Technology: Exploring the Digital World of Fitness at CES

I’ve spent this week in Las Vegas at the Consumer Electronics Show. For those of you that aren’t familiar with CES, it’s one of the biggest electronics shows in the world, drawing about 150,000 people together to see the latest in gadgets, toys, computers, and more.

There was a lot to see that would be fun in the home – lot’s of 108” high-definition TVs are so big that I’m sure that they wouldn’t make it through my front door. There were cars so loaded with speakers that you could basically produce a rock-concert in your local parking lot. And there were video games that make my first Atari look like, well, Atari.

But what I was most interested to see were the electronics that bring together health and fitness with entertainment. This is an emerging category of technology that some people called “exer-tainment” – the melding of exercise with entertainment.

In the Intel booth at the show, there were several displays of devices that take the indoor workout to a whole new level. The next time that it’s pouring rain outside, just try to imagine a treadmill run or ride that is actually fun! Could it be possible?

In fact, the answer is yes.

I was invited to spend a couple of hours riding a new exercise bike from a company called ExpressoFitness. The bike looks a lot like a regular exercise bike that you’d find in your local gym, except with a display attached to it to show you where you’re going on a virtual road. The difference is that this bike is a simulator that actually adjusts the bike’s resistance to the terrain that you’re riding. And, unlike a regular bike, you have to shift gears just like a real bike too. You even have to steer to keep yourself on the road.

The terrain is simulated by about twenty-five different courses from flat to brutal mountain ascents. I spent about 20 minutes warming up on a flat loop (called “campus loop”) and then picked out two “extreme” level routes called “Oh Mama” and “Gut Buster”. How did it feel? I felt like I rode 60 miles in the mountains. I could barely walk back to my hotel room after the multi-hour ride. It was a killer workout.

One other nice thing about the technology is that it allows you to ride with a virtual pace rider. The pace rider’s pace is set by his power output, so that you can regulate your own pace at that output level. This is very important in allowing you to ensure that you’re working hard enough, or not overdoing it.

The promise that I see in these devices is really great when I think about the improvement of this experience over a typical treadmill or indoor exercise bike experience. For those of us that live in northern climates where the weather is bad for a good portion of the year, this is a great start in making sure that we can get in quality workouts without having to be outside in truly inclement weather. There’s no real substitute for sport specific preparation, but this gets us much closer.