Sure, rock climbing walls are an excellent workout.
But wouldn't it be nice to climb for something other than simply getting to the top?
Well, last year, Brooklyn Boulders' New York gym broadcast a video of an augmented reality rock-climbing wall, essentially turning a regular rock-climbing wall into a video game, allowing climbers to tally points and compete while working their way up the jaunt.
Well, it apparently resonated enough for Brooklyn Boulders to reach out and tab the coder behind the game, Jon Cheng, to begin introducing the augmented reality rock-climbing wall in the gym, as reported by Wired.
The implementation of Cheng's augmented reality rock-climbing wall actually can be attributed back to when the gym last year allowed him to demonstrate his idea — named Time Trial — during a monthly Community Night it sponsors for startups.
"Our team was stoked on the idea, and more than happy to give Jon whatever he needed to make Time Trial happen," Alex Graziano, marketing manager at Brooklyn Boulders, told Wired. "Our community instantly took to his creation."
Cheng's Time Trial uses a projector to flash numbers on the wall, allowing climbers to accumulate points as they head further up the rigid vertical surface. One of the real benefits must be that as climbers strive for points, compete and essentially play the real-life video game, they may forget how much of a workout they're getting and climb for longer.
"We use a projector and a laptop connected to our cloud-based platform to play," Cheng, who owns a startup company called Randori and is a member of the Brooklyn Boulders gym, told Wired. "Once that's all set up, gym staff can login to their account, pick a bouldering wall, and start projecting any game we have in our library."
Wired reports that Time Trial will be available for free twice over the next two months at Brooklyn Boulders, which has video of the augmented reality rock climbing wall on its site.
