Omnidirectional treadmill-based immersive simulator An omnidirectional treadmill, or ODT, is a device that allows a person to perform locomotive motion in any direction. The ability to move in any direction is how these treadmills differ from their basic counterparts (that only permit unidirectional locomotion). Omnidirectional treadmills are employed in immersive virtual environment implementations to allow unencumbered movement within the virtual space through user self-motion. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ...
Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ...
A woman on a treadmill. ...
In a general sense, locomotion simply means active movement or travel, applying not just to biological individuals. ...
The term immersion refers to the impression that someone has of being somewhere while, in reality, he is physically in another place. ...
Virtual reality (abbreviated VR) describes an environment that is simulated by a computer. ...
Advantages to pairing an ODT with an immersive virtual environment include:
- Permitting natural navigational movement of the system user within the enclosure while still providing context cues which simulate physical traversal through the virtual terrain
- Reverting immersive navigation tasks from hand-based (mouse, joystick) to mentally hard-wired whole body (leg) based
- Enhancing immersion by providing a whole-body experience that begins at the soles of the feet and ends at the top of the head
- Facilitating whole-body haptic interaction
The virtual is a concept applied in many fields with somewhat differing connotations, and also denotations. ...
History
Although the concept of an omni-directional walking surface parallels the history of virtual reality technology, it wan't until 1997 that one was built. US Army's STRICOM funded the first ODT. It was bult in a rented garage space in Bloomington, Minnesota, by Virtual Space Devices. After lenghty testing, the device found a home at the Army Research Lab, Human Engineering Research Directorate (HRED). This unit employed a belt made from plastic, toothed rollers. A proposal to replace the noisy rollers with belts in 1998 went unfunded.
At the University of Tsukuba VR Lab, Dr. Hiroo Iwata's group independently concieved and built a belt-based ODT in 1999. It had individual treadmill segments each powered by its own servomotor. It is known as the Torus Treadmill because, as with all treadmills of this class, the active surface forms a flattened torus.
In 2003 the Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering at Tamkang University in Taiwan built a passive treadmill surface comprised of balls constrained within a concave walking surface. It relies on the users energy to move the balls during walking, and a waist harness to provide counterforce. This design is quite similar to the virtual space navigation device described in Michael Crichton's book, Disclosure. Michael Crichton (born October 23, 1942, pronounced [1]) is an American author, film producer, film director, and television producer. ...
The CyberWalk Project began in 2005 through a UC funded collaboration of several universities. Their design, like Tamkang University, relies on a bed of rotating balls. Unlike TU's design, CyberWalk's CyberCarpet actively powers the balls by rotating a standard linear treadmill underneath. This concept has not yet been reduced to practice.
Work on a second-generation, belt-based ODT began again in 2003, funded by Army Research Lab's HRED. This device was completed and operational in 2006. A video of this device is available on YouTube.
Related efforts Several alternative whole-body human-computer interfaces exist. Most notable is the VirtuSphere, whereby a person walks on the inside surface of a large, hollow ball. Like the Tamkang University's device, the VirtuSphere is passive. It requires user energy input to start and stop sphere rotation. VirtuSphere is a virtual reality device. ...
The US Navy's VIRTE project employed walk-in-place as a substitute for real walking. A similar approach by the Southwest Research Institute uses a walking pad.
Numerous references to walking interfaces for virtual reality environments exist in the US Patent Office database. Most of these have not been reduced to practice.
Potential uses - Entertainment
- Exercise
- Training
- Education
- Physical rehabilitation
- Post Traumatic Stress Disorder treatment
- Motion capture
- Real-time virtual actor input
- Fully immersive gaming and virtual reality simulations
Virtual reality (VR) is a technology which allows a user to interact with a computer-simulated environment, be it a real or imagined one. ...
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