Xbox 360 Mod Incorporates Exercise Bike

Get your exercise while playing racing games on the Xbox 360 with this cool mod.

Looking for a new way to experience the greatness that is the Xbox 360 console (when it functions correctly, that is)? Project Excite Bike is giving interactive a new meaning for Microsoft's gaming beast by turning a standard exercise bike into a "pedaling controller." Just think of Fred Flinstone and you'll get the general idea: the faster you pedal, the faster your virtual vehicle will travel.

According to Hack N Mod, any Xbox 360 gamer can create this mod on the cheap thanks to its open-source roots. It is built around an Arduino-based device that actually senses your pedal speed, and then sends the information to the Xbox 360 console. The group responsible for the mod said that any exercise bike can be used in the setup, however the mod will require the disassembly of your precious Xbox 360 controller.

"The point of the device is to capture the pedaling speed from an exercise bike and make it control a single button on a gamepad, which in turn can be the 'gas pedal' for racing games," the authors claim. "We have this working with an Xbox 360 gamepad but it can be adapted for other controllers and game systems easily. It would be simple to adapt this to a steering wheel controller, for example."

The instructions reveal how the censor ring is created and mounted on the desired exercise bike, using 5 hall-effect sensors and a strong earth magnet. It also talks about how to modify the Xbox 360 controller, and how to build the control widget: a device that lets you see how much "gas" you are pumping into the game. Ultimately, this unique modification could turn Xbox 360 game time into exercise time.

Eat that, Nintendo.