Stationary Cycling through Google Street View

This is just a first test upload to demonstrate how I hooked up a Vuzix VR920 head mounted display and a bike sensor to my computer to allow me to have a bit more of an enjoyable experience while peddling away the calories in my garage on the stationary bike.

More information here: http://bako.ca/streetview-riding/

Category:

Science & Technology

[travisketcheson]

That's perfect for the weather we've been having here the last week eh?

[ashendabblederbezed]

Good grief yes... though, shock-and-awe it's sunny right now! I need better gloves though, fingers are ready to snap off.

[ryebug2000]

You are a genius!

Please sell those to the public!

Also with my choppy connection, a way to pre-cache my route would be helpful.

[ashendabblederbezed]

I've been thinking about that too... I may be able to make the system behave like a SOCKS5 proxy and have a route loader that the night before just loads everything into a cache that gets played back when it's time to go live. The unfortunate part is that I will have to preplan all the routes.

Although... now that I think about it, perhaps I can preload before I go down the route.

I need to think :} early. brain. not. working...

[aaron87a]

mate you should consider selling kits so people can do this at home. I would definately buy one as I dont have good enough technical knowledge to do this myself.

Have you made a software application that you could just install on your laptop and run that you can download from somewhere?

[ashendabblederbezed]

I'm useless in windows unfortunately and currently there is code that's available but it's very tied to linux. However in terms of implementation, it actually should be much easier in windows since the drivers for the HMD and tools for development exist. Maybe now that the idea's out someone will throw one together (at least that's my hope... I'm just the idea guy! whee!)

[zandbJ]

Great work!

With a fan in front you'll have headwind...

[lgk422]

Awww man I thought about this, but I was too naive in thinking noone had made it yet. Great work!

[TheChokeoutartist]

The zooming will end up givin you a seizure

[FPChris]

How are you telling Google to turn?

[lazurm]

@lazurm Note, when I refer to resistance to forward motion, I mean including the angle of the hill with speed and weight taken into consideration for creating the wattage resistance in magnetic resistance bicycle trainers.

[lazurm]

This system would be great if a few things are added to it.The big ones are higher forward movement resolution.Note that Google Street View simulates forward motion by magnifying the view prior to switching to the next frame & this can, for now, be tied to the simulated higher resolution AND if one can tie the speed and angle of approach to a magnetic resistance on the bicycle trainer so that it can simulate the resistance of forward motion to speed (& weight) while going forward.

[MrDiscoHeaven]

So what would happen if you run into some one's house, what will display on the screen?

[fitzgerald95971]

very cool what language did you use to write this program?

[sxnoss40]

does anybody know if the tracking on these is compatible with arma 2?

[ammubhave]

i would like to suggest that i can see that about two turns are required to make an update to the view, so after 1 turn, zoom the image to the appropriate levels and then after second turn skip to the next camera, this will make it more real, also you can fit two or four magnets to the bike's wheels and reduce the distance sensor's weight age to half or quarter i.e. 4 passes of the magnet means one turn and therefore at each pass zoom into the image appropriately.

Hope you find this useful :):)