I personally love running long distance but like many others who don’t, I somehow do better when I’m paced against someone else. It may just be a competitive nature but seeing someone trying to outrun me makes me want to one-up them instead.
The Ghost Pacer by engineer Abdur Bhatti is made for those who are motivated by another runner but even more for runners who desire someone to pace them to improve their run and strengthen their body. Only, instead of going up against a real person, you’re running against your holographic 3D avatar.
Your Personal Running Coach
The Ghost Pacer device is a 90-gram, mixed reality headset which fits like a pair of nifty shades and connects with your smartphone to help create your ideal running routine. You set your route and ideal speed using your phone’s GPS and the headset creates an avatar that runs according to your specifications.
Now don’t think this untiring, unyielding avatar is uncatchable. Though it isn’t human, this holo runner (let’s call him “Bob” from now on) accounts for elevation, distance, and your own fitness level. Bob runs at a realistic pace which you can keep up with, overtake, or fall behind depending on your mood for the day.
One-Up The Comeptition
If you get tired of running the same routes and want to get a little more competitive, you can link the Ghost Pacer to the Strava running and cycling network. You can view the runs of your friends or other runners, download their Bobs into your headset, and see for yourself if you can beat their best times. Once beat, you upload your best time to Strava and see if others can beat it. And so the endless cycle of one-upping goes on.
To help keep track of your performance as you run, the Ghost pacer also has a heads-up display which shows information like the distance you’ve traveled, distance to go, and other key statistics. There’s even a Ghost Pacer Pro app which provides customized workouts and syncs with most smartwatches to provide you with heart rate info.
Years of design and refinement helped reduce the Ghost Pacer from a 5-pound headset to a pair of lightweight shades. It combines a traditional GPS sensor with an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) to create a realistic moving avatar and to accurately track your location as you run. Couple this with the Ghost Pacer’s processor and optical system and you’ll never lose sight of your Bob/avatar (unless you outrun him or fall behind, that is).
Other folks on the street might not see your running buddy, but the sense of accomplishment you get when you beat him is in no way diminished.
Due to man’s competitive nature, the Ghost Pacer has already been fully-funded on Kickstarter pushing past the $25,000 goal, breaking $100,000, and heading up. Earlybird options are still available starting at $229 with a July 2021 delivery date.
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