Robotic VR Tiles Go Vertical
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Tuesday, 24 of February , 2009 at 4:40 am
The CirculaFloor intelligent floor tile system was designed in late 2004 at the University of Tsukuba in Japan as a way to enable unrestricted static movement in virtual reality. Sounds like an oxymoron, I know, which is why it’s a tricky problem that has resulted in one or two interesting and different solutions. CirculaFloor is the most portable of these, and evidently the most adaptable, since the latest version allows for movement in all three axes, more or less:
Each robotic tile cycles in sequence (on holonomic bases) such that the next step is always available to the user. At the same time, the entire assembly moves slowly in reverse so that you feel like you’re going somewhere without actually moving (a 5 meter square of area is sufficient for continuous movement in any direction). The tiles also incorporate lifts sufficient to replicate the feeling of climbing stairs… After you step up, the tile slowly descends, bringing you back to ground level in time to step up onto the next tile. I imagine descending stairs works the same way, just in reverse.
The original CirculaFloor system used magnets attached to the user’s shoes along with sensors in the tiles to figure out the direction of movement, although it looks like you probably have to be pretty careful lest you walk in a direction in which the tiles are not expecting and fall on your ass. Also, the cycle speed of the tiles is obviously not fast enough to allow for a true immersive VR experience. But, it works, and if it keeps pace with the rate of progress that the rest of the robotics industry tends to exhibit, you should be running around in WoW (for real) in maybe just a few years.
VIA [ Robot Watch (Translated) ]
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Category: Research
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