In our Insights Live Webinar “XR in the realm of fitness – Taking things to the next level!” we heard from our Academy members: Kat De Shields-Moon (Moderator) and Adam Kuta from Schell Games, Akash Bellippady from Unlocked Reality, and Mickey Adler of MickeyXR who provided us with in-depth insight into the world of XR fitness and the potential of incorporating XR into day-to-day fitness activities. The future of immersive tech and consumer products is wide open for further exploration and innovation, Meta themselves have already introduced their fitness app that tracks workouts outside VR, and with the plethora of fitness apps and accessories available to level up immersive experiences, what is the next step for the realm of XR fitness. Our experts explore the key topics highlighted below.
The key highlights:
What excites the XR experts about the world of fitness, the technology?
- A ‘Ready Player One’ future with endless possibilities, it’s human nature for us to explore worlds that we are not used to, and to defy human limitations in a shared place is an exciting notion.
- The technology within the Metaverse space is moving quickly but not quickly enough.
- The potential Location-based experiences and adopting these experiences for homes.
- How do accessories play into the realm of XR fitness, all physical limitations right now with VR can be solved using accessories.
- Every user can have access to a full set of VR accessories to enable users to remove limitations of VR use today such as feeling weight, having a sense of touch, feeling as if the virtual world is physically within reach.
- Striving to remove all barriers for VR users even those at home.
What have you learned from the XR Gaming and XR accessories industry so far and what can you pass onto those looking to get into the XR fitness world?
- Incorporating the community into the process of creating physical and immersive games and bringing the notion of working out and fitness into the fold is an added benefit. They would be so immersed in the experience that the fitness aspect won’t be as strenuous.
- We cannot be too quick to judge whether a VR game should be labeled as a fitness game or not i.e. Beat Saber itself has many health benefits to its inherently physical experiences.
- 2D platforms should not be overlooked, augmented and mixed reality fitness experiences and products have a huge market with ever-growing potential around the world e.g. Pokemon Go.
- Be ready to explore other platforms just outside the immersive sphere.
What is the potential for XR Fitness in the next 5 years?
- Mixed and augmented reality fitness is too exciting to overlook. augmented reality allows users to exercise with friends and take experiences elsewhere outside the home.
- The portability of mixed reality fitness means there can be a bigger focus on the storytelling aspect and therefore opening up experiences that are consumer-friendly.
- VR developers should be ready to incorporate mixed and augmented reality into their scope in the next 5 years.
- We as humans want to move, be active, and want more out of what we can already do in VR.
- There will be many ways of adapting popular non-immersive games into VR that will inevitably become popular in the next 5 years
- More active games like Beat Saber and Until You Fall will be produced but what companies like Unlocked Reality will do is consistently strive to develop better and more realistic hardware to improve experiences and remove barriers. Transitioning realistic movement into VR is a high priority and a big goal within the VR hardware world.
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