Holy Grail of ODTs?

[colocolo]

as you may know Speedfit creates motorless unidirectional treadmills.
although its not an ODT i find the design very interesting.
They have now made a new prototype, that works with omnidirectional balls.
If you would design a circular form you would have damn good ODT without the need of sliding one foot back like with the Omni. Is that the holy grail of ODTs?

[youtube-hd]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7vYd7m ... m9x2nbqoSQ[/youtube-hd]

[shent1080]

I have to be honest, that looks amazing, very natural and if formed into a dome could in fact be the holy grail, I've got a feeling and hoping that the Viiwok uses the same or similar tech.

[colocolo]

I have to be honest, that looks amazing, very natural and if formed into a dome could in fact be the holy grail, I've got a feeling and hoping that the Viiwok uses the same or similar tech.

yeah, i hope also the Viiwok will be great. It will use omnidirectional balls mounted onto the soles.
The gait mechanism will work like the one of the Omni i think but it will have balls that roll. I never used an Omni, but i can imagine that this foot-sliding-back mechanism still is not perfection. Anyway this device will be groundbreaking.

[RoTaToR]

They develop 6 years... its now in the 4th Generation, but you can not buy it?

But the 2009 Version is Funny. Reminds me to the Virtua Runner Project...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7V1EL2mHzE

[colocolo]

They develop 6 years... its now in the 4th Generation, but you can not buy it?

But the 2009 Version is Funny. Reminds me to the Virtua Runner Project...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7V1EL2mHzE

yeah, this one is nice. It works actually because many weight is taken away from the ground.
i think Speedfit seems to be a pretty big company. A humongous advertisement contract of 10 million dollars between them and Jessica Simpson has been cancelled someday.
Probably there are some economic reasons why they dont sell them. A treadmill lobby?

[colocolo]

I have to be honest, that looks amazing, very natural and if formed into a dome could in fact be the holy grail, I've got a feeling and hoping that the Viiwok uses the same or similar tech.

Ah yes. The Viiwok should work similar. Its only reverse. That should be also less expensive.

[adventurer]

wow. It looks perfect. However I wonder whether a design with a circular treadmill base on this would work. If yes, it is definitely the holy grail of affordable ODT. But I also think some kind of harness is necessary too. I don't like at all the Omni (Virtuix) cause it look unnatural and the perfomable actions are very limited: you can't crouch, have many free movements. If the circular design of the treadmill above work, it can solve all that problems and utilize positional tracking which the consumer Rift may have. An ultimate affordable treadmill.

[geekmaster]

as you may know Speedfit creates motorless unidirectional treadmills.
although its not an ODT i find the design very interesting.
They have now made a new prototype, that works with omnidirectional balls.
If you would design a circular form you would have damn good ODT without the need of sliding one foot back like with the Omni. Is that the holy grail of ODTs? ...

If you wrap the curved treadmill surface shown in that video around into a dish, it will look very much like this ODT used in the movie "Disclosure" (1994):



Notice how there are no supports, which is one of the primary distinguishing features of the WizDish as described in its patent application. The movie was released several years before the WizDish. One version of the WizDish puts rollers on the shoes (an inversion from that used in the movie), but the newer WizDish version uses pads instead of rollers.

[geekmaster]

Here is another video of this device, as compared to similar curved-surface treadmills:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0n_3JoExy_M

[colocolo]

as you may know Speedfit creates motorless unidirectional treadmills.
although its not an ODT i find the design very interesting.
They have now made a new prototype, that works with omnidirectional balls.
If you would design a circular form you would have damn good ODT without the need of sliding one foot back like with the Omni. Is that the holy grail of ODTs? ...

If you wrap the curved treadmill surface shown in that video around into a dish, it will look very much like this ODT used in the movie "Disclosure" (1994):



Notice how there are no supports, which is one of the primary distinguishing features of the WizDish as described in its patent application. The movie was released several years before the WizDish. One version of the WizDish puts rollers on the shoes (an inversion from that used in the movie), but the newer WizDish version uses pads instead of rollers.

yeah, it thought also about this picture. Funny how things could convert in future.
in the video above a belt was used, however its fun to watch the video twice.

[cybereality]

Hahaahah!!! That video is great!

In all seriousness, though, this product looks very promising. If they made a bowl version it could be the holy grail.

[brantlew]

Interesting. The belt model still had some small issues with inertia - you continued to move backwards even after stopping. It seems like with the ball model this may be less of an issue. Of course I'm reading a lot into such a short demo. Looks great though. I wonder if the design requires a forward-to-back motion or if it could support omnidirectional motion?

[WiredEarp]

Are they using any shoes to run on those devices?

I'd imagine the ball one would be more susceptible to getting dirt and stuff like that gumming up the balls...

[blazespinnaker]

Are they using any shoes to run on those devices?

I'd imagine the ball one would be more susceptible to getting dirt and stuff like that gumming up the balls...

Yes, the typical solution is to use "ball transfer units". These things will wear down if you're big and pounding on them.