Criffin RUNPAD Omnidirectional Treadmill

It's a little disconcerting, yet makes me really curious what this since you can run and jump in it, yet other than the news that the product will launch in "late 2014 and hold a special online launch event", there isn't much to go on. Even the promotional video of 29 seconds is just different shots of a 3D pentagonal shape and a few phrases why it's good.

Dunno if I want to subscribe to their mailing list with the lack of info they have besides pics of people in live combat. Anyone else heard anything about this?

Also, the FAQ is either still under construction or they got all their questions in Latin... (http://new.criffin.com/faq/)

It sounds really similar to the Virtuix Omni: http://www.virtuix.com/
Their FAQ are all answered very much like the Omni's - except the RUNPAD says it requires a Kinect to use, where the Omni does not.

Oh? At Quakecon the omni was still using kinect and hadn't settled on a new sensor system. Did they settle on something?

As far as Criffin, I don't know, launching in the next 12-13 months and no info out available. Maybe they're just in the process of getting their site up.

Thanks for pointing this out Zoide. First I've heard of it.
@Felix12g yes they've decided on capacitive sensors in the base. I believe there'll be a new prototype demonstrating it by January, possibly sooner.

Nice website, but not much details. Looks like the ODT market is heating up.

Doesn't the Omni require a Kinect to operate? I am pretty sure that is the input device.

"SwordArtOnline" wrote:
Doesn't the Omni require a Kinect to operate? I am pretty sure that is the input device.

The current prototypes need a Kinect, but the final product will include capacitive plates, so it won't need a Kinect: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1944625487/omni-move-naturally-in-your-favorite-game/posts/650350

So... back to the Criffin RUNPAD... Any news? Can anyone contact them? (*cough* *cough* someone from Oculus perhaps?)

"SwordArtOnline" wrote:
Doesn't the Omni require a Kinect to operate? I am pretty sure that is the input device.

No it doesn't, it'll use a kind of touch tech akin to smartphone screens. Just no video of it yet.(sucks I know!) And to reply to your other comment on another thread, SOME gamers aren't fit because they just sit down, threamills will hopefully help them exercise and if they get tired nothing's stopping them from getting off and continue while sitting down. The omni is just a tool, you decide how to use it.

The idea behind treadmills and such is that they relieve your hands from controlling motion through the world and leave them free to do what hands really do - grasping, shooting, gesturing and so forth.

This was less of a problem before HMD's because you had rich input devices like keyboards and mice - and you could use your eyes to see which of 101 keys you're going to push...but with an immersive HMD, you can't see your hands - so you're limited to things you can hold...so you (typically) don't even get 10 keys - just a joystick or two and a couple of buttons.

Removing the actions that your feet normally do - and letting your feet do them makes a heck of a lot of sense - and it frees up your hands for richer commands than most games can support.

In a typical 1st person shooter, your right hand has to move your head around with the mouse and your left hand has to drive the WASD keys. With an HMD, your head takes over the virtual head motion - and if your feet can control your virtual feet then your hands ONLY have to do things that your real hands would do.

I think that's a major advance in user interfaces. We've just got to figure out what the right way to do it is - and wait for the dust to settle and a "standard" set of VR controls to emerge...just as WASD+mouse emerged as the standard for first-person games on the desktop.

-- Steve

I can tell you this much about the Criffin: It or some part of it will be hexagonal in shape, and apparently black and smooth. Really, that was the lamest promotional video for an upcoming product I have ever seen, and the website itself offers no additional info.