Device could bring virtual reality into gamers’ homes

Commercially available head-mounted devices, which display three dimensional images according to viewing direction, already allow users to explore computer generated worlds. However, it hasn’t been possible yet to walk through these virtual realities without bumping into very real obstacles.

A team of researchers at the Vienna University of Technology has now built a so-called ‘Virtualizer’, which is claimed to allow for an almost natural walk through virtual spaces.

The user is kept in place with a belt within Virtualizer’s metal frame and a smooth, low-friction floor plate contains sensors that register every step. Rotations of the body are registered by the belt.

‘Coming to terms with the low friction takes a little bit of practice but soon one can run across the smooth sensor plate quite naturally,’ said Tuncay Cakmak, a student at TU Vienna who developed Virtualizer along with fellow students and virtual reality expert Hannes Kaufmann.