Nike and London-based startup FIELD, teamed up to create an audio-visual experience for Nike’s “free run” which will be known as, “Force of Nature”. According to Design Boom, the intended goal is to create an interactive treadmill experience for runners using custom sensors that will take the runner through a variety of visual effects. These effects will be a reflection of the running journey and will be put together from different patterns and perspective forms influenced by the athlete to help him or her run faster, stronger, and further.
All of this will be possible through Microsoft’s Kinect sensors, which will focus on gesture based motions and a custom treadmill to generate the active display. The eye-catching installation was directed and designed by Marcus Wendt, one of the co-founders of FIELD who specializes in shareable digital artifacts through advanced technology and research-led approaches.
For anyone that may have a hard time picturing it, the outcome sees the runner’s portrait transformed into a reactive piece of art. One runner described the experience as, “a journey of immersive visual effects that amplify the feeling of getting into the flow of running.”
This is just the latest example in the trend of the sports industry utilizing and integrating new technologies everyday. With companies trying to find the newest way to measure performance and enhance training experiences, this may be a glimpse of what gyms look like in the future. If that is the case, it will definitely be interesting to see what other gym equipment will get a hi-tech upgrade next.
