VR fitness, immersive car rides, premium HMDs, and more at CES 2019 that got us excited…
We have really enjoyed reading all of the CES coverage over the past couple of weeks. It is such an inspirational event with new technology being shown to the world, and every year it seems like our futuristic dreams are becoming a reality. Here are the Trivver Teams favorite launches and coverage of CES 2019:
Fitness and VR meet in NordicTrack’s VR Bike
The NordicTrack VR fitness bike is taking your basement biking session to the next step by combing VR gaming with fitness to create an immersive fitness experience. The stationary bike is high tech, integrating a fan to simulate motion, and the handlebars double as a movable 8-axis yoke for extra flexibility and are studded with all the necessary game controller-like buttons and triggers to play. The NordicTrack has a total cost of $1,999, which includes the stationary bike, an HTC Vive Focus headset, and a one-year iFit Personal Trainer subscription, and it will be out this summer.
Teslasuit Gives Users a Full Body Experience
Teslasuits brings all new meaning to immersive gameplay by using electro-tactile haptic feedback, the suit creates sensations like bumping into a wall, touching an object, or the impact of a punch in an immersive setting. The suit is also capable of motion capture, climate control, and biometrics. Now, this is where things get interesting because the ability to collect biometrics provides a whole wealth of data for developers that can make a huge impact on game design, controls, and overall experience.
HTC’s Latest and Greatest
HTC early on at CES 2019 dropped their latest and greatest VR headset: the Vive Pro Eye, an expansion on the already existing Vive Pro with the addition of integrated eye-tracking hardware. By implementing eye tracking, developers can create in-app controls, analyze user attention, and foveated rendering. The HMD boosts a very easy setup process, and a very high price tag, pushing the Vive Pro Eye to be marketed for enterprise customers. Some customers HTC sees using the premium headset is luxury retailers, businesses seeking new communications tools, professional athletes, and more.
Holoride’s in-car VR Immersive Experience
Holoride has seemingly solved road trip boredom and car sickness with their new in-car VR experience. Article author Matt Burns deemed the experience “The best thing at CES 2019” and while that title isn’t official, it definitely intrigued us. Holoride is a startup from Audi with the goal to put VR in cars to entertain and reduce motion sickness, and it does that by matching the VR content to the vehicle’s movements. So entertainment with no nausea, what more could a road tripper want?
Charlie Fink argues that 2019 was the best year for AR and VR at CES
To wrap it up, check out Charlie Fink’s column on Forbes on why he thinks 2019 was the best year for XR at CES. He provides a great round up of all of the new and emerging AR smartglasses from North, Vuzix, Realmax, Rokid, and DigiLens, as well as the boundary-pushing VR HMDs Vive Pro Eye (mentioned above) from HTC. Fink also shares zSpace’s new 3D laptop, “Ralph Breaks VR,” a free roam VR experience, and more!
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