Marques Brownlee Tries Out Disney's Omnidirectional Treadmill

[The Rogue Wolf]

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It's loud, it's probably hellaciously expensive, it's got some flaws... but this is probably the best walk-in-place gimmickry I've seen come down the pipe. Can anyone see one of these being in someone's home for VR use in the next twenty or so years?

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

I'm curious to know how far down below the floor that thing actually extends. If it had to be directly embedded into a floor (for safety so that no one accidentally walks off the end, trips down a step and smashes their skull in, or because it actually extends like a good foot downward) I highly doubt we would see this enter many people's homes. Something like this would need to be a literal mat no thicker than a thick rug before it would actually be commercially viable. Also, VR still hasn't fixed the whole motion sickness issue, and this looks like it would further exacerbate that.

Definitely cool tech, but far from refined.

 

[Chimpzy]

I'm curious to know how far down below the floor that thing actually extends. If it had to be directly embedded into a floor (for safety so that no one accidentally walks off the end, trips down a step and smashes their skull in, or because it actually extends like a good foot downward) I highly doubt we would see this enter many people's homes. Something like this would need to be a literal mat no thicker than a thick rug before it would actually be commercially viable. Also, VR still hasn't fixed the whole motion sickness issue, and this looks like it would further exacerbate that.

Definitely cool tech, but far from refined.

My guess is it's at least 4-5 inches deep, because the discs at the top look about half an inch thick and at 3:07 you can see that the cones underneath each of them are about 4 times that, so 2 or so inches. Then I suppose these are all seated in a mechanism, then probably some kind of framework underneath for rigidity and support, which I'm just guessing would require at minimum 2 more inches.

Maybe the tech is very scalable and works just as well if you make the cones really small, but that raises other questions. Like durability. Imagine some 300lbs Gamer™ jumping or kicking down on one of these in a tantrum because he lost a game.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Maybe the tech is very scalable and works just as well if you make the cones really small, but that raises other questions. Like durability. Imagine some 300lbs Gamer™ jumping or kicking down on one of these in a tantrum because he lost a game.

Let's be real, 300lb gamers aren't going to be buying something like this. Not to be judgmental, but playing while sitting down is a big plus to this hobby for them. I could definitely imagine some people buying something like this for "exercise" similar to Wii Fit, and then giving up on it after a week.

 

[Chimpzy]

Let's be real, 300lb gamers aren't going to be buying something like this. Not to be judgmental, but playing while sitting down is a big plus to this hobby for them. I could definitely imagine some people buying something like this for "exercise" similar to Wii Fit, and then giving up on it after a week.

Ok, fair enough, bad example, but still, I'm interested in how, if it all, it can handle something more energetic than the sort of shuffling walk they've shown. Like if you ran on it. Or imagine you're playing a VR boxing game and you try some footwork. Or danced on it.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Ok, fair enough, bad example, but still, I'm interested in how, if it all, it can handle something more energetic than the sort of shuffling walk they've shown. Like if you ran on it. Or imagine you're playing a VR boxing game and you try some footwork. Or danced on it.

As far as they've shown I think running on it would be a non-starter. I don't think it would be able to keep up with moving you backward and you would just run straight off of it. I doubt it can handle more than a light jog, but I also don't think people are going to want to run any faster than a light jog on it if they plan to be playing a game, especially with a VR headset bouncing around on their heads.

 

[Drathnoxis]

I'm curious to know how far down below the floor that thing actually extends. If it had to be directly embedded into a floor (for safety so that no one accidentally walks off the end, trips down a step and smashes their skull in, or because it actually extends like a good foot downward) I highly doubt we would see this enter many people's homes. Something like this would need to be a literal mat no thicker than a thick rug before it would actually be commercially viable. Also, VR still hasn't fixed the whole motion sickness issue, and this looks like it would further exacerbate that.

Definitely cool tech, but far from refined.

Probably even if it was completely flush with the floor people would still fall over and smash their skull.