how about a manual ODT made of old deo roll-ons? maybe it´s totally stupid, i don´t know if they would carry the weight...but if properly aligned, do you think this could work? I´m a total noob but i was wondering if somebody could give me feedback on this? Greetings

I think the problem is with balls that are fairly big, when nothing is covering them, the distance between the contact surface/top of the balls become so wide that if feels like a bumpy surface.

If you get the weight evenly distributed, the balls wont collapse, but if you put your heel and weight on one, im almost certain it will.

But keep working on your concept, maybe you find a solution to the bumpyness and weight distribution.

Thanks for the feedback Yeah I was wondering if one could bypass the bumpiness feeling with some army boots or something I just had this idea yesterday and i thought that if it works it could be a really cheap method to do natural walking in place and even to the sides Maybe i just should start building it and see if it can carry the my body weight without collapsing. Greetings

Do you plan on driving it with a rotating belt below, or just have very low friction and free rolling?

There are also mini deo roll ons, that could reduce the spacing between the spheres a lot

i would like to try the freerolling The friction of a normal Deo Roll On is actually quite nice...i dont know how it feels walking on it but i would like to try

If you



Lets say you use a ball shaped drill bit, to make the socket for the ball. Under the plate with all the sockets, there is a air sealed box with a powerful airfan/pump.

If you drill tiny holes through the pockets and insert balls, then proceed to pump air into the box, the only way the air can escape is through the holes between the ball and the socket.

This works like air hockey and should result in low friction.

Edit;
What I mean is with that technique you might be able to use some heavier duty balls.
Is the friction on a deo roller really good without any moisture left?

Sounds good! MAybe it´s really dumb but my idea was to use whole deo roll ons with the "bottle" that holds the sphere and then align the bottles in a custom shaped box so they couldn´t move and then try to walk on it....i´m sure with a few tweaks it could work....i don´t know anything about tracking the body with motion sensors but if it would be possible to track the legs and then translate that into walking in a 3D Fps was the idea that i had...dunno if that is possible though with current technology

It would only be possible of course it it could carry my weight but i´m not really sure about that

The question is A) how is the friction with no moisture left to "grease" it? B) How is the friction when you apply pressure? Especially without moisture?

Why dont you dry out a "bottle" of that stuff, clean it, and apply pressure to the ball while rolling.
See how the friction feels.

Yup those are my questions too Really appreciating the feedback! Thanks! I will try that out as soon as i have a collection of them Looking for a spot online where i can order them in bulk

I like this idea. Using the bottles themselves would allow for very quick prototyping. This device would be analogous to the Wizdish which is also passive and requires third-party motion detection software. You could use the same Kinect script support that Wizdish is using to track motion.

Thanks brantlew! I hope if it works that the walking would feel almost natural

Unfortunately my background is in 3D modelling... I really don´t know anything about tracking, coding, etc...but I´m really enthusiastic about the Rift!

Well if you can demonstrate that it works mechanically there a bunch of people (including myself) that can lend a hand with software support. My biggest concern is that without any counter-friction it will be too slippery. The other prototype that I saw like this used ball-bearings and it had a motorized belt track underneath to provide stability and controlled motion.

I thought about buying one of those cheap water walking balls, pump it up and epoxy fibre glass sheets on it to make it rigid without air.



http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Fun-Water-Walking-Zorb-Ball-Pool-Human-Hamster-with-TZip-/320979386284?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4abbdcbfac#ht_948wt_1188

Then make a simple dome with ball roller bearings such as this



I have an old render I did for my idea here



It would cost around 300 dollars to make with all materials, but it would not be transparent so Kinect would not work with it, and it requires a lot of space.

Yes will try to experiment with that soon Thanks

yeah that is a great idea too!

Making a sphere like that gets you something like the VirtuSphere, only heavier and with even more severe inertial problems.

I didn't think about inertia, thanks for the input.

Not sure if this idea would work, but I like this kind of thinking.

I can only speak for myself but, honestly just playing with all these ideas, even if it results in nothing is half the fun.
And I also enjoy watching others, that had my ideas before me, in a much more elaborate and clever way.
I'm glad I discovered this forum, and all the crazy, rinkydink ideas as well as very solid ones.

You might be able to overcome it by motorizing the platform, at least partially. The easiest way I can think to do it would be to have an optical mouse looking at the bottom of the sphere, and whenever it detects a slight amount of motion in a particular direction, it would engage motorized wheels along that axis of motion to help get it moving.

You would want the motorized wheels to have limited torque, though, so that the user would be able to change directions/slow down/stop. Perhaps use plastic wheels on the motors that would slip on the surface if enough opposing forced was put on them?

I had a thought about an active VirtuSphere because you could solve the inertia problem, but I think the actual tracking is hard... Also, it would be possible to model rolling terrain by varying the user's position inside the sphere.

EDIT: What Palmer said.

I was also concerned that even if those balls are inflated with a high pressure, they wouldn't keep round enough while applying fibre glass. I have worked a little with carbon fibre as well, but the cost of that would be too high for me compared to the risk of failure.

My first idea with those single wall balls, was a little different but the time you spend inside them is limited to 30mins.
Ive built an air hockey table before, I could make a dome with the same types of holes in it,
vacuum mold some acrylic sheets and have the ball sitting in that pit with air flowing around it with minimum friction(?). Problem is since it is not rigid , I do not know if it will work when your foot is in contact with the surface. At some point we would have our whole body weight shifted to a small area of our food, and that would maybe be too heavy for the air hockey concept
and soft walls.

But if it would work, the inflated ball weighs almost nothing and is also easy to store away.
Edit;

I think the lightest ball I've seen in those sizes weighs 12kg