Tech watch: virtual virtues part 3

Flex, June, 2009 by Greg Merritt

In the final installment of our series on virtual reality and bodybuilding, we journey into the not-too-distant future of cardio. Last year, a team based at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Germany unveiled the next (virtual) step: the CyberWalk. Think of it as the world's coolest treadmill.

It's an omnidirectional, 20' x 20' platform that allows quick, fluid changes of direction and, combined with video goggles, provides convincing recreations of movement through virtual space. You will believe you're moving and interacting in any environment computers can create, including distant lands- or worlds. A major video display breakthrough, the CyberWalk is first being used by spatial-cognition and perception researchers, and may have military, emergency and medical applications. Eventually, though, it will impact how we burn calories--and where we think we are while we're burning them. For more info, check out cyberwalk-project.org.