GhostRunner Wants To Reinvent The Way You Train for Sports

Three years ago, before anyone in the public knew of a thing called Google Glass, Ryan Fink had a vision to reinvent the way people exercise and train for sports. Ryan Fink is the founder of OnTheGo Platforms, a startup that wants to be what Nike+ is for the iPod and iPhone, for wearable technologies such as Google Glass and Vuzix’s M100.

The company is currently working on its first product called GhostRunner, an app geared towards runners. “We’re all runners and soccer players,” said Ty Frackiewicz, Co-founder and UX/UI Designer of OnTheGo Platforms, which explains why it appears they thought of everything when it comes to what the app can do. GhostRunner will start off as an iOS and Android app that can be used without wearable technology, but will definitely be enhanced if you have a pair of Smart Glasses such as Vuzix M100’s or Google Glass.

How does it work?

Let’s say you’re in Central Park and you want to go for a run, without any wearable technology, the app will let you search for an existing run (done by someone else), once you find a course you like, you can select it and your headphones will tell you all the information about your run such as your pace, splits, and even heart rate (if you have a heart rate monitor). Plus, you will be able to challenge your friends to the same race and see where they rank against you on a leaderboard.

But what if you have wearable technology and you are using GhostRunner? Well, that’s where it gets really interesting. In addition to the features I mentioned above, if you have a pair of Smart Glasses and are use GhostRunner, the first time you run a course, the app will display all sorts of information to you that you can see while you run, such as your pace, distance, speed, heart rate, and even a map of where you are. Then, the second time you run the same course, it’ll overlay a “ghost” of you from the previous run, so you can see how much better or worse you’re doing compared to your last run. That is incredible and is definitely something many runners would appreciate.

Take a look at the video below to get a better idea.

Additionally, I was told by Mr. Frackiewicz that you’ll be able to see your friends heads pop-up (taken from their Facebook/Twitter profile photo) on the “ghosts” body if you’re challenging them. That’s awesome.

Mr. Fink has been working with Paul Travers, Founder and CEO, of Vuzix for the past three years in his quest to develop the first of OnTheGo Platforms products, GhostRunner. The first prototype of GhostRunner made its way into the world two years ago, and has been continually developed ever since. Right now, the OnTheGo Platforms team is still getting all the kinks worked out of GhostRunner before they launch a beta program.

According to Mr. Frackiewicz, the company is planning to hold a similar campaign to Google’s #IfIHadGlass contest, but instead, it would be #IfIHadGhostRunner, where they would select people who they think would use GhostRunner to its full potential. The company is even considering sponsoring marathon runners.

Overall, the team expects the software to be done by late-spring at which point they hope to be able to get it integrated with hardware partners such as Apple and Google. I’m also told that the company has plans to expand from just running to biking, skiing, and even snow boarding. Plus, the company currently holds four patents, which it plans to use to expand its lineup of products past just sports.

If you had any questions as to why you would want to get a pair of Smart Glasses, the answer is apps like GhostRunner. It’s going to be apps like GhostRunner that are what differentiate wearable technologies from smartphones.