{"id":9310,"date":"2014-02-27T01:02:24","date_gmt":"2014-02-27T09:02:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.perivision.net\/wordpress\/?p=9310"},"modified":"2014-02-27T12:00:46","modified_gmt":"2014-02-27T20:00:46","slug":"they-finally-made-it-a-vr-gaming-system-where-you-can-actually-walk-not-get-sick-and-can-afford-the-omni","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.perivision.net\/wordpress\/2014\/02\/they-finally-made-it-a-vr-gaming-system-where-you-can-actually-walk-not-get-sick-and-can-afford-the-omni\/","title":{"rendered":"They finally made it. A VR gaming system where you can actually walk, not get sick and can afford. The Omni."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Skyrim<\/a>A LOOOONG time ago when I was at UC Berkeley studying computing in Architecture, my focus was on virtual environments.\u00a0 During my research I was downhearted to find a flaw in what we all thought was the soon approaching golden age of VR.\u00a0 VOR ( Vestibulo-ocular Reflex: explained at the bottom of the post) is a form of motion sickness many people get when using head mounted displays who have trouble adapting VOR gain. Once can train themselves to adapt and improve VOR gain, however there will always be a disconnect between what the eyes see and the body is sensing.\u00a0 Even those like myself who have long adapted to using HMDs still can only maintain existence in a hyper-dynamic virtual environment for so long.\u00a0\u00a0 One way to get around this issue is to fool the body into thinking it is sensing the same thing the eyes are seeing.\u00a0 During my research, I tried a few things and the two that showed the most promise was placing subjects in a wheelchair and forcing navigation using only the chair, and the second was to allow the subject to walk around with the HMD. As you can imagine, the wheel chair had its limits and constantly trying to hold the cables and limit how far someone could walk was not sustainable.<\/p>\n

I reasoned that what we need to is a ‘pod’ where the floor base was made of small wheels and the waist was restricted by a harness.\u00a0 This will allow the subject to simulate walking and turning thus allow more of the bodies haptic feedback loops to agree with what was being seen in the HMD.\u00a0 Although VOR gain adaption would still be needed, the adaption time would be greatly reduced, and the in VR sustainability time extended, as I discovered with my work on the chair and allowing free walking. However, I never could build such a device because of cost.\u00a0\u00a0 But now, someone has figured it out.<\/p>\n

\"product<\/a>Originally starting out as a kickstarter <\/a>project, the ‘Omni<\/a>‘ is an improved version of what I designed back in the 90’s.\u00a0 Instead of using rollers, a grooved curved plastic bowl is used with sensors. (older version uses an xbox sensor)\u00a0 These sensors can translate movement and direction to the game. Paired with the new lightweight Oculus, the user walks normally and turns normally.\u00a0 Admittedly it does take a little bit to adjust to your feet slipping instead of the force feedback with normal translational movement, but the connection between body mechanics and spatial perception is synced enough that adaption happens quickly. The rig itself is $499, quite affordable for most serious gamers. What is exciting about this we might be seeing the beginning of the next level of maturity around VR that was stunted in the 90’s. With inexpensive but capable HMDs and now inexpensive VR motion platforms, we can make that next leap in immersive gaming.
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