Comments on: Enhancing the Virtual Reality experience

By: comment

comment — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 02:52:35 +0000

this is pretty cool, the people walking walk slower than they do in reality

By: renderanything

renderanything — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 23:27:59 +0000

Interesting technology, but there are better ideas out there.
I’ve personally test-driven a system that used roller skate like devices strapped to the feet and a stabilization/directional bar. As you walked, the roller skatey things on your feet sensed when your foot was on the ground and motors inside them moved your foot backward a pre determined distance. After only a minute of acclimatisation I was roaming freely in a virtual neighborhood, navigating turns and moving along at a pretty good speed.
My favorite idea so far though has to be the fixed platform whose surface is omnidirectional. Lots of sensors and reaction mechanisms for that design though.

By: Zach

Zach — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 18:29:36 +0000

Reminds me of X-Men when Magneto walks across tiles of metal…

As somebody else said, putting the VR user in a giant hamster ball that rolls in place is almost certainly a better idea…. the only problem being a lack of height differential.

By: I C Kook

I C Kook — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 17:57:04 +0000

That’s Kooky. Totally Kooky, I tell ya!

By: Viola

Viola — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 13:41:52 +0000

Bad idea. Cool, but not marketable.

By: Ray

Ray — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 11:46:39 +0000

I like the Roman numerals – very retro! But a stupid idea, however clever mechanically.

By: just a guy

just a guy — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 08:07:29 +0000

What about having it on carpets? or what if you fall over from poor balance – will the other tiles whack into you? What about having a pet dart by?

By: SenorMysterioso

SenorMysterioso — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 08:03:45 +0000

why not just have a large ball to move on

By: Josh

Josh — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 04:26:39 +0000

This reminds me of a level called Reconstruct in UT2004 that came in CBP2 where the floor is not there but as you get closer the floor forms from a bunch of small rocks right in front of you. When in the middle you only have a circle of rocks around you.

If they can manage to get it as fast as it was in the game I see no reason running or any movement would be too fast for it. It will only take time to tweak it more and more.

By: Bonehead108

Bonehead108 — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 02:25:32 +0000

Imagine playing Super Mario Bros on this thing.

By: VonSkippy

VonSkippy — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 23:58:09 +0000

No matter how much “better” it gets, having the platform move around the human is just a bad idea.

They’d be better off to have a fixed (i.e. non-moving) platform and put the robotics and mult-directional wheels into shoes the human wears (or probably big clunky wired boots for the first few designs).

By controlling the direction, speed, and/or friction of each wheel, they would be able to do the same thing as the moving platform.

Tilt/raise/lower the stationary platform (and add the corresponding friction/movement to the correct wheels) and you could simulate going up or down a hill.

By: Wes

Wes — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 21:46:11 +0000

Unless, of course, time doesn’t stand still and they continue to improve on the idea to make it faster and more responsive.

By: just a guy

just a guy — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 20:23:52 +0000

This is a bad idea for SO many reasons. How could they not see the flaws.

For instance, people don’t walk that slow with little tiny baby steps. You’d practiaclly have to be watching your feet in ‘reality’ to make sure you aren’t going to fast, which defeats the purpose.

In a mass distributed scenario (far off, I know), I garuntee people will injure themselves.