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Walking Around In Spherical VR
GDaddy writes: "Space Daily has a report on a collaboration between University of Warwick's Warwick Manufacturing Group and VR Systems UK that spawned a VR system without dimensional boundaries. Called the Cybersphere, It combines the ease of use of the CAVE system (no head mounts, big projected walls), with the lack of distance limitations of, well, of no VR system developed so far. They say it allows a person to walk, run, and crawl smoothly and naturally around an arbitrarily large VR world by putting the user in a rolling sphere suspended on air bearings. But wouldn't the sphere's inertia cause a noticable lag when you start or stop walking, or when you change direction? They don't address it, and I'll remain dubious until I roll it on my own."
Other problems (when I tried it - a couple of years ago now).
* Noise
* Lag
* Wobble (the sphere wasn't that rigid)
* Image alignment problems
Also if I remember right there was a problem with direction and turning, but I can't think what it was.
That said it was quite impressive.
My work sent me to try this thing out whilst it was in development. Although I felt it had a lot of potential it should not be mistaken for the answer to our synthetic prayers.
You take a step and then it moves, your weight further up the sphere causes it to rotate as you sink back to the lowest point. As it rotates the synthetic environment is updated. As a result the lag is a serious problem. This is extremely unnerving and caused me to fall over a couple of times. I really recommend against trying to run in one of these things.
When I got in they had to refit the panels that covered the entrance, therefore this was not something you could play with on your own.
On the up side there is none of the motion sickness that can be caused by VR glasses.
I love stacking my barbecues in the shed at the end of summer - you can't beat a bit of grill on grill action.
(IMHO). I routinely take *groups* of people into a CAVE, I can't see myself being able to do that with this thing (8 people all trying to walk in different directions?). The other advantage is that you can leave one side of a CAVE open, and people outside can look in and see stuff (kind of like a big bent powerwall), so you can be showing VR to say 20 people. You can't do that with this device.
OTOH, it looks pretty cool, and has definate new-and-funky appeal.
Mike.
Tales from behind the Lagom Curtain
I see a perfect marketing opportunity. If these people are willing to brand their product in conjunction with a well known leader in modular livingspaces, they could profit immensely.
I speak, of course of:
VR by Habitrail!
Think about it: The ultimate geek houses with modular hallways, ladders, and function specific rooms. Oh, and excercise wheels....
Instead of getting fat at my computer while playing Quake III, I could be getting into shape.
Body by Carmack!
# (/.);;
- : float -> float -> float =
Boots that have a two poles attached to the them via free-motion ball-and-socket joints. One pole is attached to the tip of boot, the other attached to the heel.
= -
Servos that can track and tilt the pole apply enough resistance to keep the boots level and counter the weight of the wearer.
As the person moves, pressure sensors inside the boot read the direction and strength of the force, and the servos compensate accordingly.
For example. When flat, the servos provide enough force to simulate the ground plane. When the person lifts his or her foot, pressure sensors on the top of the boot register this force, and the servos release grip on the poles to allow the boot to move up. When the person lowers his or her foot, sensors on the bottom of the boot register this force, and the servos remain flexible until the software detects that the user's foot has hit the ground plane or an object, at which point they clamp down on the pole.
Using this system, it would be possible to simulate walking, running, jumping, climbing, kicking, even fighting.
Combine this with a similar setup for the hands (using gloves) and the complete immersive 3D holodeck-type enviroment can be simulated.
So, does anything like this exist, and is there even a name for this?
- JoeShmoe
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
-- I wonder which will go down in history as the bigger failure: the War on Drugs or the War on Filesharing
As noted before, this is an old idea - but one that is interesting, and of course, still in development.
Another individual noted that the military was developing an omnidirectional treadmill - this is true. It is part of the dismounted soldier project. Here is a link. Look around his site, under research and publications - you'll find it as a PDF file.
Basically, the treadmill can be thought of as two perpendicularly overlapping treadmills, the belts of which are composed of longitudinal "rows" of rollers along the length of each belt. Thus, when the user is walking in the center of the overlap, the motion vector is translated into X and Y motion, one axis for each belt (it is tough to explain, but once you see the thing, you will smack your head). It works real similarly to a holonomic drive robot, except in reverse. Also, various "terrain" can be simulated by tilting the platform, as well as controlling the belts with active braking/acceleration.
There is also a Japanese "toroidal" omni treadmill, but it is VERY hard to understand (I may have a link to it on my site).
Personally, I don't think any of these devices will see much entertainment or personal use in the future, just because of the scale of the devices, the complexity, and the cost of materials that go into them.
I personally advocate HMD's with tracking devices, because it allows for the most interaction with the virtual environment (ie, you can explore and look around the world easily, and manipulate and examine objects as well).
With that said, though, I think that this guy is onto something, and may make inbounds to the commercial and personal arenas before anyone...
I support the EFF - do you?
Reason is the Path to God - Anon
I think most of this technology was perfected in the late sixies and made various cameos on the UK TV show The Prisoner.