Pokémon GOGOGOOO

Okay, here’s a very up to date post today! Recently, the Pokemon GO hype has started, but it’s not something like your normal game. Last night, I downloaded the game myself, ‘finally’ giving into the craze. Even though I didn’t even go out the door yet, I can’t wait to do so. I found myself thinking about groceries and whether I needed something, just to go outside, WALKING to the supermarket just to spot some Pokemon, but I didn’t. While for me, this is still some sort of barrier, it’s not for others.

People are dying to go and walk the dog, walk to the supermarket or work and take a walk extra around the block, just to see whether there are any interesting and rare Pokemon, now that’s what I call a game anno 2016! It’s no surprise that we don’t move enough these days, and using this game will encourage people to go out there and move.

So, while this game is still in its test phase, it’s already moved people to go onto the streets and actually do something. On the longer term, I can really see a quality of life improvement there. It affects the sectors human movement , leisure but also health a lot. So when people say it’s ‘just another stupid game’,  first off: it’s Pokemon, so back off (I still own my Pokemon cards from back in the days). Second: it does so much more than making people act a little crazy because of a game. So I would love to see how this develops! In the meantime, I’m looking forward to go swimming later, as maybe, there will be Pokemon near the swimming pool J

Source

Walking on the Scooter

Okay, this is cool. What I saw lately was the strangest yet most innovative scooter I saw in a long time. This so-called ‘Lopifit’ is (I think) a Dutch innovation to let people cycle while walking. You can use this scooter like a real scooter, but you can also see the landscapes while walking on the scooter on a sort of treadmill. It’s rechargeable and you can travel a distance of 55 km in one go.

Though it looks a little weird, this will actually improve the health of many people. Sitting whole day is bad, and even though you’re cycling, you’re still sitting. This innovation lets you stand up, but you can decide for yourself how fast you want to walk. It’s like the more active version of the segway!

While people have to walk more and more to stay healthy, this innovation is a major contributor to the physical quality of life. In your free time, you can still be active, but not sweat that much as a workout would cause. Still, for elderly people, this will have positive consequences according to their health and movement. When you can’t walk that far, the Lopifit is ideal to cross more kilometers while not getting exhausted.

While this is still a little expensive – one Lopifit costs around 1700 euros – you can also hire them at several spots in the Netherlands. I love to see how this invention will spread across the country and how it will continue to improve health!

Source

Public Breakthrough

Lately, a dream has come reality. In China, they developed a bus which could decrease the amount of traffic jams for public transport. This ‘Straddling Bus’ can ride over ‘normal’ traffic such as cars and motorcycles, so that it in fact, creates a second layer of traffic. This way, the government wants to encourage Chinese citizens to choose the public transport over their cars, because car usage will grow very fast in the coming years. This bus can then take around 1400 passengers per bus!

Now, this bus certainly increases the quality of life of forensics, but also the environment. It works on electricity and therefore is very sustainable. While my inner Star Wars geek gets really excited from the idea to have a two-layered highway, it might be a major change in the human movement and living sector. If more people would use this bus, then this would be very significant for the amount of other traffic in the world. Cities do have to be altered, however. Think of the lanterns, they have to be placed outside of the rails of the straddling bus, just as trees and other objects. But, it’s just an idea, but a very realistic one. It would certainly decrease travel time for people who must travel every day.

While I’m a little skeptic about altering too much in the cities, I can see this would be very convenient for everyone. Though major changes have to be made according to the height of other vehicles like trucks and other buses to avoid crashes. The whole city has to be altered so that these buses could travel safely through cities. But we never underestimate the Chinese, so why would we now?

Source

 

 

No, no limit!

 

Cycling through water impossible? Not in the Belgian province of Limburg! In April this year, they launched a new cycling road through the water. Not over the water, but really through it! They wanted to attract more tourists to this beautiful province which has a lot of tourist potential, according to the designers. The landscape is very pretty and this aqua cycling road allows people to really be one with the landscape and really enjoy it to the fullest, without any natural boundaries water usually forms. With the water on eye height, you can enjoy the landscape to the fullest.

Now this is also interesting for the rest of the cycling area’s all over the world. Back in the days, water could be a natural boundary to mark countries, just like forests or mountains. We could not easily cross them, only by boat and by swimming (in the case of water of course). Then, bridges became the normal way to cross water. But now, we can ‘just’ cycle through it, and I think it’s awesome! It’s a feeling of freedom, not being restricted by nature, as is the case most of the time. But this innovations is really humans winning from nature, but in a non-harming way. That is, if people treat the road and the surrounding water with respect, by not throwing in some trash.

