Post 4: IMAX Shift® – The Next Great Fitness Movement.

Written by Meiying Lin

IMAXShift® is a new immersive group cycling studio powered by The IMAX Experience® base in America. The studio used the best techniques that exist in experience design and used that technique to change people’s exercise experience. Their first studio opened in Brooklyn, New York a few months ago. The aim of the studio is to encourage people to do exercise and to gain an excited experience while they workout.
Nowadays, many people not interest/dislike exercise because exercise makes them feel bored. Just thinking about exercising in a gym is enough to send many people back to the couch. In addition, lack of exercise is one of the main reason causes obesity rate growth. A research shows that obesity rate in America has doubled in children and has increased by 400% in adolescents over the past 30 years. It is obvious to see a regular gym is not appealing to most people. People dislike exercise is because they get bored.

“Let The IMAX Experience® change the way you think about fitness. Crystal clear audio surrounds you as sharp, hyperreal visuals suck you into the massive screen. A unique ride that leaves you breathless before you even break a sweat.”

To deal with this situation, IMAXShift decided upgraded the regular spin class with an IMAX screen and design to provide people with an immerse moving-going cycling workout experiences. The studio combines video, music, and exercise to help transport people working out to another world like they were in a virtual reality.

Studio room design

The studio room has been designed with 40×34 feet big screen curving around the front of the room and equipped with a 7.1-channel surround-sound system that includes two huge subwoofers built right into the floor. There are 50 Schwinn stationary bikes in the room and the instructor would be on a bike at the front left side of the room, wearing an amplified headset to give user instructions and encouragement. Beyond that, each Schwinn stationary bike has an individual console that allows the user to adjust speed, resistance, and power after every ride, user’s progress will be uploaded to their individual online account automatically from class-to-class. Instructors can provide help and encouragement to surpass user’s fitness goals base on their training record.

“A full sensory workout can create a heightened sense of anticipation as participants “ride” through fantastic landscapes like outer space or dream-like scenarios. By suspending belief, people are thinking less about the workout, as they push themselves further through the experience.”

Music Reactive Visuals

Even the studio uses the IMAX technology, they are not delivering a real movie to the user. The user won’t be watching a real movie like Star war, X-man, Superman or The Jungle Book while they are exercising. Instead of delivering a real movie, the ImaxShift® used a series of short video segments which had been handcrafted by each individual instructor. For instance, an experience allows the user to soar over the coasts of Hawaii; an experiences allows the user to pedal to the beat with music reactive visuals, etc. More importantly, each class is different and unique, each short video segment would only be played once. The user will never see the same video segment twice and they will have a completely new acoustic and optic experiences that perfectly complements the workout every time!

IMAXShift® is an undoubted successful entertainment and experience design. Although they only provide cycling activity at present, its still open up a range of new option of a future fitness and encourage lots of young adults to try this immersive workout experience. With an IMAX technology and unique experiences with IMAXShift®, exercise has become more engaged and more interesting. More and more young adults and adults would like to try IMAXShift® and continues to IMAXShift® to workout. A record show some studios have also begun incorporating immersive experiences have seen as much as a 25% increase in attendance. Clearly, there has been a growing consumer demand for more engaging exercise experiences, and immersive fitness is meeting it. I am looking forward to having a studio like this in Australia!

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References:

1. MAXShift 2016, The experience, IMAX Corporation, viewed 20 August 2016, < https://imaxshift.com/ >.

2. CBS News 2016, IMAX takes supersized experience to fitness industry, News Article, CBS Interactive Inc, viewed 20 August 2016, <http://www.cbsnews.com/news/imax-takes-supersized-experience-to-fitness-industry-indoor-cycling-studio/>.

3. Alton, E. 2016, Could Immersive Fitness Be the Cure for Obesity?, News Article, Entertainment Designer, viewed 20 August 2016, <http://entertainmentdesigner.com/news/experiences/could-immersive-fitness-be-the-cure-for-obesity/>.

Advertisement

Blind leading the blind but can edutainment technologies save us?

Is it too late to transform the role of augmented reality in changing it’s ways for our future generations? (eNCA 2014)

Post two by Marie Good

The analysis’ below are of two scholarly articles that take a further scientific and researched based leap into the world of healthy living. I have decided to focus on two areas; healthy living blogs and how healthy they really are for their audiences and the role augmented reality could have in changing our education system to incorporate physical activity as a compulsory standard aspect of education curriculums.

