The
Virtuix Omni website shows off a
prototype of the
Virtuix Omni, which adds
fancy footwork to the virtual reality gaming experience with an "omni treadmill"
to track player movement. Their
videos
page has clips showing this being used with Crysis Warhead and Skyrim as
well as for exercise, and
here's a trailer noted by
HotHardware (thanks
Ant via
Slashdot), showing it being used in conjunction with an Oculus Rift headset
to play
Team Fortress 2, demonstrating how it tracks player movement and
orientation for some next-level holodeck style gameplay. Word is they are in the
process of preparing a Kickstarter campaign to develop this for production.
Here's more:
The Omni is the first omni treadmill that is affordable for
household consumers, fits in a living room, and above all, enables the user to
walk freely and naturally in virtual environments.
Applications of omni-directional movement in virtual reality stretch far beyond
gaming: training and simulation, fitness and exercising, virtual tourism,
virtual tradeshows and events, virtual meet-ups and multi-person adventures,
virtual workplaces, virtual museums, physical therapy, VR architecture, VR
concerts, etc. The possibilities are limitless. Virtual reality is the
future.