But, if you’re a real fan of cycling (which I am certainly not, but this is cool), this could really be breaking news. It doesn’t say how they made this road exactly, but I can imagine there have been and are more difficult projects in the world. For the sector human movement, as well as leisure this could mean that people can move the way they want to. It’s good for tourism, and I can imagine it makes people cycle more often in their free time. Double win!

Source

PS: song reference from this post’s title here, yeahhh oldschool! Hahaha imagine singing this song while cycling through the water, made me laugh.

Awesome Aqua

Some weeks ago I wrote a post about yoga with bunnies (post here), but now, there seems to be another sort of yoga. Aquabase or Floatfit is a type of  yoga and fitness which makes people do their exercises on a mat on the water. It’s extremely hard, because it’s challenging to keep your balance on these boards. Originally from the UK, but I’ve also seen it in the Netherlands already. In fact, you don’t have to do just yoga on these floating mats, you can do pilates, aerobics and maybe later some team sports!

It’s interesting that we keep combining everything these days. Yoga with bunnies, yoga on water, but also sports like yogalates and boxing yoga seem to take over the sports industry. We keep getting creative sports wise, and that way, we can keep sport interesting and never boring. People who like both sports, can now go loose on these combo sports. Personally, I like swimming, and I like yoga. And in these busy days I can imagine it’s nice to sort of combine these two in one lesson. Two in one! This way, sports like these can improve people’s quality of life because they can do more in a shorter amount of time. Of course, you can also keep doing both if you want, but it’s nice that nowadays, we have the opportunity to do something special.

I would love to see how this will develop. Maybe like I said, we could do team sports on these floating things, or who knows what they will come up with in the years to come. Perhaps, a whole new sport will develop, who knows!

Source 

Blending Sectors

The city of Breda is been busy the last couple of years and it’s stil developing new things to improve the city’s experience. Last year they started building a whole new station to improve a traveller’s experience. Last week I heard about a new project which is about to be built in Breda. A new event location including a cinema, a kids hall, an outdoor area, mini golf and bowling facilities, an event hall and a huge sports store. In short: everything a person could want.

Seeing this from a Lifestyle point of view this is interesting in the sectors Living, Human Movement and Leisure. Lately we see more and more of these things combined in one location. More and more we see combinations between all sectors in one place, which is convenient for people because they don’t need to travel very far to satisfy their needs.

In this complex you can (some parts about to be finished in 2016) spend a whole day, as well as with or without the kids. For Breda this is a good thing, because with this complex you have everything in one location, which has a downside for for example the other cinema in Breda, because the new Kinepolis is huge and has about 20 million visitors a year. So this whole complex has a big influence on the leisure, living as well as human movement sector in Breda and its surrounding cities.

As for me, I think it’s cool that Breda is getting a new event hall, which means that big artists may come and perform here, as sports is not really my cup of tea.

Source: http://stappen-shoppen.nl/articles/425

KITT 2.0

Connect, connect, connect. It looks as if we want to connect everything with everything these days. Some say it’s a bit overdone. However, this can be convenient at some points, also when it comes to driving eco friendly.

What is it?

Automatic is an app which is now available in the United States. The app is free, but you must buy the device for $99.95. you plug in the device and then it’s connected with your phone through a Bluetooth 4.0 connection. After that, it looks as if your car is alive and is talking through your phone. When the engine needs to be looked after, your phone gets the message. When you’re wasting gas because of your driving style, your phone gets the message. In short: your car starts thinking for you.

 

Why is it cool?

A major trend these days is ‘The Quantified Self.’ This means that automatic devices can think for us and give us tips to improve our lifestyle for instance. This Automatic device becomes the link between you and your car, when the car needs something, you will know. It can also help you save money on gas because the car recognizes your driving style and saves it, then coming with an advice on how to save gas.

 

Why has it future growth potential?

Because, in order to be sustainable, we can use technology. We don’t have to think ourselves but the machines do it for us. That can be a little creepy, but if it works, why not? Again, this is also still developing and it has to be optimized for daily use. But in the future I can imagine people driving in 3D printed cars using this app. Because it’s convenient and also eco friendly, and – who doesn’t like that – it saves money. Yay!

 

Sources:

https://www.automatic.com/

http://techcrunch.com/2014/01/28/automatic-ibeacon/