Indoor rock climbing is excellent fun all by itself – but that doesn’t mean it can’t be more fun if you make a video game out of it. Augmented Climbing projects interactive images onto the climbing wall so you can play a bunch of different games as you work out.
Augmented Climbing, from Finnish company Valo Motion, has now rolled out in climbing gyms in over 30 countries. It’s a game platform that uses projectors to place moving images across a custom-built climbing wall, and uses cameras to track a climber’s motions to turn the entire climbing wall into a giant touch-screen
The result? A stack of fun games that add an extra dimension to your exercise. Here’s a few that are currently up and running.
Whack-a-bat has little critters flying around the climbing board and gets you to splat them with your limbs.
Sparks puts the climber inside a slowly moving geometric shape comprised of “electricity” that’ll zap you if it touches you. The goal is to avoid the lines, making your way slowly up to a goal you can hit.
Climball is pong, where you’re the paddles. Two climbers engage in either collaborative play (keep the ball alive as long as possible) or competitive (get the ball past your opponent to score points).
There’s another, entitled “Save the World from Blazing Fireballs,” in which you attempt to… Save the world. From fireballs. That are blazing.