Moving around in space is one of the major hurdles in virtual reality. A holodeck wouldn’t be much fun if you kept walking into walls. [Gamnaught] is working on a simple solution to this complex problem with his budget omnidirectional treadmill. Omnidirectional treadmills have been around in various forms for a number of years. The idea behind them simple: allow a person walk in any direction without actually changing their position. This is a bit different from the unidirectional treadmill models found at the local gym. Some very complex solutions have been used to create omnidirectional treadmills, including multiple motors and computer control systems as can be found in the US Army omnidirectional treadmill. [Gamnaught] kept it simple. He built a circular 2×4 platform 13-15 degree bowl. The bowl is covered with carpet, and the user wears furniture sliders on their shoes. The low friction of the sliders allows the user to walk, run, and even walk backwards on the platform. Bungie cords provide resistance so the user doesn’t walk off the platform.
The early results look promising. [Gamnaught] says the balance felt a bit weird at times and took some getting used to. Anyone who has spent time with the Oculus Rift or other VR systems will tell you – many aspects of virtual reality take some getting used to. The treadmill is still open loop, however [Gamnaught] hopes to add motion tracking with a Sixense STEM system. We think a OpenCV based system would work as well. We’ve also seen carpet sliders sold as a children’s toy to be strapped over regular sneakers. Going the toy route would avoid needing a dedicated pair of footwear for the treadmill. More build information can be found on [Gamnaught’s] Reddit thread on the topic.
They make a thing called carpet skates that are basically elongated furniture sliders with foot straps that you could also use for this. http://www.amazon.com/Simtec-Fun-Slides-Carpet-Skates/dp/B000MN8DT0
They appear to be built like cross country skis, grooves to provide traction but allow you to glide.
Hadn’t noticed the grooves. A friend of mine bought an earlier version that didn’t have grooves. I bet they were added for both traction and safety.
It seems very dangerous, are you trying to ruin our marriages ?
http://www.amazon.com/gp/cdp/member-reviews/A1T91VAU22H5SE/ref=cm_cr_pr_auth_rev?ie=UTF8&sort_by=MostRecentReview
Not using as directed.
Very nice. I would be skeptical about an OpenCV system that would work in real-time to provide usable control, but I think latency is going to be an issue no matter what. Excellent build though, and I hope to see more from this project.
I’ve seen 120fps, one frame delay feature or skeleton tracking done with openCV codes before.
That’s very fast, but 120 fps is still > 8ms delay. That’s not much in the grand scheme of things, but it does compound with display lag. Not to mention, getting 120 fps requires the right equipment. Most affordable CCD/CMOS cameras are 60 fps at best.
Reminds me of the omni https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1944625487/omni-move-naturally-in-your-favorite-game
Omni went “Commercial customers only” and “licenses only, no sales” (such B.S.), they go to the community for help starting up and then shut down to the community shortly thereafter.
There also was a kickstarter last year selling the exact same thing: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1944625487/omni-move-naturally-in-your-favorite-game
Kinect inside FTW
We did this in the 80’s wearing curling slipons’, and a belt with rubber straps, when you got tired you just kinda hung there. A few months later we got a big metal hamster ball type deal… there were injuries… good times!
I really don’t think these things will take off. Whenever I see a demo vid of the Omni or the Virtualizer I just can’t get over how unnatural and uncomfortable it looks. The guys that demo it have practised for a long time to make it look natural but… I dunno, I’m not convinced. I think we need to get motors involved somehow. But doing that cost effectively… yeah, that’ll take some doing.
I wonder if the individual facets cause any problems?
If I were going to make such a “bowl omin-treadmill” – I think I would take a cue from how you make a parabolic solar cooker mold – just use a spherical cross-section rather than a parabolic one.
You basically take a piece of pipe and pound it vertically (using a level) into the ground to act as an axle for a scraper “bar” (made from plywood or metal) with a cut-out shaped to the half cross-section of your form. You pile dirt around the pipe, and rotate the scraper around it, spray water, pat it down – keep doing this until you have your shape, then you can add a sprinkling of cement powder, more water, more scraping, let dry.
Once you have a great enough thickness, you can then smear on some grease or other mold release agent, and lay down strips of fiberglass matting (or other cloth if you don’t need the glass strength), and epoxy. Keep building this up, layer by layer until you get the thickness needed or desired. Let it cure, then remove it from the mold.
