My off-the-water project (if you're a runner, take a look...)

Since I'm not riding as often as I used to, I took on a project to keep me busy It's called Zeias (pronounced zee-iss / zee-us) and is a pacing device for running athletes (track and field, marathon training, athlete conditioning, etc.). It's been coming along pretty quickly the last couple of months, so I'm stoked! The best way to think of it is the rabbit at a dog track without the inner rail. It straddles a lane line on an athletics track and is programmed to steer itself along the line (thus having an "infinite" loop), and the athlete can input distance and time, flip the switch, and follow it around the track. I even have it programmed right now for interval work, so one of my workouts is a 300m run, 100m recovery walk, repeat a total of 6 times. I post videos on Instagram, so here's the link for that so you can see exactly how it all happens: https://instagram.com/zeiasinc. If you want to see more info on it, I have a website as well: Zeias.com

Endurance-wise, I haven't tested it all the way to the low voltage detection shutoff on the truck, but I estimate that it'll run for a solid 40+ minutes at a 6-minute mile pace, so pretty good for a long track workout. I only use ~20% of the battery when I do my interval workouts so it's never an issue. The truck is also capable of going 60+ mph, so plenty of speed for the sprinters

If things go right with some fine tuning over the next several days, I'll be taking a little road trip to Florida to train with my old college team and a buddy that is training for Rio (ran at London in 2012 too). Pretty pumped for it! Here's a pic of the little beast...

Thats really cool!

Pretty cool, would it be able to follow a painted line on grass?

Thanks!!

Ryan, technically yes, but preferrably not. It would have to be short grass to avoid drag, and it's still a little tricky then because of the angle of the camera and getting glare off of grass and such. With a polarized filter (which I haven't added to it yet) it would be able to track that kind of line better.

Very cool! I am not a competitive runner by any means, but is it distracting to follow something like that down around your feet? I guess you could always back up a few steps. I also noticed in the videos that there is pretty pronounced swaying. Are you working on ways to smooth that out?

Doing this all on your own or have you started a crowd funding campaign?

Adam, I don't find it to be distracting at all. With it a few feet in front of me, I'm not staring down at all since I can spot it from the corner of my eye and I can tell if I'm falling off pace or not. Plus it's somewhat noisy so I can even run beside it and be totally fine. The steering on the truck that I modified is a bit loose and sloppy... I'm trying to come up with a way to make it more rigid but haven't found a good solution yet. Over the last few days I've changed the line tracking code some and it's not as sloppy on the line like the videos show. So far I've done everything myself... getting it to a point where I can actually sell the idea with a solid prototype rather than just sell the idea. Might look towards a Kickstarter campaign in a couple of months though, we shall see!

i dont run, but that is awesome!

especially your skills!

very very cool. get a patent before some else does

newwhit, thank you!!

Cliff, thanks! It's actually patent pending currently. I submitted a provisional patent in November of 2013 and a non-provisional this past November. Waiting to hear from the patent office for further action. I've actually patented a flying version of it as well (drone) and some various embodiments of it, so hopefully I covered all of my bases!

Very cool.
I would think if you switch the wheels on the truck to somthing with better rolling resistance you could better the endurance (longer battery life) of the truck. I understand the monster truck is just a proof of concept / test mule but once you get it going I can see this also as a safety device IE headlights to light the way for night runners / walkers ect. Also could double as a Dash Cam sort of device for people walking. Lots of potential.

Grant, I've thought about using it for night running as well... would be cool to hook up a strip of bright LED's to lead the way! Plus, lets people go to the track without the need to get the lights turned on... could be pretty nice to do that. As for the tires, I absolutely agree. The tires on there are relatively soft... definitely going to look into a harder tire. Thanks for the suggestion!