‘A content analysis of Healthy living blogs: evidence on content thematically consistent with dysfunctional eating attitudes and behaviours’, is a journal article published by the International Journal of Eating Disorders in 2014 and written by Leah Boepple and Joel Kevin Thompson (Boeple & Thompson 2014). Boeple at the Department of Psychology, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida, holds a B.A and Thompson a PhD of the department also. This article is a content analysis and evaluation of various healthy living blogs. A sample of 21 blogs that had either won an award or had a large number of followers, was evaluated. It was discovered that more than half had shown signs of advertising or publishing content pro problematic eating or body image views. Boeple has written about issues such as this before, particularly focusing on body image, eating disorders and educational programs to combat these issues more effectively. Thompson has a very similar background also. I found this article very interesting as it supports the views I have had on this topic for a long time. Coming from a background where healthy living blogs have been an area of interest for myself and people I know closely, I have often realised the blogs are not always consistent with healthy lifestyle thinking.

Kuei-Fang Hsiao and Nian-Shing Chen (Hsiao & Chen 2011) from the Department of Information Management, Taiwan wrote a journal report in 2011 titled, ‘The development of the AR-Fitness System in Education.’ Hsiao has written about augmented reality several times previously, as well as wireless technologies and Chen has focused particularly on ubiquitous learning, technology and education. This article views the recent emergence of technology and healthcare to create interactions with the virtual and real world and expands it into information used to create AR technology for students which they call ‘edutainment technologies,’ based on the five physical indicators of BMI (body mass index), cardiorespiratory endurance, muscular strength, muscular endurance and flexibility. Hsiao and Chen designed a prototyped AR technology that aims to have the children moving and interacting with a screen in order to answer questions and proceed through their learning curriculum. Hsiao and Chen propose this technology might be more beneficial to subjects such as PE and sports as the children realise movement is incorporated into the curriculum, which I agree with. The struggle still seems to be convincing children of this revolutionary change in education that they currently understand as a sedentary activity so they can view it as a physical one instead.

 

Reference list

Boepple, L. & Thompson, J., K. 2014, ‘A content analysis of healthy living blogs: evidence on content thematically consistent with dysfunctional eating attitudes and behaviors’, International Journal of Eating Disorders, pp 362-367.

Hsiao, K. & Chen, N. 2011, ‘The development of the AR-fitness system in education’, Edutainment Technologies. Educational gmes and virtual reality/augumented reality applications, pp. 2–11

eNCA. 2014, unknown, E News Chanel Africa, date viewed 15 August 2016, < https://www.enca.com/10-facts-about-obesity >.

Obesity & ‘Healthy living’

Impact of the environment and/or an individuals surroundings

FitnessFirstAUS,  #HowFitFeels – First check in, 2016

Post 1 : Mitchell Soames

Researching the trending topic of obesity I found an eclectic range of different opinions and point of views from numerous sources. One that I found most interesting was the impact of ones environment. The majority of the time ones surroundings cannot be change due to circumstances such as social/ economical ect.

I also found exercise as an interesting focal point helping not only obesity but benefitting an individual’s health in relation to physical, social and emotional strength. I see first hand the perception of what it mean to ‘exercise’, hours in the gym, running for long durations of time at interval speeds, the list goes on. As it turns out exercise has been misinterpreted by so many, exercise is explored in some of these sources sharing how it isn’t such a daunting task.

1. The Surprising Benefits of exercise on the brain – Fitness First

The article is written by Mahsa Fratantoni (a freelance writer, editor and communications specialist) highlighting her research relating to connections between the brain and body sharing the benefits of exercise.

Fratantoni’s article is reinforced by Professor Anthony Hannan (head of the Neural Plasticity Laboratory at the Institute Neuroscience and Mental Health in Melbourne). He states,

“Physical activity has the ability to strengthen the connection between neurons, which helps transmit messages around the body.” – Mahsa Fratantoni

Although some of the article ties in several ‘studies’ that can’t be fully considered legitimate because they are not referenced, Professor Hannan is featured throughout to support most statements and research.

This article was quite intriguing to me, I have seen first hand how physical activity impacts a person. When comparing my grandparents from different side of my family, my Grandmother is in her mid 80s always living an active lifestyle, never been limited or restricted from doing anything. Compared to my grandfather who does not live an active lifestyle is now on the verge of a wheelchair with bad blood circulation and muscular decay in his legs.

