Valkyrie EIR Stands Out in a Growing VR Fitness Space With Their Addition of Electrical Muscle Stimulation via Haptic Armbands - SportTechie

A caller armband merchandise called Valkyrie EIR is aiming to bring absorption to virtual world fittingness done electrical musculus stimulation. Worn implicit the biceps and triceps musculus connected each arm, the armbands nonstop electrical signals equivalent to up to 4 kilograms (roughly 9 pounds) for users to consciousness the carnal pain arsenic they implicit virtual workouts.

London-based Valkyrie Industries announced contiguous that it has begun accepting preorders for Valkyrie EIR, which outgo $125 for the two-armband acceptable and volition commencement shipping successful summertime 2023. The armbands link with Valkyrie’s caller EIR Training app disposable connected Meta’s App Lab. Users wearing Meta’s Quest oregon Quest 2 headset are immersed successful virtual worlds to partake successful trainer-led workout classes successful which their avatar tin prosecute with virtual workout instrumentality similar cablegram machines, elastic bands, dumbbells, oregon a punching bag. The integer items are weightless but summation perceived absorption done completing the movements portion wearing Valkyrie’s muscle-stimulating armbands

“We person respective idiosyncratic trainers successful the acquisition to amusement you however to execute the exercises, and we person immoderate gamification to amusement you scores oregon levels to reach,” says Ivan Isakov, co-founder and CTO of Valkyrie Industries. “Our electrical musculus stimulation devices [armbands] are connected wirelessly to the headset.”

A idiosyncratic tin power the settings of their armbands to set intensity, frequence and pulse-width of the electrical musculus stimulation (EMS). Valkyrie’s products are presently lone accessible with Meta’s headsets, but the institution plans to adhd compatibility with different devices, including the Pico headset owned by TikTok’s genitor institution ByteDance. Meta precocious announced plans to merchantability its archetypal virtual world fitness accessory bundle arsenic good arsenic its caller Quest Pro headset that costs $1,500.

“The caller Meta method instrumentality is thinner. The Quest 2 is beauteous large successful front, but the [Quest Pro] has a definite benignant of lens that is overmuch smaller, it's much ergonomic. So we're truly looking guardant to that,” Isakov says. “[Quest Pro] besides has immoderate Passthrough filters successful augmented world that's astonishing arsenic well. If we're capable to usage our instrumentality with augmented world glasses, that's large arsenic well. You don't request to spell determination successful antithetic worlds, you tin interact with those dense virtual objects present successful your country arsenic well.”

Existing starring apps successful the virtual world fittingness abstraction see FitXR and Supernatural, which Meta agreed to bargain past twelvemonth but that transaction is presently being challenged by the FTC which claims that “Meta and CEO Mark Zuckerberg are attempting [an] amerciable acquisition to grow virtual world empire.” Currently, Meta’s Quest headsets correspond astir 90% of income successful the U.S. virtual world hardware market. Isakov hopes Valkyrie’s EMS armbands tin beryllium adapted by different VR fittingness app developers.

“We're releasing our SDK [software improvement kit] unneurotic with the hardware, truthful immoderate different developer tin usage it for their applications and, we've started conversations with immoderate VR fittingness developers,” Isakov says. “FitXR, Supernatural, they already person immoderate bully workouts and if they get musculus stimulation into their workouts it volition beryllium large for them and astonishing vulnerability for us.”