Viiwok - Virtual treadmill & reality simulator.

"Atreyu" wrote:
I love your attitude Attreyu. The only problem is now I will have to buy both.

Ditto! Looks like I'll be backing both. The largest saving for those in the EU may not just be the actual shipping, but rather not having to pay VAT/Import Duties - they can add up to a lot.

A quick question on the specs/design - I saw it stated that the surface is coated with silicon/rubber. How well does that handle wear, especially for fat b*stards like myself? I'm just thinking that 112kg spread over 8 small bearings is a hell of a lot of pressure...

"kingtut" wrote:

"Atreyu" wrote:
I love your attitude Attreyu. The only problem is now I will have to buy both.

Ditto! Looks like I'll be backing both. The largest saving for those in the EU may not just be the actual shipping, but rather not having to pay VAT/Import Duties - they can add up to a lot.

A quick question on the specs/design - I saw it stated that the surface is coated with silicon/rubber. How well does that handle wear, especially for fat b*stards like myself? I'm just thinking that 112kg spread over 8 small bearings is a hell of a lot of pressure...

Don't worry, it supports it perfectly. Each wheel can support up to 20kg. You have 8 for each foot, 16 in total. You do the math. And I can put 10 on each foot if I'll see the need.

Give me until next week, I promised 2 weeks when I announced. Fotos, demos, videos will follow. And the site will be updated.

Starting with this short clip, I'll begin to gradually post and ilustrate what you will be able to do with the Viiwok.

Using wireless sensors attached to a simple toy gun reproduces Hydra like functionality. Attaching them to your chest or even on a cap on your head replaces the sensoring part of the Rift (remember the project unifying viiwok-hydra-rift). This is still alpha. Latency is close to zero (I was using wireless instead of bluetooth). Excuse my wife, she's not a pro and I was in a hurry. The game is Rage by id Software but it works out of the box with anything that uses a mouse/keyboard.

This type of sensoring ilustrated in the video will be included in the first generation Viiwok, readily to be shipped by September. For movement of the virtual avatar (the classic WASD combo) the Viiwok's sensors are used. Will show their functionality during the next days.

I'm really looking forward to hearing more news about this. I wanted the Omni but without the early bird price and with the shipping it'd be about £600-700 ($1000+) so I'm really looking forward to what you have. Especially as where the Omni seems focused on the walking mainly you seem to have a focus on the accurate sensing.
I've seen figures like €200, €250, and €400 given. What is your estimate for the Kickstater price and what factors effect whether that figure is raised or lowered?

You said previously the sensors (which look very good in the video, the wireless part especially!) were a replacement for using something like a Kinect (laggy) or a hydra (wires). How many different sensors are there? Can I have 1 stapped to each hand and foot, with a chest one for body position. If so this would be a fantastic setup capable of very responsive full body skeletal tracking!

Also as a developer I plead with you to also provide an SDK which gives the position of each sensor (and which body part it maps to) as well as simply including software to simulate key presses.
I understand the key press simulating is great to get existing games working with setups like these, however, going forward as more and more games and demos are built for VR a proper VR control scheme is much more immersive than keyboard input can provide.


I'd also like to add my voice to the others urging you to get a proper professional Kickstater video made. We here are all longing to see any videos of it. But for the actual campaign itself people tend to link the quality of the video with that of the product.
If you compare this: http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/virtua-runna/x/1760089 to the quality of the Oculus Rift or Omni's video they are miles apart (by the way I think that would actually work quite well in VR but it does look a little silly using it).

Attreyu, I am incredibly interested in this. I am an American living in the Netherlands, so I can relate to all the import/export problems.

Let me outline some concerns I have, maybe you can clarify them:
1) Although all the sensors replace the Omni/Hydra/Rift, you would still need to have some type of goggles that showed the screen. If you tried to turn around to shoot someone behind you (following your first posted video clip) then you would turn away from the monitor. Do you have something in mind to fix this?

2) Using a wireless sensor on the gun, could be interesting, but what happens when you must use something like a bow or sword in the game? You would either be flailing a lot (and possibly kill someone with a sword placeholder) if you have sensors on the hands, or you wouldn't be able to "release/shoot" the arrow although you could definitely draw it. Flailing can't really be solved (without using a remote), but do you see your system using something like the MYO (https://www.thalmic.com/myo/), where it has detailed spacial recognition for the fingers, hands and arms?

3) In your concept I still see the ring fixed around your waist. Although it is a rather rough drawing, it seems that you would need to have the supports rather hard to hold up the ring and/or support you if you slip. I don't understand then how it is that you said we could sit down?

I think that's it for now, I'll continue following this. Good Luck!

PM me some details and requirements, and I can try to figure out a partnership on making a US Kickstarter.

Hi !

Replacing the Rifts' display is something on the medium-long term. If I can integrate Omni+Hydra like functionality it'd be close enough for what I need in order to launch it.

I'll look into Myo. Even if you're using a sword, the waist support would hold you back.

The waist support in the video is a sketch. I only wanted to ilustrate more or less how it would look as far as dimensions and ideea goes. There are a couple of key elements missing from the picture.

The supporting pillars are telescopic. You can adjust them to fit your stature. There would be a harness-like support for when you'll want to sit. It might even be something like a stool-bar chair attached to one of the pillars that you would pull under you.

I'll get in touch first thing next week, after it's all assembled and ready for testing. It will probably be an IndieGoGo campaign first and then a KickStarter in July. I promised Jan I don't want to interfere in any way with the success of the ViiWok and anyway since we're not in the US (with all the media hype around) and the Viiwok would be the second product on the market, I keep my expectations to a realistic, even modest level :?

Could you post a video showing you walking with the ball bearing shoes? Thanks

Hi , fantastic news.

Btw I have pledged for the Omni, but since I am living in Italy I am certainly more interested in your design. Let us know when the website and the video is ready.

I am particularly interested in a low-noise platform. Apart from gaming , VR molecular modeling/Autocad/ might be really close this way.

Hope you do some nice marketing first. Omni had some months headstart, also being able to communicate and show off to game devs.

In any case many ppl will be interested very much for your model if you promote it well enough.

All the Best

Attreyu: Any news? Thanks