Controlling movement with a Wii Balance Board

One huge drawback of that particular setup is that you lose the use of your hands. If you're leaning that far, you'll have to hold on to those bars. The idea is to keep your hands FREE while keeping the movement in your feet/weight. The setup is also much bulkier than the balance board, and I feel like if you're going to build something that big, it might as well be an omni treadmill at that point.

I'm more in favor of something that won't lean enough to require a handlebar. It has to strike the perfect balance where you get a little feedback on the direction without it throwing off your balance.

"Tbone" wrote:
One huge drawback of that particular setup is that you lose the use of your hands. If you're leaning that far, you'll have to hold on to those bars. The idea is to keep your hands FREE while keeping the movement in your feet/weight. The setup is also much bulkier than the balance board, and I feel like if you're going to build something that big, it might as well be an omni treadmill at that point.
I'm more in favor of something that won't lean enough to require a handlebar. It has to strike the perfect balance where you get a little feedback on the direction without it throwing off your balance.

I agree with you. Even if they're very valuable, I think that systems like the joyman or the omni will be a "niche" market because they're bulky and a bit expensive. This is the kind of thing that you'll have in your garage or into a room dedicated to VR (if you can afford one). Anyway, it's always interesting to see systems like these ones.

On my side, I'm more interested (at the moment) by lean based navigation systems because they allow to work with equilibrioception, the other component of our walking activity. I believe it can really help to decrease motion sickness.

As some others, I think a balance board with 2 or 3 additional sensors like hydra (1 for neck or chest tracking and 1 or 2 used as tools kept in hands) should become the most natural, affordable and practical solution for a while.
On my side, I've started to do some experiments with a kinect, but it's mainly because I've already got one at work and because it's a all-in-one device allowing to manage lean based navigation, neck tracking and avateering at the same time. Imho, its main default is not latency but its cost which remains expensive compared to the balance board + hydra solution.

For those that have messed around with this a bit, what demos did you find to be the better experiences?

Has anyone actually tried the Wii Balance Board + Rift?

Yes, it works but be aware that because there is no positional tracking, leaning can trigger motion sickness, and navigating tight areas can be tricky. It is best used sitting down and with look direction based navigation.

"whoisrich" wrote:
Yes, it works but be aware that because there is no positional tracking, leaning can trigger motion sickness, and navigating tight areas can be tricky. It is best used sitting down and with look direction based navigation.

What about toddling/jogging in place (like you see it in wii fit games)? It will require a bit more effort but should help with motion sickness. Moving backwards and sideways can be triggered by leaning while moving forward is achieved with toddling.

Anyone tried that?

Have you thought about using the board as a static controller, what I mean is that it would be more immersive and natural if you do wii board hack like mounting the hardware into a square or round set up so you could turn your body freely with out fear of falling off the platform and using your weight to move more like north, south, west, east kind of control, instead of front, back, right left. That way you would actually turn your body and head the way you want to look and but move with your wait independent and that way you don't have to turn your body with the Hydra.

The thing is that turning your body with the hydra makes the experience more la ps move fps experience than a vr free movement experience.

you actually would want to turn around when you feel something behind you, instead of leaning right until you are facing the right way.

I mean at least for the hydra we know there is a wireless version coming so wires are not going to be a problem in the near future, and the interaction should be as natural as possible,with a minimal learning curve.

My Rift just showed up. I'll finally be able to test the Wii Balance Board while in Rift. I'll post my thoughts as soon as I have some free time. Today also marks the first day of a two week intensive course I have to pass in order to further my day job. 8 hours a day of data cramming.

"Infinimitsu" wrote:
My Rift just showed up. I'll finally be able to test the Wii Balance Board while in Rift. I'll post my thoughts as soon as I have some free time. Today also marks the first day of a two week intensive course I have to pass in order to further my day job. 8 hours a day of data cramming.

Have fun with the Rift!

Thanks for putting this together. I had a really hard time moving around. I think this has everything to do with the Wii board and not what you have written. I had issues with Nintendo's stuff as well so it is no surprise. It does show promise though!

Thanks again for the efforts! :)