A Fab Lab Case Study in the Making
Spin Green is Silvano Baccara, Robin Hand, Roeland Kemp, Mona Mirshamsi, Vishal Ramsansjhal and Marina Sharygina. They are developing a new “green” fitness concept, that offers a unique experience of aerobic exercise and production of electricity.” The electricity is produced as a byproduct of operating cardio exercise equipment while getting fit in routine exercise or having fun while participating in various specially designed games. “The more energy one produces, the less one pays for membership. Moreover, one can come to our charity events, where he or she can spin for free and donate the proceeds from produced energy to save our planet.”
If we step back from the marketing verbiage for a moment and look at what these folks are doing — they are developing bycicles that go nowhere but produce energy and hope to market it to fitness centres. So it might a bit like Tom Sawyer painting the fence, but never mind … they are actually pretty good at making use of the Fab Lab in Amsterdam.
Silvano, Robin, Roeland, Mona, Vishal and Marina are classmates at the University of Amsterdam. They developed Spin Green as a class project in the Masters program of Amsterdam Business School, as part of the course “Information and Innovation” that is taught by Dr. Michel Avital.
They had two guided sessions at the Fablab in Amsterdam for refining the concept and building a prototype, their reports include a very nice photo slide show.
Here is a video showing the prototypes at the Giro d’Italia prologue in Amsterdam, 8 May 2010:
And seemingly, but probably totally unrelated, the concept has been implemented at Crowne Plaza Copenhagen Towers, yet without the specific game element:
What is missed from the marketing speak by the author is the combination of energy generation with the gaming element. You can use an analogy of Wii+Green Microgym in Portland,Oregon, which goes far beyond Tom Sawyer.
Energy generation while gaming is what makes the whole experience unique.Indeed, there are green initiatives based on cycling to generate energy, but Spin Green is the first to make it also fun and competitive by adding the sensors and allowing users to race against each other.