Indoor training platform Rouvy has launched its new Route Creator, designed to enable riders to create video-based routes from their own local rides.
You can now record video of your routes, which can be uploaded to the Route Creator and turned into a 3D-generated rideable route, complete with avatar, for use in indoor training.
Rouvy says the new Route Creator allows for extensive customisation and a richer, more interactive experience than its previous system of simple first-person videos.
The Route Creator is in its beta phase for subscribers who sign up via the website.
Not just a simple video
Previously, Rouvy offered the ability to upload videos to the platform, which could then be played alongside a workout.
The new Route Creator evolves this, by taking a video recorded of a route, before overlaying it with a 3D-mapped render. Rouvy says this makes use of augmented reality technology.
This means that, instead of a simple video to be played back, the route is more immersive, with ride pace accurately simulated, and allowing other virtual riders and features (such as hoardings and road graffiti) to be integrated.
Rouvy also says inserted riders can be dropped (or drop you) en route, disappearing behind oblique corners and up or down the road – this is in a manner similar to Zwift’s virtual worlds.
Importantly, the source videos can be submitted with GPS data, which Rouvy says creates an accurate representation of the real-world road through your smart trainer.
The brand says this replication of real-world gradients is sourced from the GPS file and Google API data.
User customisation
Although Rouvy says its algorithms will process and produce a rideable route based on the video and GPS data submitted, the Route Creator platform also offers the ability to edit the route.
This can take the form of adding supplementary features such as advertising hoardings, finish lines, crowds and TV camera helicopters, but also more realism-driven elements such as lane keeping, traffic avoidance (in the event your route recording featured traffic), and traffic light and stoppage clipping.
The Route Creator also enables users to edit details such as weather and shadows, so they can make the route as realistic (or fantastical) as they wish.
How does it work?
BikeRadar was given a one-to-one tutorial on the new system before launch, in which it was explained that users require a high-definition-plus video recording device with image stabilisation, such as a GoPro, to record the route.
Ideally, this is fixed to a car windscreen around 1.5m above the ground, with the route then recorded in one cut from start to finish. Users can, of course, use a bike or motorbike, but the additional camera movement is said to be less optimal for the Route Creator.
Rouvy provides a host of guidelines (such as recommended speed restrictions and conditions for recording), but the end file can be uploaded complete with the GPS track.
At the time of launch, only a GoPro with GPS combined file can be submitted, although Rouvy says this is a temporary limitation – separate files from a video device and bike computer will be uploadable in the future, we’re told.
Once uploaded, the file is processed by Rouvy’s server, which provides a 3D-overlaid version of the video recorded, as well as a gradient track for the smart trainer.
Users can then edit it to set the exact start and finish points, smooth out the route (cut out traffic-induced stoppages) and add custom immersive features.
What about privacy?
When asked, Rouvy said its servers are secure, so all data held is safeguarded.
This is important, because sensitive data such as pedestrians’ faces, licence plates and personal front gardens (for example) will be captured by a video recording – albeit, in passing.
Rouvy says all identifiable data is stripped from the source file, so should a rider choose to make their custom route publicly rideable, unwitting subjects shouldn’t be exposed.
