Cycling in the Metaverse

[carlucci1106]

Working night shift, I come up with some pretty zany stuff, but what do you homies think is possible for training, trying gear, and bike fit in the coming century and beyond?

Watched a long interview with Zuckerberg recently, and he said they are working on haptic sensory gloves to work with their VR/AR platform Occulus, and I'm sure we can at some point expect full body suits.

So this could open up some real possibilities with trying and experiencing products virtually, as well as immersive environments ( a la Zwift, Rouvy, etc) for training.

At some point, maybe you can ride a Duende and a Day is Done back to back, in the Metaverse, and not rely on words on a forum to base your decision on solely.

Or maybe we can instantly "build" virtual bikes with different components before our eyes in 3D on voice command, or try a fit before purchasing finishing kit(?)

Sure, they'll be some luddites who will shout "save the eBulletin forum," and maybe there'll be a little place where we can saunter into; with the walls decorated with memorable threads in blue/grey colorways, but will we be avatars and have virtual meetings in this room? Maybe there is a room in the back where Clean can store all of his bikes for forum members to try out. Is each one an "NFT"

Any AI geeks in here? What virtual reality features would be most useful to you?

[XXtwindad]

I’m a Modern Day Luddite. ETap is great. But I won’t be hanging out in the Metaverse.

[Veloo]

Woah, slow down there.
You need legs before you can ride.

https://mashable.com/article/metaver...tter-reactions

[prototoast]

Originally Posted by carlucci1106

At some point, maybe you can ride a Duende and a Day is Done back to back, in the Metaverse, and not rely on words on a forum to base your decision on solely.

I would be extremely surprised if, in my lifetime (born 1985), technology advanced to the point where it could accurately simulate and distinguish the feeling of riding on two similar bicycles.

[carlucci1106]

Originally Posted by prototoast

I would be extremely surprised if, in my lifetime (born 1985), technology advanced to the point where it could accurately simulate and distinguish the feeling of riding on two similar bicycles.

Don't watch much science fiction, eh?

Well, from what I read the other day about how close we are to what is known as the "singularity," nothing is off the table. When machines get to the point of creating code without permission, because they are smarter than the collective human knowledge-sphere, then the capabilites will increase exponentially greater and faster.

That's the theory at least- or we'll be obliterated before they can integrate Finite Element Analysis of bicycle frames into the software for 'virtual outdoor riding.'

I picture as you ride the iconic 1988 Giro, the haptic suit will decrease the temperature inside as your elevation increases, increase the "wind" and culminate in snow pelting your body on the Gavia.

[cmg]

if you ride the "virtural" bike off a virtural cliff will the software kill the actual rider? how about "virturally' riding into the on coming school bus?

[Turkle]

I have to say, these days I think that a lot of people who should know better have allowed themselves to be seduced by some pretty implausible promises being made by our "tech" overlords.

From self-driving cars to the utter scam that was (is?) cryptocurrency, to the "metaverse," there are just plain limits on what can be plausibly achieved, and no real use cases for what can.

The computer and communications revolution has largely achieved what it set out to do, and anything further is going to be incremental improvement at the margins rather than the next grand paradigm shift or whatever.

(I'm just as bearish on ChatGPT as well.)

I guess that this is a super long-winded way of saying that I don't plan on riding a bike in the metaverse anytime soon!

[Dude]

The metaverse use case for cycling is spectating, not for riding.

Slap on some vr glasses and jump around to the different cameras mounted to riders bikes, or director cars or the normal helicoptor shots, but you control which camera you're looking through.

[carlucci1106]

Originally Posted by cmg

if you ride the "virtural" bike off a virtural cliff will the software kill the actual rider? how about "virturally' riding into the on coming school bus?

I don't know... I guess you have taken the more dystopian viewpoint of the technology, and that is not wrong. Maybe the sentient machines will find myriad ways of using the technology against us. Maybe not.

But I would think this would be toggle-able, whether or not you could have actual medical trauma from the suit. Let's just say for the sake of imaginings, that the suit isn't capable of life-threatening trauma. I think that's why the term "virtual" is in VR. Because if it had all the consequences of IRL, it would be 'FML.'

[slowpoke]

If you haven't already, you should check out a SandBoxVR experience. That's about as good as we're going to get right now.

I don't think we're close to biking in VR until the heaviness of the headset + heat issues can be solved. We want this to be wireless, too. So Wifi 7 or whatever needs to be adopted.

[carlucci1106]

Originally Posted by Dude

The metaverse use case for cycling is spectating, not for riding.

Slap on some vr glasses and jump around to the different cameras mounted to riders bikes, or director cars or the normal helicoptor shots, but you control which camera you're looking through.

I hadn't thought of this, but seems not too far off of current capabilities. Nice one!

[Spdntrxi]

Originally Posted by cmg

if you ride the "virtural" bike off a virtural cliff will the software kill the actual rider? how about "virturally' riding into the on coming school bus?

and chatGBT would write a story and lead with you were wearing a helmet.

[carlucci1106]

Originally Posted by slowpoke

If you haven't already, you should check out a SandBoxVR experience. That's about as good as we're going to get right now.

I don't think we're close to biking in VR until the heaviness of the headset + heat issues can be solved. We want this to be wireless, too. So Wifi 7 or whatever needs to be adopted.

Did you try one of these? https://sandboxvr.com/experience/ambersky
Can you go into more detail about the experience, if so-- and expound on the heat issues experienced in the haptic suit? Thanks!

[redir]

Technically speaking Zwift is considered the metaverse and it has been an incredible help for me as far as riding inside, formerly the most boring thing one could ever do, to actually liking it somewhat.

So I'd be willing to try it.

[carlucci1106]

https://mashable.com/article/metaver...tter-reactions

Zuckerberg said Meta will use predictive AI models to guess what our legs are doing based on our upper-body movements. No other popular AR/VR hardware maker has been able to do this yet. But it isn’t out of the realm of possibility for Meta, a company with one of the largest staffs of engineers in the world that is spending $10 billion a year on metaverse projects alone.

“With standalone virtual reality headsets, understanding your leg position is surprisingly difficult because of occlusion,” Zuckerberg explained about the technical challenge in the presentation. “So if your legs are under a desk or if your arms block your view of them, then your headset can’t see them directly, and you need to build an AI model to predict your whole body position.”

Yikes, they better get us Meta-riding soon, or this is a lot of money down the tubes.

Edit: I'm sure the target audience for this stuff is gamers who like 1st-person shooter games and that ilk. There are probably 1000 people who are willing to part with their money for those experiences, to every one of us. No joke.