Hum look at that :
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Jhr-fbMW4ScIt doesn’t really seem to qualify as “natural walking”. Ok neither does the Virtusphere, and I can’t comment on the ODT since I’ve never tried it but as they want to study natural walking, it better be.
But this does look a lot less impressive and as a result you look even more silly. With expensive systems you at least have the Wow effect before realizing you look silly =)
Why do I mention how this makes you look like? Because I’m pretty sure that this has a huge impact on the acceptance factor of such devices for mass market.
Anyway I’d have to test it to get a better feeling..
The slanted board seems like an awesome way to twist an ankle in a high tension FPS game. However, still not as bad as the FPGameRunner, a splendid bit of video game vaporware that debuted at game conferences 3 or so years ago and then faded away.
http://www.fpgamerunner.com/index.php
Then again, after my experiences on Stringwalker at SIGGRAPH, I’m just naturally untrusting of virtual walking interfaces. Controlled falls are spooky when someone else is controlling it.
Looking silly is a matter of personal opinion. This doesn’t look much different from walking on a treadmill. But safety wise it’s much safer because there are no moving parts.
If you look at how a person walks they step up and then fall forward. This device takes that same motion and instead of moving you forwards just lets your foot “fall” slide back to where you started. It’s a natural motion.
This controller is not meant to be high end virtual reality but rather a different type of controller that lets you walk. That makes gaming more accessible to a lot of people and allows for exercise while playing.
It’s been tested in nursing homes for rehab and was well received. It can be used standing, standing with support or while sitting.
Maybe you could get a personal demonstration?
I don’t see this as something really more than a simple dancemat with maybe a very smooth surface for the feet..
And looking at the way you need to ‘walk’ I think you would get serious backproblems.
I think moving on a treadmill is much better as the ‘ground’ is moving under you, so it seems more natural..
I guess the Virtusphere or the ODT is still the most natural version, now if only we could build ourselves a sphere (which shouldn’t be that expensive, except for the wirelessheadset)..