Comment Re:Errm slight problem with this as a UT environme (Score 1) 165
What about if the user wasn't inside the "hamster ball", but on it? Or on many of them?
What about a platform beneath the user consisting of a grid of very closely spaced rolling spheres (like trackballs) set into sockets? Most of the spheres would be for simple support, some could be used to vibrate or brake, and some would track the motion and speed of the user's feet. A combination of wheels and spheres could also be used.
Simulating walls would still be difficult as you wouldn't really want your users slamming into your projection screens.
If you're not using projection screens, but instead using goggles, you could put the user in a harness tethered at multiple points. If the user slammed into a wall in the virtual world, all balls on the platform could lock and not move in the direction of the wall, the user would get traction and physically move forward until stopped by the harness.
The leads on the harness might also be attached in some kind of mounts that could be controlled, so that a waist-high obstacle could be simulated by disallowing forward motion to the feet, legs and hips, but allowing forward motion to the chest, arms, and head. The user might also be able to climb over the obstacle with some creative use of the vertical parts of the harness (physically lowering the user when his back foot leaves the ground at the same rate he is virtually traveling "up", so that he physically contacts the motion platform at the same time as he virtually contacts the top of the obstacle).
The harnesses might be somewhat similar to the flight harnesses used for the Rhinemadens in the Seattle Opera's production of Das Rheingold (pictures are unavailable right now, as the Seattle Opera has just redone their site -- they allowed full motion in all directions).
Hm. Even if the motion sensing part of it didn't work as expected, anything that involves a full body suspension harness and VR has got to draw at least a few fans.
What about a platform beneath the user consisting of a grid of very closely spaced rolling spheres (like trackballs) set into sockets? Most of the spheres would be for simple support, some could be used to vibrate or brake, and some would track the motion and speed of the user's feet. A combination of wheels and spheres could also be used.
Simulating walls would still be difficult as you wouldn't really want your users slamming into your projection screens.
If you're not using projection screens, but instead using goggles, you could put the user in a harness tethered at multiple points. If the user slammed into a wall in the virtual world, all balls on the platform could lock and not move in the direction of the wall, the user would get traction and physically move forward until stopped by the harness.
The leads on the harness might also be attached in some kind of mounts that could be controlled, so that a waist-high obstacle could be simulated by disallowing forward motion to the feet, legs and hips, but allowing forward motion to the chest, arms, and head. The user might also be able to climb over the obstacle with some creative use of the vertical parts of the harness (physically lowering the user when his back foot leaves the ground at the same rate he is virtually traveling "up", so that he physically contacts the motion platform at the same time as he virtually contacts the top of the obstacle).
The harnesses might be somewhat similar to the flight harnesses used for the Rhinemadens in the Seattle Opera's production of Das Rheingold (pictures are unavailable right now, as the Seattle Opera has just redone their site -- they allowed full motion in all directions).
Hm. Even if the motion sensing part of it didn't work as expected, anything that involves a full body suspension harness and VR has got to draw at least a few fans.