The inner surface may need a bit of sanding (and cleanup of the mold release agent), but once done, you have a nice smooth surface, no facets, which you can add your carpet, etc. Definitely more work to do that the mentioned system, but the result might be more pleasing to use.
Hardest part would be to carpet without any wrinkles.
The facets are there to relieve the stress on the carpet and keep it from concentrating near the bottom/stretching near the top.
Unless you can mold the carpet with automotive felt?
Seems exhausting. What about a segway simulator?
So now I understand what was happening to me in that dream last night!
Clever idea, but when he falls he’s going to crack his head open on one of those 2x4s.
For the ultimate 3D effect, look into getting Knect, Aura Activator, Activator controller by Sega, and 3D vision goggle.
FWIW I’d rather float or fly around a virtual world. If I have to walk, let a joystick do it. I’m not gonna move into a computer-generated universe to *increase* the amount of exercise I get.
I remember an early system used hand gestures, different finger-pointing combos, in a smart glove, to control one’s flight around the place. Depending on the architecture, sounds fine to me. I’d want a more weightless, 3D, space-based space than the 2.5D room-based spaces we tend to have in this apparent universe. It’d be better to spend time flying from one area to another in free space, rather than walking round a floor. You don’t need floors or walls or ceilings if there’s no weather to keep out, so why have them?
This is so retarded, It would probably sell on home-shopping networks..
I laughed at the bungee cord “safety” measure, it needs something like this medical research equipment has http://resourcesonbalance.com/neurocom/products/CRS.aspx Because of my brain injury I was part of a balance study. I’m one test the platform remains still but the cubical moves, it’s insane. I was OK until it looked like the front wall was about to fly over my head. I’m over 6′ tall, I grabbed the rail the harness attaches to before the harness had a chance to catch me.
I dont think the bunjees are there for safety. They provide a slight restoring force that will make sure the user is always lightly pushed towards the centre. Otherwise you would just walk off the sides. Carpet sliders still provide some friction, so I imagine without the bunjees it would be more like walking on ice or any other slippery surface, more difficult, but not impossible to move.
This is brilliant! Let’s see what is the easiest way to make it closed loop. Put a pair of upward pointing LEDs on the glasses, and track it via ceiling mounted camera?
If you’re going to be tethered to the ring anyway, just use the extension of (or forces applied to) the tethers as your directional input. Like having a couple of “Gametraks” attached to your torso: http://janoc.rd-h.com/archives/129
if one had sufficient space and funding: giant sphere floating in a giant bowl of water, submerged at least halfway, preferably much more, could be the platform for walking, and movement could be tracked using a mouse-derived method. safety nets/foam padding on the ‘horizon’ (stationary, not making physical contact with the sphere) would protect the subject from falling in due to imbalance , speed+ sudden stops, etc. and maybe even a smaller sphere making contact with the submerged base of the sphere to add resistance, or balance correction (360° rotatable wheel in contact with sphere to transfer rotational force in necessary direction) maybe even several wheels/spheres /’bearongs’ distributed around the sphere-platform.. but first, how do you make a giant ball that you can walk on?
Why not just stand *inside* the floating sphere?
I believe there was mention of injury from that style of immersion higher in the comments; I could see becoming disoriented and falling being a rather frustrating issue.
I wonder, if it were possible to run a current through the bungee cords (insulated of course) could you map the resistance variations as they stretch to determine movement
there are lots of ideas on how to track the movement, but i think the simplest answer has been left out – til now! (I think this is the simplest…) put rings under the carpet that sense the pressure of the feet sliding on it, or use them to track something embedded in the shoe slider. these would provide velocity and direction with the only latency being the microprocessor that reads and transmits the data to the main system.
You could probably do surprisingly good things with 4 weighing scales. Use strain gauges, one on each corner, to measure the weight distribution. A bit of maths and you can work wonders.
Still I think actual foot-based walking is a poor way of navigating a world though. If you’re gonna have a floor at all, people are gonna want to crouch on it, etc. As far as simply walking goes, who needs that? Whoever asked for a game where they have to walk around everywhere? Real life has that and it’s totally boring enough that we invented cars, and tamed horses first chance we got.
This is a copy of this mans work:
http://www.mtbs3d.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=120&t=17269
But it’s a good solution. I’ll try to build my own omni too.
There are other ways too. Take 2 simple existing treadmils. Replace the belts with wire ladders, one for X inside the other for Y, effectively crossing each other. Now stick some soft rubber studs on your shoes.