The Infinadeck Omnidirectional Treadmill - Smarter Every Day

MilkmanDansays...

Very cool.

I sure would have thought that it would be a platform with hundreds of partially inset mouse/trackballs, rather than treadmills on axes 90 degrees apart. I mean ... sure, any 2D vector can be split into a sum of two orthogonal components. But with redundant inset trackballs you could get stuff like spot pivots that are much finer scale than the scale of the 2-3 inch wide secondary axis treads...

On the other hand, these guys actually have a working prototype, so they clearly thought things through and decided that the orthogonal treadmill solution was better. Rubber meats road trumps off-the-cuff theoretical any day!

ChaosEnginesays...

Yeah, that was my thought too. Trackballs also solve the inertia problem too.

There's also a company called Virtuix, that solve the problem by having a bowl-like base with special slippery shoes. http://www.virtuix.com/

MilkmanDansaid:

Very cool.

I sure would have thought that it would be a platform with hundreds of partially inset mouse/trackballs, rather than treadmills on axes 90 degrees apart. I mean ... sure, any 2D vector can be split into a sum of two orthogonal components. But with redundant inset trackballs you could get stuff like spot pivots that are much finer scale than the scale of the 2-3 inch wide secondary axis treads...

On the other hand, these guys actually have a working prototype, so they clearly thought things through and decided that the orthogonal treadmill solution was better. Rubber meats road trumps off-the-cuff theoretical any day!

entr0pysays...

There are a handful of companies working on omnidirectional treadmills, it's interesting that they have totally different approaches.

More common than the treadmill made of treadmills approach is to have a super low friction platform, combined with a rigid harness around the waist to keep you from actually making progress in any direction. Sort of like trying to run on ice and failing hilariously.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBEfOcNTaVA

Megaweaponsays...

"It can't read your mind" however watching the brain and determining simple things is already well established. Presumably the model with the electrode hairnet is not far off. Lots of potential, here.

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