A continuing challenge in virtual reality is dealing with issues that relate to user movement. One such issue is, perhaps, best illustrated by an example. Consider a user wearing a VR headset. If the user is sitting motionless on a couch, then the sense of immersion within a dynamic, action packed virtual world can be quite limited. A new product offered by Virtuix (Austin, TX) was created to address this issue.
The Virtuix Omni is a 360o treadmill. The platform of the treadmill is a low friction, concave dish. The user wears special shoes that feel “slippery,” sort of like bowling shoes. Sensor pods are mounted on top of these shoes. The pods are part of a system that tracks movement of the user’s feet as the user moves about within the treadmill. In this way, the user’s feet are turned in to the equivalent of game controls.
While within the treadmill structure, the user can also wear a harness. The harness is similar to the type used in climbing, with straps around the user’s waist and thighs. The harness is not tethered to the support ring of the treadmill structure, thus allowing a complete range of motion. “The system lets users run, jump, step backwards, strafe, and sit, with smooth, 360o movement.” At the same time, the Omni system keeps the user in one place, thus avoiding the possibility of a collision with objects in the environment.
In use, the concavity of the dish acts in concert with gravity to pull the user’s feet back to the center of the dish. One user review posted on-line describes the experience of walking on the dish to be like “moonwalking on the sides of a human-sized serving plate, while wearing slippery bowling shoes.” Another on-line review reported that the forward step felt “somewhat natural (it is like walking up on a slight incline),” but that it was necessary to slide your foot backwards after each step and that this felt odd. The reason that this style of walking is needed is that the sensors inside the base unit and on the shoes necessitate that the user to drag their feet down the slopes of the concave dish. A further user reported being able to acclimate within a few minutes although the movement never felt completely intuitive.
A video illustrating the Omni in use can be found at the end of this article.
The treadmill structure was reported as sufficiently robust to allow the user to be “comfortable enough to lean into their stride, which is necessary for it to really work as intended.” The harness allows quick changes in orientation without the user falling down or out of the Omni. Users reported that latency was not noticeable. The harness and shoes were reported as sufficiently comfortable that the user is able to “forget about them” after just a little while.
PCs will treat the Omni like it is a regular analog controller. The walking motion is translated into a thumbstick movement. This makes the Omni compatible with most currently available and soon to be available head mounted displays. This includes the Oculus Rift, Samsung Gear VR, Google Cardboard and HTC Vive Pre. In fact, Virtuix is officially partnering with and marketing its treadmill as being ideal for Vive. Put in a slightly different way, the Omni is compatible with any game that uses a standard first person gamepad input and is VR enabled. This broad compatibility with existing VR content is claimed as one of Omni’s strongest selling points.
At this time, the Omni does not work with game consoles. Virtuix is, however, planning on adding console support for systems like PlayStation VR in the future.
Virtuix raised $1.1M from more than 3,300 people via Kickstarter during the summer of 2013. The company subsequently raised an additional $8M from private and institutional investors. At this time, Virtuix has pre-sold more than 4,000 Omnis and, in December 2015, started producing and shipping the first units against its pre-order backlog.
The price of the system is $700. The system includes the treadmill platform, which requires about as much floor space as a piece of gym equipment, a harness, a pair of shoes and two tracking pods. Also included are three games and a one year warranty. Purchasers will, however, have to provide their own VR headset. –Arthur Berman
