By Design News Staff -- Design News, February 26, 2006
The Exer-station from Powergrid Fitness works like a body-sized joystick with enough resistance to give users an isometric muscle workout while they play games on the PlayStation, Xbox or GameCube. Like a regular joystick, the Exer-station translates directional forces applied by the user into in-game motion. But this 24-inch-tall joystick can require some substantial forces to muscle around. Powergrid Vice President Jason Grimm says forces required to control a game can be adjusted from just a few pounds to as high as 200 lbs. "The workout can range from something like swimming to heavy weightlifting," he says. To translate the force exerted by the user, the Exer-station uses an array of four semiconductor strain gauges to measure forces on two axes. Powergrid packages the strain gauges inside a molded polycarbonate tube that maintains the gauges' orientation within the alloy steel tube that forms the device's vertical structural member. Powergrid first used similar controller technology in the $800-and-up standing models it brought out a couple of years ago. The new Exer-station, sized for sit-down play, costs $199. For more information on Powergrid's technology, go to http://rbi.ims.ca/4915-529.
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