History

Holoseat Initial Questions v0.1

Below is a list of questions and proposed answers to help us narrow down the requirements for this project.

Q1. Why are we making this?

A1. The Holoseat is a video gaming accessory which uses the drive to play video games to encourage regular exercise. It accomplishes this by coupling exercise directly into the video game experience. It should be functional enough to support initial sales to end users as both a kit and finished product.

Q2. Who is this for?

A2. PC based video game players who play games which involve character movement in 3rd or 1st person (role playing games, massively multiplayer role playing games, first person shooters, etc).

Q3. How will this be used?

A3. Players attach the Holoseat interface to a recumbent exercise bike or elliptical machine and to a computer. The Holoseat interface then detects the motion from the exercise equipment and sends the appropriate keystrokes for walking (or other locomotion) to the computer. In this way, players must use the exercise equipment as part of the game experience.

Q4. What features does it need to have (now)?

A4. The Holoseat needs to support the following features to be sellable:

  • Detect movement on the exercise equipment and send walking command to video game (typically by "pressing" the 'w' key) - Required
  • Suppress the walk command signal - Required
  • Show the status of the walk command signal (for example with an LED) - Required
  • Support single step vs continuous walking - Required
  • Tune the "walking" speed required to trigger sending the walk command - Highly desired

Q5. What features does it need to have (later)?

A5. Later versions of the Holoseat may have the following features:

  • Support "walking" vs "running" in game play through different speeds on the exercise equipment
  • Allow for changing the in game locomotion command(s) without reprogramming (to expand the style and list of games supported)
  • Someday, want to support having the Holoseat plugged inline between a controller and a PC or gaming console, passing through signals from the controller not related to locomotion, suppressing those which are, and emulating the signals for locomotion when the exercise equipment is used. The idea is to allow the Holoseat to be used with consoles and make it easy for most games to be controlled partly from the exercise equipment.

Q6. What are the legacy requirements?

A6. None - still in early prototyping phase, new versions can completely replace current version(s).

Q7. Who's going to build this?

A7. The Holoseat will be offered as both a kit and a completed product. The kit version will be built by gamers and makers. The complete product will be built by Holoseat staff.

Q8. How many do we want to make?

A8. Eventually, one for every gaming PC and console on the planet. For now, it will be built in limited batches (one and two at a time). Development will include a series of prototypes leading to an initial production version optimized for assembly by makers as a kit.

Q9. What is the budget?

A9. As controllers cost between $35 and $50. The kit should be in the same level of price, which with a 2.6 times mark up means material costs for the Holoseat parts should be between $14 and $20. Budget for prototyping should cover several generations of prototypes and account for non-production components, giving a development budget of $300.

Q10. What is the timeline?

A10. The second generation prototype needs to be completed before the end of 2013. Kit prototypes should be complete by the end of Q2 2014.

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