App Turns Cardio Machines To Touring Machines

If anyone tells you they love working out on the running or cycling machines at the gym, make a mental note: do not sit next to that person at a dinner party. There is enough tedium in the world already. Which is why some smart person created BitGym, an iPhone and iPad app that turns the most tedious cardio exercises into bike races through exotic landscapes and video games. BitGym doesn’t plug into the machine; it can tell how hard you’re working from vibrations through the machine, and it uses that information to set the speed at which videotaped landscapes (from western deserts to northern Italy) fly by on the screen of your iPad of iPhone. For video games, like Fit Freeway, a car racing game, the speed of your car is determined by vibrations and the direction of your car is guided by head movement, which is tracked by your iPad’s camera.