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coffee's avatar
coffee
Honored Guest
11 years ago

[KAT WALK]- Our New Omni-directional Treadmill

We start a Kickstarter Campaign!
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ka ... ion-device


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Our team, named KAT, have developed a set of VR locomotion input device which may solve part of the problems of natural walking and with low constraint.


The prototype in this video has been posted on June 8th at TechCrunch China,and now we are going to land on Kickstarter on Jun-29.
We are a young team, we want to share with you our prototype solution and see what you guys think of it.
Glad if anyone can give us some advise or suggestion : )

4 Replies

  • This look better than those garbage sliding treadmills like Cyberith and Omni treadmill.
  • coffee's avatar
    coffee
    Honored Guest
    "reptilexcq" wrote:
    This look better than those garbage sliding treadmills like Cyberith and Omni treadmill.


    Thank you for your support :)
    We just want to offer another solution : D
  • dekdo's avatar
    dekdo
    Honored Guest
    That looks really good! I can only imagine how much this improves the experience
  • Better late then never :

    Likes :
    - I really like the concept of being attached by the top (as others have done), but without having to attach anything to the ceiling.
    - I like how it frees up the space around you by getting rid of the ring (and it's supports).
    - I think that the selling point of the chair is that the space doesn't go to waste when the treadmill isn't been used.
    - I thought I could fault you on the price, but it's in the same price range as the solutions it's competing against.

    Dislikes :
    - I'm worried it might tilt over ? But I think you addressed that issue by "limiting your horizontal movement range".

    Suggestions :
    - Maybe provide a lid for the treadmill, so you can put your own chair on it (or something else) when it's not being used.
    - A square base for the treadmill could further improve the stability, if needed.
    - Offer the option to bolt down the treadmill, to meet a higher security requirement for public use.
    - Can't the carrying arm be built using much less volume by using less plastic casing, to reduce the production cost, greatly reduce the shipping volume, and make it more convenient to store away.
    - This equipment looks like it could be used in a hospital for people who have to learn back how to walk. Have you thought of contacting a hospital to see what they think of it, or see what kind of advanced equipment they are using for that purpose which could inspire you new ideas for your own treadmill ?
    - The hook could be physically restricted to a limited amount of rotations in either direction, to help solve the wire wrapping problem.

    Questions :
    - Since it can carry your weight, I wonder to which extent this kind of treadmill could be used for skydiving, flying like superman, or scuba diving, as some VR experiences allow you to do, if only by limiting it's rotation in that case so that your legs can't face the carrying arm when using it that way ? In fact just suspending you without allowing you to rotate your body would be plenty already for that, then using simple head tracking or even a wireless joystick instead of full body tracking to choose the direction you're heading.