From: vanevery@blarg.net (Brandon J. Van Every) Subject: Re: TECH: Walking in VR? Date: 13 Jun 1996 03:43:14 GMT Message-ID: <4po2oi$um6@guysmiley.blarg.net> Organization: Blarg! Online Services 206/441-9109 James Brown (bc92jab@brunel.ac.uk) wrote: : I was wondering if anyone has thought of developing a VR walking : system based on a hampster ball? ie a person can walk in any direction : within the cage, and this direction of movement would be reflected in : the head display so that he could seemless walk around an : environment. The cage would be placed on some rollar bars so the : movement could be tracked, like with the mouse used by computers. What does this accomplish over a treadmill with handlebars? (Which of course, people have already done.) You would need a _very_ large sphere to allow people to walk omnidirectionally without falling down. If you wanted to save space, you'd need to put in handlebars so that people won't fall down. Even then, it would occupy a lot of space, so it would have to be in an arcade that could afford that kind of space utilization. Doesn't sound like you could put "one in every mall." Cheers, -- Brandon J. Van Every | Check out Free3d, my 100% efficient, 100% portable | 3d lib, at . 3d Computer Graphics | C++ UNIX X11 WinNT | E-mail: vanevery@blarg.net