UPDATE: VZfit is now available to home users on Oculus Go & Quest!

It’s been a while since our last post, and the reason is VirZOOM has dedicated ourselves to a new platform called VZfit.  We truly appreciate all the people that bought our VZ Bike and VirZOOM Arcade games for the VR systems they owned.  But it was necessary for us to grow in a different direction, for people who exercise regularly to enjoy our virtual workouts, but aren’t themselves VR techies.

VZfit is a turnkey add-on to any stationary bike, that contains a state-of-the-art VR system, a TV display for onlookers, and wireless pedal sensor and buttons to play all our games.

We designed VZfit for fitness centers to use with their own high-quality bikes and just turn on to experience VirZOOM.  Everything is preprogrammed to work right out of the box.  It takes 5 minutes to set up and our games start on boot.  We make system updates and game improvements automatically when the system is sleeping overnight, and remotely monitor and maintain system health.

The VR system we’ve chosen is the Windows Mixed Reality headset from Acer, combined with the NUC 8 VR-ready PC from Intel.  Acer’s headset requires no external sensors for head tracking so sets up easily, and the NUC 8 is small enough to hide behind the 32″ TV.  Home users wouldn’t need a TV, but it’s important in a fitness center for other people to see the excitement you’re having!

To prepare your bike, just attach our speed sensor to its pedal crank and our button to its handlebar.  The speed sensor gives instant, accurate, and directional measurements to control your virtual motion, and our button has 4 directions you can press to select menus and perform game actions.

In addition to the new hardware platform, we also redesigned our games and interface for fitness centers and customers.  One big difference is the games will go on for any workout time you select, so your rhythm won’t be broken by ends-and-restarts.  Multiplayer is a separate mode for head-to-head matchups between two bikes.  The HUD always shows your fitness stats, and allows you to change difficulty on the fly.  Our game menu features video tutorials, and we have monthly events for players to compete on leaderboards and win prizes (more on that in our next post).

We’ve partnered with Life Fitness to get VZfit into your favorite gym, your company’s rec center, and your hotel on the road.  If you’ve never experienced VirZOOM please ask them for it!