BitGym will let you exercise your way through Street View scenery (video)
Exercise-driven video tours are nothing new, but Active Theory may have a found a way to keep them interesting with its upcoming BitGym app for Android and iOS. The motion-tracking fitness title will now include Street View Hyperlapse videos that take athletes across whole regions, like New York City or a European country, in less than 40 minutes. Only six videos will be available to start, but the company won't have trouble adding more tours when there's plenty of places to go in Street View. Active Theory warns that Hyperlapse might disappear; Google's terms of service for Street View reportedly leave such clips in a gray area, which could lead to a takedown. If you're willing to take a chance on the concept, however, you can fund BitGym's Kickstarter project today.
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WORK OFF THAT KITKAT WITH STREET VIEW
BitGym provides interactive trails to your cardio workout and on Wednesday they announced a new high speed exercise tour called Hyperlapse based on Google Street View.
Hyperlapse tours simulate ground travel at hundreds of miles per hour. In a single workout session you can tour Italy from Milan to Naples or bike up the California coast starting in Los Angeles and ending in San Francisco.
All BitGym tours, including hyperlapses, respond to your exercise speed. The app measures your cadence by watching your body motion with the front facing camera.
"People kept suggesting that we bring Street View to cardio machines, but when we tried it, it was just mind numbingly boring. So we sped it up one or two hundred times. The feeling of pumping your legs and accelerating to 500 mph is intoxicating. The ability to cover entire countries is surprisingly educational - I have learned a lot about what the world looks like." says Co-Founder Alex Gourley
"We didn't pioneer the idea of a Street View Hyperlapse, that credit goes to the brilliant minds at Teehan+Lax labs, but we are the first company to offer Hyperlapses as an exercise option." says Co-Founder Josh McCready
Each Hyperlapse tour is manually created by the BitGym team. They are generally between 20 and 40 minutes long and they are stored entirely on BitGym servers. They are consumed like all BitGym exercise videos: either streamed on demand or downloaded to the device for later viewing.
Google Street View covers 5 million miles of roads across 39 countries, so there is little danger of BitGym running out of new tours to create.
The number of Hyperlapse tours uploaded will depend on how popular they are with BitGym members.
"It's really an experiment for us. We're going to put out half a dozen videos and see how our users respond. That's really our strategy for BitGym as a whole, we bring cutting edge exercise experiences to our members and let them decide what they want to see more of." says Co-Founder Alex Gourley.
All BitGym tours can be viewed on iOS, Android, Chromecast or AppleTV.
BitGym is a subscription service where members get unlimited streaming access to interactive trails, guided tours and classes. They are launching in November for iOS and December for Android. They are currently running a kickstarter campaign where backers receive beta access and lifetime discounts.
