May 10, 2007 — Jogging with a partner beats jogging alone. But it can be difficult to find the right buddy who can meet in the same location and who runs at roughly the same pace.
Now a prototype technology makes it possible to jog with the perfect partner, even if the person lives in another city.
The Jogging Over a Distance system uses mobile phone and GPS technology as well as a custom computer program to transform a phone conversation into a three-dimensional audio experience. While you run, you can hear your partner's voice coming from the front, to the side, or behind, depending on how fast or slow he's traveling.
"It's a way to support social joggers to motivate one another to jog and push each other even with being in two different cities or countries," said Florian 'Floyd' Mueller, researcher at the University of Melbourne, Australia.
Mueller developed the system together with Shannon O'Brien and Alex Thorogood of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization.
The system consists of two identical sets of equipment that each contain a Bluetooth GPS receiver, a 3G mobile phone connection, a miniature computer, a wireless modem and a headset.
As the person runs, the GPS data is collected and transmitted wirelessly to the miniature computer, which the jogger wears in a close-fitting backpack. An algorithm on the computer determines how fast each person is running in relation to his or her partner and calculates a sound position. It uses the value of the sound position to change the audio each jogger hears.
As one jogger speaks, the partner hears the voice as coming from the front (if the partner is jogging faster), from the side (if they're running at the same pace), or from behind (if they're moving slower).
