The peloton bicycling simulator

Abstract

Peloton is a sports simulator that uses the Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) to create virtual environments for athletic training and competition. In particular, it creates environments suitable for touring or racing along road courses. Users participate in simulations by walking or running on treadmills or by pedaling stationary bicycles. Each user’s exercise equipment is attached to a local computer, and these computers are connected to simulation servers by the World Wide Web. Users may exercise alone or share Peloton virtual spaces with others. Peloton’s virtual environments reproduce sights, sounds, and terrain features from actual road courses. The visual component of this environment is a synthetic, three-dimensional landscape, modeled in VRML, which combines computer-generated graphics with images of actual road courses. The virtual environment also provides simulation participants with force feedback corresponding to a course’s changing terrain. The simulator changes the incline of the treadmill or alters the pedaling resistance to create this feedback. This paper describes the bicycling simulations enabled by Peloton. It also discusses the role of VRML in the system’s implementation, focusing on how its virtual worlds are generated from topological data, how cameras and third-person viewpoints are managed, and how unconventional input/output devices are incorporated. CR