![Woot! :woot](./images/smilies/woot.gif)
Have you tried talking with the Oculus team? Perhaps you three (JanVR + WizDish + Oculus) could work together to make this a reality in the commercial space.
Yes, that's the big issue with the powered shoes and mechanical systems in general.brantlew wrote:One problem with any active devices is that it is really hard to remove all of the latency out of the system - especially when dealing with motion prediction of a self motivated person instead of a natural system. Even those hundred thousand dollar treadmill devices have enough latency in them that they require practice and/or a safety harness to maintain balance. The strength of both the WizDish and this device is that they are passive and so side-step this complexity and latency issue.
If your walking has latency it would probably feel like you're stuck in sand, or like you're moonwalking...virror wrote:Well, i don't think that's a problem for 2 small motors. Regarding latency btw, i think walking have a lot higher latency tolerance than head movement, arm are are probably in between.
and up and down stairs?rhinosix wrote:How does it feel walking up and down hills?
GeraldT, I tend to disagree. Similar comments were probably made at the dawn of personal computers. Escaping from reality and bringing the mind into a virtual world is the purpose of all forms of entertainment, and something that a large audience is longing for. The immersion when walking in a VR environment is mind blowing. The key is to make a locomotion device that works great and feels natural, fits in a living room, and is affordable for household consumers. I believe my experimental set-up might have the potential to achieve that. If successful, I think you will see a much larger market than you currently envision. And if we can dream for a moment, I could see a VR setup with a Rift and a locomotion device be part of any living room in the future. The applications are limitless and go far beyond gaming.This is something you sell to the military, not the consumer.
I wonder how many kicks or jumps it will take while wearing a Rift to have an unwanted close encounter with a child or pet, like some of these where the user's peripheral vision was NOT blocked:GeraldT wrote:... I still doubt it would allow me to do a kick or jump. ...
MSat wrote:It dawned on my that my proposed design wouldn't allow the user to lean forwards or side-to-side, which might kinda suck. Instead, a waist+thigh harness could possibly be used, but likely at the expense of some comfort. The basic design should still work though.
If you allow turning, then you probably have to go full 360°, otherwise you would have to recenter yourself far too often and that would break immersion. In the case of Red Rovr in a large area, redirection would be far less frequent so it wouldn't be such a big deal.Leahy wrote:That last design looks good MSat. I don't think that full 360° turning is necessary, maybe 90° each way then have springs to recenter you, perhaps with something along the lines of Red Rover's redirectioning. I was considering a suspension like Palmertech posted yet for a commercially viable solution I think it's better to have something that doesn't require it to be mounted to the ceiling. Although following his comment of walking while being 50lbs instead of 200 you would need a very sensitive height control so that users can adjust easily their desired degree of suspension. That could probably be done almost entirely with the straps I'd figure
It can also allow for dives to the 'ground', and running.... and deekin' n' sneakin'. whoops. made it big again. the last time I tried to look at this stuff, was about 15-20 years or more back. Wires, harnesses, and so on. The human body is quite the challenge.MSat wrote:Cool! Something like this is more ideal for a low friction surface like the wizdish rather than just shimmying around with no support, IMO.
I might sound like a broken record, as I've mentioned it several times now, but I think a more ideal configuration would be if your body was held in place by a fixed backpack harness, allowing a more natural sense of walking in addition to it being completely hands free. Another benefit to such a harness is that the "tugging" force your body would exert on it would be similar to the feel of trying to move with a heavy-ish backpack due to its inertia, and in a sense imitate natural acceleration forces. Because it uses a harness, it also has an inherent safety mechanism, not to mention that the whole system could likely be smaller because of the naturally limited area your legs would be able to cover if your body is kept in one place. Just a thought.
MSat wrote: If you allow turning, then you probably have to go full 360°, otherwise you would have to recenter yourself far too often and that would break immersion. In the case of Red Rovr in a large area, redirection would be far less frequent so it wouldn't be such a big deal.
I don't know if weight suspension is really the way to go, as it would take away a lot of the naturalness of walking. Even if mechanical stresses are a concern, weigh suspension still shouldn't be necessary as there are durable low friction materials such as teflon which are a cheap and simple solution.
I had mentioned that my body harness system as previously described wouldn't allow upper body rotations, but I think I have a solution to that. Instead of the backrest being a single piece, it could consist of two pieces - a lower piece which is a waist support with a horizontal belt that attaches rigidly to the support platform so that it has no point of articulation other than perhaps some vertical motion, and an upper backrest with a horizontal strap that runs across the chest (right below the user's arms) that connects to the lower support, but has limited articulation in pitch, yaw and roll. This would allow more natural upper body movements while still providing sufficient safety support and overall comfort.
MrGreen wrote:
Now drop Sketch-Up and go build one so we know for sure.
Leahy wrote:
I am having a hard time visualizing what you just wrote, if I understand correctly the waist is held rigid and would hold the user if he slips? As a waist support I was initially thinking tight bungee cords attached to a climbing harness with the ring like in the video he posted but a bit higher around stomach level. Kinda like a grown-up baby-walker sort of thing.
I came so close to spraying the surface with some lithium grease, but then I realized it would be all fun and games until it was time to clean up.geekmaster wrote:I wonder if you could cut down some Teflon coated cross-country skis, and slide them over a Teflon pad, to reduce friction. Perhaps some silicone spray could help too.
But if you get rid of all the friction, won't it be like trying to walk on a skating rink? I think part of the cleverness of JanVR's setup are the grooves in the shoes and the surface which allow you to move without slipping.geekmaster wrote:I wonder if you could cut down some Teflon coated cross-country skis, and slide them over a Teflon pad, to reduce friction. Perhaps some silicone spray could help too.
It is infinite because it is toroidal, composed of a large treadmill carrying many smaller transverse mounted treadmills, as shown here:Popopinsel wrote:And does anybody know how this thing works? Is it really infinite?
Heh. I'm glad I could help!MSat wrote:Thanks for the motivation to put my money where my mouth was MrGreen