2. Why you should exercise (no, not to lose weight)

Written by Aaron E. Carroll, professor of pediatrics at Indiana University School of Medicine I acknowledge that the article is creditable.

Carroll takes a different approach after understanding the requirements of exercise according to research. He expresses the ease and necessity of light exercise in day to day life stating,

“Walking briskly, at 3 to 4 mph or so, qualifies. So does bicycling slower than 10 mph. Anything that gets your heart rate somewhere between 110 and 140 beats per minute is enough.” – Aaron E. Carroll

It is my understanding that not all people have the time or will to exercise regularly but after review of this article I can see that encouraging the idea of swamping small tasks such as walking to the local shops (mentioned in the article) or even vacuuming, mowing the lawn or actively walking your dog might qualify. Healthy exercise can be achieved with minimal effort.

3. Australia is one of the most obese nations in the world, a report has found – Daily Telegraph

No Author was published to this article found on the Daily Telegraph which immediately made me question its authenticity. Yet most of the statistical information is referenced from Australian Health Policy Collaboration (AHPC) at Victoria University.

There was a statement made later on in the article saying, “Australians on average are smoking less, and are more proactive with regular health check-ups for bowel and breast cancer.” This made me curious to see if that is true or an assumption because no reference or support was provided.

A report is also mentioned stating 50 public health organisations are signatories setting an individual target for each listed health factor by 2025. This involves a 5 per cent reduction in the overall mortality rate from cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and common cancers; at least 10 per cent relative reduction in the harmful use of alcohol; and to cut the increasing rate of obesity in half.

But again there is no concrete evidence or references. I have noticed that more is being done to raise awareness and with the improvements in technology and lifestyle I do agree that some of these objectives could be achieved but I can’t say I completely believe all are genuine.

4. Diets and drugs are not enough to tackle obesity – ABC

Anna Salleh is the author of this article. She has a PhD on the role of the media in debates over the risk of new technologies and is a research associate with the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism at the University of Technology Sydney.

It appears as though her motivation for this article is to expose the cause of obesity referencing Professor Stephen Simpson head of Obesity Australia to justify her argument that

“Obesity is a direct reflection of the environment we live in.” – Anna Salleh

Salleh targets the availability of processed food with low nutritional value and political system that encourage unhealthy food supply systems.

I do agree with Salleh, advertisements and Supermarkets, always promote the ‘easy choice’ as cheaper and feasible (for example the frozen food options which are always going to have less nutritional value than fresh produce.)

5. Fathers can pass obesity onto children before birth – ABC

This article was posted by Will Ockenden, a reporter with radio current affairs, and is based in the Sydney newsroom. The facts have been investigated by Sydney’s Victor Chang Institute and Garvan Institute of Medical Research together finding obesity in fathers can be passed down to not only their children, but also future generations.

Lead author of the study Dr Jennifer Cropley, said “The findings could help explain the rise in diabetes, heart disease and obesity in humans.” Using mice as test to discover that genes were passed from father to son I still don’t fully support the statement justifying the rise in diabetes, heart disease and obesity in humans. With the awareness and support of health systems people are more educated of the effects and causes of these issues. I believe it is still an individuals choice to become obese, weight can be controlled with will power and discipline.

REFERENCE

IMAGE

FitnessFirstAUS, 2016 ‘#HowFitFeels – First check in’ Youtube, Viewed August 10 2016 < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9H2GRTGGdTU>

RESOURCES

Fratantoni, M. 2016, ‘The suprising benefits of exercise on the brain’ Viewed 1 August 2016
pp.12-13

Carroll E, A. 21 June 2016 ‘Why you should exercise (no, not to lose weight)’ Viewed 1 August 2016 <http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/diet-and-fitness/why-you-should-exercise-no-not-to-lose-weight-20160620-gpnv9t.html>

NA, July 5, 2016 ‘Australia is one of the most obese nations in the world (…) Viewed 1 August 2016 <http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/health-problems/australia-is-one-of-the-most-obese-nations-in-the-world-a-report-has-found/news-story/c4ee55c6b4fe4ec7d2cc41ba86598d63>

Salleh, A. 2015 ‘Diets and drugs are not enough to tackle obesity’ ABC article, 8 June, viewed 28 July 2016, <http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2015/06/08/4248825.htm>

Ockenden, W. 19 July 2016 ‘Fathers can pass obesity onto children before birth’ Viewed on 1 August 2016 <http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-07-19/fathers-can-pass-obesity-onto-children-before-birth-study-finds/7642856>