What's the future of sport? Virtual Reality sport is, according to four companies specializing in this field.
In time of coronavirus when it's difficult to practice sport as we used to, and in an age where screens are an increasing part of our days while physical activity is declining, what can be a better solution than Virtual reality sport?
Four companies, Fun with Balls, Icaros, Sphery, and Valo Motion, decided to address this challenge by creating a new form of sports combining the real world with technology to make physical exercise more attractive, accessible and inclusive for everybody.
"In sports, competition is a key driver for motivation. Using technology like virtual reality we are now able to create new forms of immersive and challenging workouts to take this motivation to a completely new level," said Icaros treasurer Michael Schmidt, adding that "this makes physical workouts much more attractive and addictive for everybody."
In that mean, the four pioneering companies publicly launched on Thursday in Munich, Helsinki and Zurich the world's first association of its kind, the International Association of Mixed Reality Sports (XRS), promoting physical activity by combining sports, technology and gaming.
This combination makes it possible to generate new, exciting and challenging forms of sports and workouts as a cure for declining sport participation in our time.
"With the XRS association, we want to make a sustainable contribution to building a bridge between analog and digital sports, bringing people together in attractive body-centered worlds of experience and letting them write new stories," said Sphery chairwoman Anna Lisa Martin-Niedecken.
With events, education and guidelines for the development and implementation of these new technologies, XRS is focused on raising public awareness for mixed reality sport and its benefits in the sports, education and health industry. "It’s important to create active experiences that empower people to find the joy of movement. XRS games are perfect since they can be challenging for active adults, but at the same time fun and easy enough to get all people up from their couches to find the fun in movement," Secretary of Valo Motion, Dr. Raine Kajastila explained.
The founding companies already have a strong track record being the main drivers of this new international trend. Through appearances on global events and a multitude of viral videos, they generated immense public interest worldwide.