its called!: the bouldertron.... really? that's what ya got? well the links to this thing were all dead with the website burried. but i dont give up so easily in my quest to give you kids pictures of random she-ite! i turned to my favorite internet tool.... Google image search. from there i FOUND! .....nothing ...nada. zip. zilch. how could this be? a reference to a climbing machine i had never heard of and now i cant even research it. boo! seriously boo.
eventually i broadened out and start looking for the company cragmaker. still nothing. then i went out for the guy who own the company off a vague posting i found. in the end here's what i found out, an article from this website: http://www.absolutionla.com/html/climbing_pg3.html
About Jim Strickler and CRAGMAKER:
What do your get when you cross an expert climber and adventurist with a cornell Engineering PhD? You get jim strickler, creator of CRAGMAKER climbing, a computerized climbing wall that actually progresses with you as you learn. Climbing is a multilayered sport and is a combination of physical dexterity and the ability to problem solve….like doing crossword puzzles while standing on a galloping horse.By training on our climbing wall, not only are you developing the power to hoist yourself up by your fingertips, you are learning the different ways you can move your body to decipher a rock face and climb it most efficiently. Another often misunderstood issue around climbing is that you have to be tied to a sixty in the air by a harness (we love that, too, and to learn about our rock climbing and alpining packages click here). Intense climbing includes “boulering” and traversing”, both which leave you only inches or feet off the ground and still involve every inch of stamina and muscle you ever conjured up in your life. CRAGMAKER climbing walls use the CRAGMAKER BRAIN, a computer system designed to keep you on your toes, literally. By climbing only lighted routes, the computer suggests climbs that challenge you and require a constant, consistent improvements in your training. A fantastic training tool for serious climbers and a great learning apparatus for discovering the adventurer within.
Ah Ha HA hah ha ha HA ah HA ha!!! ".....just like Jennifer Garner"?! ha ha ah ha haah ha ha!!!!
oh my, well i guess this thing must be good! seriously though, would you guys begrudge me if i decided not to take a testimonial about rock climbing from JENNY GARNER?
oh my, well i guess this thing must be good! seriously though, would you guys begrudge me if i decided not to take a testimonial about rock climbing from JENNY GARNER?
Anyway so that article still really didnt tell me about the wall. but it gave me a name.... so i started searching patents.... im sick i know. that led me finally to something worth while! i found this article from WIRED magazine:
Rock climbers are a unique breed. They're adrenaline junkies, constantly looking for new challenges. But real cliffs aren't always accessible to city dwellers. And the next-best things -- climbing gyms -- are often located in remote warehouse districts that afford them the necessary space. Plus, scaling the same wall over and over can get kind of boring.
Jim Strickler has invented an indoor climbing wall that can be set up almost anywhere and instantly mapped with completely new routes, lighted by glowing footholds. "We want to downsize the facilities -- take them out of industrial zones and bring them into neighborhoods, and make more of a community-based experience for the individual," Strickler said.
In 1994, while he was working at a consulting firm in Manhattan, Strickler wanted to be able to climb without traveling too far. But his options were limited in the crowded city. What's more, most climbing gyms create courses by marking footholds with colored tape. Altering courses is fairly labor intensive. That means gyms need lots of space so they can supply a variety of paths without frequent tape changes.
In 1994, while he was working at a consulting firm in Manhattan, Strickler wanted to be able to climb without traveling too far. But his options were limited in the crowded city. What's more, most climbing gyms create courses by marking footholds with colored tape. Altering courses is fairly labor intensive. That means gyms need lots of space so they can supply a variety of paths without frequent tape changes.
"Part of the excitement and challenge and fun is discovering how to do the different routes," Strickler said. Strickler, who holds a doctorate in applied physics, realized that if he wanted to climb in Manhattan, he had to come up with an alternative route-changing system. One day, a light bulb went on (pun intended). Strickler's idea: mark climbing courses with LEDs next to footholds, instead of tape. Changing a route is as easy as selecting a new one from a database. But like most good ideas, Strickler's inspiration didn't work exactly as he first envisioned it. The LEDs weren't bright enough, for one thing.
Then, he and his partners ran out of money as soon as they completed their first prototype. Strickler went back to work at a banking firm, but in 1999 when the economic implosion began, he got the itch to revisit development of his patented rock wall. By then, LED technology had improved, so the lights were bright enough to illuminate the entire foothold. Picture Dance Dance Revolution, the dancing game that kids are into these days, and make it vertical. Strickler and his team, which included some friends and some hired engineers, designed a bunch of holds and the walls to stick them on. They also developed a database of climbing routes for every level of difficulty.
In the next six months, Strickler plans to incorporate tactile technology that records a climber's progress and allows for automated scoring in competitions. Eventually, he wants to connect climbers on the Internet and hold real-time competitions between people in different cities. Mykael Lazzeri, a veteran climbing instructor at Mission Cliffs in San Francisco, thinks glowing climbing walls sound "cool," but not totally necessary. His gym changes its climbing routes plenty often, he said. "Course setters come in every week and change separate sections of the gym. It rotates every week in cycles, and it's a completely different gym every two months." Lazzeri also said climbers will always want tall walls, which need a large space.
"There's still a place for tall climbing gyms," Strickler said, "but we just think there are a lot more places for bouldering studios." Lazzeri suggested that the glowing walls might be a draw for nightclubs. Strickler said his prototype gym, Red Rox Climbing in Los Angeles, was designed in the spirit of a club, minus the liquor. The walls are painted black and Turkish rugs are spread on the floor. Patrons are encouraged to bring their favorite music. "Our place has a club atmosphere, but the only drug we serve is adrenaline," he said. With a monthly membership fee of only $25, and without any promotion, he's accrued 50 members. He'll open a second site in December in Santa Monica. "People (in the L.A. area) are very willing to try new things," he said. "It's also a huge media town -- we've already had numerous TV shows filming at our site." Those include MTV's Taildaters and Toughenough, as well as Blind Date.
The venture has turned into a two-pronged business. The first, CragMaker, manufactures and sells various models of the lighted climbing walls. One of them is the Bouldertron, a $10,000, 12-foot-high, 7-foot-wide wall that incorporates 25 levels of difficulty. It can fit in a regular gym, and Strickler also hopes to sell it to schools -- and even to homeowners. The other part of the company aims to help budding climbing-gym owners start their own businesses. "A lot of people who would like to operate a climbing gym might not have the business experience," Strickler said. "We're putting together a franchise package that would include equipment but would also help them with site selection, financing, business systems ... promotion...." Strickler has high hopes for the far-reaching effects of his rock walls. When hooked to a computer, climbing becomes just as addictive as any thumb-based game, he said, and it gives the same type of instant gratification that video games do. "We think it's going to be the gaming platform that's going to save the nation's youth from the obesity epidemic," he said. "It turns the wall into a huge joystick."
sounds like a poopy flavored lolly pop to me! normally i would digress and tear an article apart.... but you read it. if you didnt come to the same opinion as i have (WORST IDEA EVER!) i honestly think there is no helping you. plus, i think the public pretty much did agree because....where is this thing now? ...that's right gone. oh pictures!... thousand words! ...they all say EW.
oh treadwall you were never in any real danger...
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