An upcoming fitness experience is set to work with an electrical muscle stimulation (EMS) suit to turn your VR gaming sessions into heart-pounding workouts.
Sourcenity and VisionBody have partnered up to produce a new VR fitness experience that can be played with the latter’s $300 PowerSuit which houses 20 EMS patches positioned across the body to provide resistance that will make your VR gaming more intense.
https://youtu.be/aFdvFjTOj2Q
To showcase the suit the pair have developed PowerBeatsVR, which is essentially Audioshield designed with fitness in mind. The game has you punching orbs that arrive in time with a beat, dodging obstacles and trying to synchronize yourself with an avatar. As you play, the suit applies resistance that will make movement tougher.
VR is already doing a lot to combine gaming and fitness. Some developers are building apps dedicated to virtual fitness whilst other companies are keeping track of how many calories you’ll burn playing certain games. Meanwhile, testimonies from VR players prove this is a viable means of shedding some pounds. This system sounds like it could go a step further.
The solution is set to be compatible with the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Windows Mixed Reality headsets. PowerBeats VR is set to launch later this year serving as the first game to support VisionBody (other EMS suits will also be supported). If it works, we could easily see this being a great tool to add to any game from Skyrim to Gorn, though.
