From: mueller@cs.unc.edu (Carl Mueller) Subject: Re: TECH: Walking in VR? Date: 20 Jun 1996 16:41:59 -0400 Message-ID: <4qcd2n$a2a@whitney.cs.unc.edu> Organization: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Lance McBride writes: >I would have to agree that there is really no difference between the >treadmill and the mouse ball. I personally don't like either of them. I've personally tried a treadmill with handlebars. Except for walking in a straight line, it's quite awkward. At least it was using the interface we had, whereby you would virtually move in an arc if you walked while the handlebars were off-center (much like a car drives). It would probably have been a little better if there were a steering wheel which determined _absolute_ direction (instead of relative). The main problem was that delicate manuevering was very difficult (just like parking a car in tight space is difficult), especially since it was difficult (or perhaps impossible) to back up. I've not tried a mouse (hampster) type ball, but I imagine it would be far more natural, since you can easily turn and walk in any direction you'd like. >It seems like someone could figure out a way to interpret where a >person wants to walk based on slight body movements, i.e. a slight >torso twist or eye movement, with a EMF sensor or eye-tracker. Then >there wouldn't have to be any handlebars. That could be done easily enough, but it still wouldn't give you natural walking. I assume you still mean that you use a treadmill, which means you can still only really walk forward. -Carl (mueller@cs.unc.edu)