Forum Discussion
Treadmill concept : Hip Control
Most VR Treadmills I've seen so far are built around the idea of including a mobile 360° rotating part (usually a ring) that let's you face and walk in the real life direction you want. But what if...
I did something similiar a year or so back with a wii board, using the balance changes that occur with movement to control an avatar in VR
It worked pretty well but like most things in VR one problem solved reveals yet another problem. Using your body for movement creates certain expectations, if you shift to move forward you expect to move forward, yet your avatar may collide with a wall, or other object, and the lack of immediate physical feedback telling you that you have hit something and the direction of the obstruction creates a very unsettling, potentially nightmare level of terror effect.
We've all had those nightmares where you are running your hardest but you just don't go anywhere, that is what it's like hitting an obstacle in vr with no feedback as to what has caused you to stop moving.
After my experiments with a wiiboard something like the omni looks like a machine for inducing terror.
It worked pretty well but like most things in VR one problem solved reveals yet another problem. Using your body for movement creates certain expectations, if you shift to move forward you expect to move forward, yet your avatar may collide with a wall, or other object, and the lack of immediate physical feedback telling you that you have hit something and the direction of the obstruction creates a very unsettling, potentially nightmare level of terror effect.
We've all had those nightmares where you are running your hardest but you just don't go anywhere, that is what it's like hitting an obstacle in vr with no feedback as to what has caused you to stop moving.
After my experiments with a wiiboard something like the omni looks like a machine for inducing terror.