Links
Embedded Files
Colaborators
Miguel Chover - Director
Carlos Marín - Supervision and design
Micaela Yanet - Supervision and design
María Villar - AR programming, 3D character artist, UI artist
Nàdia Montaña - AI programming, UI design, level design
Developed in
Unity
Platforms
Android
An AR mobile game to make exercise while playing
An AR mobile game to make exercise while playing
Why Fitoon?
Fitoon is an idea that came up when the pandemic made all of us stay at home. When we started running on a treadmill, soon we discovered that is was really boring and there was no games made specifically for it, only simulators like Zwift. Here, in Spain, the treadmills are not that popular because the weather is not very extreme to run outside. However, in much colder places this is very different. We did some research and found out that, in the USA, there are approximately 50 million people who run on a treadmill!
We choose to make an obstacle-race game (similar to other games like Fall Guys or Stumble Guys) because using only an athletics track is boring, and competitive games are always a challenge! We knew that these games worked, and specially young people really liked them. Furthermore, these type of games were perfect because they also were about running in game, and the mechanics are very easy. This way it was easier to transform the controlls into hands-free mechanics. Other inspirations were Ringfit Adventure and Nintendo Sports.
What is Fitoon?
It is an obstacle race mobile game, but to play it you need to run in real life. To move the character with the player's head, we used AR Face Tracking. It analyzes the face movement in the vertical axis to determine the cadence using the frequence with Fast Fourier Transform. Then, the normal vector of the face is used to determine the direction. This way, the character will always go where the player looks, and if the player runs faster, the character will too! There are 4 different levels and various skins that the player can choose and change colors. They can also change the running shoes, offering an immersive and fun experience.
Objectives and impact
Our objective is to encourage sport with gamification. One of our objectives was that it was very accesible for everybody, so no peripherals needed. Fitoon only needs a phone with a camera, that's all. It doesn't even need a treadmill, the game also works if the player runs "in site"!
Making a change is difficult, especially if you have conditions such as obesity, extreme weather, little free time, etc. As videogame researchers, we want to make an impact on that and stop the relation between games and sedentarism. Living a healthy life and making exercise supposes a challenge and an effort, but it doesn't have to be boring. If we get some people to start a change, our objetives are fullfilled!
For that reason, our project tries to be the most accessible possible. No peripherals needed, even no treadmill needed if someone doesn't have one. Only a phone with camera. The controls are super simple, only moving the head. This way it can reach all type of people, players or not. You don't even need hands to play it, so no excuses!
Research papers
A comparative analysis of game experience in treadmill running applications Article
Micaela Yanet Martin , Carlos Marín Lora, Miguel Chover Selles.
Entertainment Computing; Vol. 52 pp. 1-8. (2025). ISSN: 1875-9521Comparative study of interaction methods for mobile gaming while running on a treadmill Article
Carlos Marín Lora, Miguel Chover Selles, Micaela Yanet Martin , Linda García Rytman.
COMPUTERS & GRAPHICS-UK ; Vol. 117 pp. 164-171. (2023). ISSN: 0097-8493Creating a treadmill running video game with smartwatch interaction Article
Carlos Marín Lora, Miguel Chover Selles, Micaela Yanet Martin , Linda García Rytman.
MULTIMEDIA TOOLS AND APPLICATIONS; pp. 1-21. (2023). ISSN: 1380-7501Desarrollo de un videojuego para cinta de correr: Tecnología y Mecánicas
Linda García Rytman, Héctor José Ruiz Marco, Micaela Yanet Martin , Carlos Marín Lora, Miguel Chover Selles.
CEV 2023 -II Congreso Español de Videojuegos 2023. Madrid (España)
2023. ISSN: 1613-0073Playing Ring Fit Adventures on the floor or on a treadmill: a comparative study
Micaela Yanet Martin , Emilio Sáez Soro, Carlos Marín Lora, Miguel Chover Selles.
CEV 2022 I Congreso Español de Videojuegos 2022. Madrid (España)
2022. ISSN: 1613-0073Marin-Lora, C., Martin, M., Chover, M. (2023). A Face-Tracking Method for Estimating Cadence on Treadmills. In: Bravo, J., Ochoa, S., Favela, J. (eds) Proceedings of the International Conference on Ubiquitous Computing & Ambient Intelligence (UCAmI 2022). UCAmI 2022. Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems, vol 594. Springer, Cham.
Page updated
Report abuse