We were watching Modern Family last night and the subject of running/fitness came up for some reason. My wife and I are doing the Amsterdam Marathon (Half in my case) and Oisín had the genius idea that treadmills should be able to imitate any route by changing the incline as you run. Then he suggested showing a map too. We riffed for a few minutes and came up with the ultimate treadmill which need only be a few Euro more than anything already on the market.
So the treadmill would have a microUSB input obeying the Android Open Accessory standard. You would have a cradle to hold an Android Tablet or phone which would be running a massively expanded version of CardioTrainer or RunKeeper. You input "Amsterdam Marathon 2011" on the Android device and you would get a Google Maps Streetview display of the route. The app would then use the Open Accessory input to set the treadmill at whatever your hoped-for speed was and change the incline to match the real route as you progress along. You would then have a very clear idea of what you need to do in order to hit a particular time.
I'd kill for something like that. You could even split the screen between Streetview and whatever TV/movies you normally watch when running on the treadmill.
The only things it couldn't do are downhill, wind and rain. That would be v2.0 
Oisín wants to know when he'll get his first check from whoever runs with this idea. He has a 3DS on his shopping list.
You’re on to something. I don’t know if there are treadmills with this available, but my nephew bought something like this to train for bike races. He can clamp his bike into it, then I think it connects to his TV to show some kind of animation from Google Maps while it adjusts the tension on his bike wheel to simulate the terrain.
Interesting that the focus seems to be on bikes. Easier to instrument I guess? @eirepreneur pointed me to this too: http://lettesblog.wordpress.com/2010/10/28/escapism-pedal-through-google-stre…
Similar to this? http://mashable.com/2011/01/12/virtual-run-feels-rea/
Yup but the idea is that this is”Open”. Any treadmill, any Tablet, as long as they are using the licence-free Android Open Accessory. Ask any iPhone dock maker how much they are paying Apple for the privilege of using their interface.
I’m sure that there are USB-controlled water pistols — there are the USB rocket launchers. Rain problem? Solved! Actually, the ‘burning sun’ might be harder to replicate. Heat lamps? I imagine that the firmware running on the ‘mills would be pretty basic. You could probably hack something together on an Arduino (which would also add the USB support; although Bluetooth would be preferable). You’d have to solder connections to the on-treadmill board then (and it would have to be a good job, to handle all the vibration from the running.
A project for a cold winter night sometime!