A VR Cycling Experience for $40 | Hacker News Reader

A VR Cycling Experience for $40

pauldyan.wordpress.com

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.

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.

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.

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 ?

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.

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).

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.

That sounds awesome! Any visual evidence of the project?

No photos, unfortunately, just our craptastic Powerpoint presentation :)

Now that I think about it, the school should have pictures. Unfortunately its site moves from platform to platform every few years, losing all content every time. But hey, Joomla is cutting edge, amirite?

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2WvkUwBYadXMTExNzNENzMyQjg... (In Portuguese. And wow, this is actually embarrassing. We only got a B- for that, and fully deserved. One of the other groups built a really cool electrostatic loudspeaker, and the other analyzed the traffic flow in our largest bridge with fluid dynamics simulations.)

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.

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

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

here you go http://www.petalfan.com/

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.

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

However, I haven't found a way to get telemetry data out of a console. PC only

When it gets to a chemical bank hooked up to an mister so that you can get the right smells, then I'll know it has gone too far :-)

noooo! this isn't a software problem. Just hook the fan up to the bicycle wheels!

Pedal faster, fan goes faster.

Product already exists (though somewhat expensive at $200) http://www.amazon.com/Kreitler-Killer-Add-On-Headwind-Fan/dp...

good point for training purposes but for a cycling simulation you would want head wind, tailwind and wind while going down hills. You should be able to coast down a hill and know you are going fast. Also could be used to simulate drafting

Or you could place a fan in front of the bike and let it blow however fast you want to simulate the constant of wind. :)

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).

I kinda feel like the VR bike simulation would be the most boring experience. Put something like Mario Kart up there.

As someone who hates exercising, I found myself compelled to return to stroll around new virtual worlds. That said, a proper game is always going to be more interesting ;)

I tried this a few years ago as an experiment and built a site around it - www.routeviewer.com - the cycling is disabled

A video is available at -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujA9AqCs0Ok

I initially connect up an arduino, but then moved to ant+ protocol over a dongle. . The biggest problem is the refresh rates arent good enough on Streetview for proper cycling - plus the usage on google maps was high - so i ditched it

Adding steering is a logical next step. Meter the steering wheel's rotation, map it to the camera.

I've heard several recommendations to integrate this with Streetview, but IMO the resolution necessary for moving in small increments isn't there. It's much better served with a 3D environment.

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

Trivial? Are you sure that's the right word for what you're describing?

Uh, I have experience with VR, a year of experience in Unreal Engine 4, and used to work professional as a game developer, so yes :) You gotta keep in mind this is 2D projections too, not real 3D models, all it is is wrap-around images served rotated around a central camera.

I had 4 years of experience with UE3.5 (admittedly, I have not tried UE4), but it's far from trivial in that environment. Perhaps UE4 makes this process much easier, but I can't see it approaching "trivial."

When I see the words "trivial," I think of a weekend project - not something that would involve tons of man hours.

Shared vocabularies are hard :) My definition of trivial is "I can do it in less than half a day", which I've done this exact thing with before (to be able to navigate our office via our indoors Street View map)

Fair enough. Thanks for the conversation :)

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.

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.

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

See X-Plane, which uses OSM data and extrapolates from that.

You can get turntable riser rings that will enable this quite easily. You could even potentially modify the riser ring instead of adding more wires to the bike for more linear input(one axis instead of three).

There are already some training bikes that license Google Maps data - https://www.ifit.com/products/tdf

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

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.

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

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.

It also requires a bike and indoor trainer, but those are things that anyone interested in this project is likely to already have.

Chances are if they have an indoor trainer, they'll also have an Ant+ Cadence/Speed sensor.

I see what you're getting at, however the scene is rather simple and is actually rendered on the the phone.

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

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

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.

http://zwift.com/

Also 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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

Thank you very much for putting me onto this.

Have you tried something like the Sufferfest videos? They certainly alleviated boredom when I was doing trainer work.

http://thesufferfest.com/

+1 for Sufferfest videos. Spinning at low intensities gets boring and requires lots of willpower. I've watched movies, tv shows, played PC games with xbox controller, listened to audiobooks, watched TdF stages, watched XC world cup events from redbull.tv, watched twitch, watched youtube shows etc. etc.

The trick that works for me is–raise the intensity and there's no time to get bored. You're focused on just getting through the interval. And workouts can be only 1-1.5 hour long, because you're working harder.

Sufferfest videos are all pretty hardcore. Through the winter I normally use trainerroad.com and their base training plans, and save Sufferfest videos for special occassions like 20-minute FTP tests ;-)

Are those videos that much better than, say, a Youtube video of the Ronde van Vlaanderen or something?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pmo7Z38fYEA

I have a hamster wheel (err...indoor trainer) arriving tomorrow, and am hoping to get the most out of it by not getting completely and totally bored out of my skull with it. Zwift sounds like one option. Don't want to spend a ton, though...

Yes, Sufferfest are better. They are pretty structured, and have enough humor to make the suffering somewhat bearable.

Trainer workouts are boring enough you want to keep them short and hard. I think you can get (some of?) the Sufferfest videos free if you have a premium Strava account.

AR glasses like HoloLens or whatever Google's building look like a good use case for that (you need your hands free fro many excercises).

I wonder if Google Glasses are usable while on a trainer or a treadmill.

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.)

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

Here's a similar hoverboard demo, using Wii balance board, Kinect, Rift and Leap Motion

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wO6Yh_XLQNY

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 :)

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

I can see this as a new feature for gyms

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

And http://expresso.com/Home

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.

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.

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

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

trainers do have resistance.

This.

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