[gregsadetsky]

Not only does the C2 has an USB interface, but recent models have Bluetooth as well...! (I'm a happy C2 owner)

I found an example project some time ago of a web site using Chrome's Bluetooth JavaScript API to recreate a rowing monitor and filed it away in case I would ever get to that side project :-)

In case someone's interested to collab: I would build a 3D world through which you row. I know apps/games like these exist but an open version would be great (also the ones I found seemed to have so-so 3d graphics). And compatibility with VR headsets too..!

Just to add to this: an Apple TV-compatible, 3D rowing app would be supremely interesting to consider...

Building a web-based C2 monitor via Bluetooth: https://bandarra.me/2017/02/20/Fitness-Tracking-with-Web-Blu...

Interacting with Bluetooth over JS: https://web.dev/bluetooth/

The Bluetooth communications spec from C2! https://www.concept2.co.uk/files/pdf/us/monitors/PM5_Bluetoo...

[ghaff]

I'm pretty good about going out to take a walk/hike pretty much any day when the weather is remotely tolerable. But exercise equipment really does bore me. My C2 is 15+ years old and I don't use it a lot. But I'd upgrade the performance monitor in a heartbeat if there were a way to use it in conjunction with an Apple TV for a non-subscription immersive experience. (Something in the Hydrow vein.)

[gregsadetsky]

You'd still need the monitor (what Concept2 calls the "PM5") to send Bluetooth data to your Apple TV, but you could fold the arm so that the monitor wouldn't be in the way of your tv.

I totally agree with you, rowing while even just watching TV is a lot more enjoyable. Having anything interactive (games/immersive) would be really great.

Re: subscription, I agree that it'd be interesting to build something for free that everyone can use, and maybe try to sustain this with subscriptions for extra features (competitions, etc.)

Finally, maybe the trick to building this out rapidly is to start with a web version. You'd connect your C2 to your computer via bluetooth, and then you could stream your computer to the Apple TV. A native Apple TV app would be better though, but it's more work. A web/three.js prototype is faster to put together (for me, at least -- a Unity developer might want to do this natively)

Should I try to make a launch page and if I get 1000 emails, go off and do it hah? :-)

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Actually, an iOS app that would run on iPads (the perfect-ish format for a C2 immersive monitor) is really interesting... Maybe iOS/AppleTV is the way to go after all...

[ghaff]

I have my C2 in a room with a big TV on the wall but, yeah, practically speaking something that interfaces with an iPad app probably makes more sense in general. Rigging up an iPad stand for a C2 would be pretty trivial--and may well already exist.

If I were seriously looking at something like this as a business, I'd probably want to do a non-subscription offering that let you row down the Charles and other such rivers in an immersive and somewhat randomized environment but tried to get people to pay for real P2P interactions--which a lot would.

Not an actual interest of mine to do but I think someone could retrofit a much better virtual experience on a C2 than currently exists that people would pay good money for.

[andreban]

Btw, Web Bluetooth is not only supported by Chrome, but also by Edge, Samsung Internet and others. More on supported browsers on https://caniuse.com/?search=web%20bluetooth

The source for the PM5 / Bluetooth integration is here: https://github.com/GoogleChromeLabs/rowing-monitor/