. Exactly.. So this pod right here … So we’re in about a 10×10 space..
So you imagine going into a gym where you actually have 10 to 20 of these., Where you actually go into your own Black Box, and you have your private space just like this.. It would literally be exactly like this. Like that.. It seems like someone could probably have the wrong form doing a lunge or a squat, or something like that.
Bending, where their knees are. And if that’s not measured precisely, they could potentially hurt themselves. Exactly., That’s one of the biggest problems and the good thing.
With these space stations is they can track such a fine, fine, fidelity that, as those sensors get better, we can actually track exact, biomechanics and again course correct to make sure people aren’t injuring themselves., So that was a pretty wild experience.. I don’t think I’ve ever worked out in VR before and I think the novelty of it threw me a little bit at first. Like I wasn’t really paying attention to the game aspect of it, but that’s supposed to be a big part of this whole Black Box.
Experience. The company says that they plan to launch a series of boutique gyms., Think like Equinox, Barry’s, Bootcamp Soul, Cycle. Sometime in mid twenty-eighteen, and they think they are gon na start on the west coast.. That sounds like it’s kind of gon na be expensive.
Just to go workout with a VR headset on but hey we live in the future.. I guess the future’s expensive. ( laughs ). So is this the next level of working out? I just had to say “ next level.” Tune in next season.
Tune in next season. Tbd. Next level, .