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Omni: The "Oculus Rift" of 3D Treadmills

kickstarter.com

11–20 of 117 posts

Re: Omni: The "Oculus Rift" of 3D Treadmills

#12
post #2

Supplementary: The 3D Printed Occulus Rift killer. http://www.durovis.com/index.html

Good luck with that. What makes the Occulus Rift important is how fast it translates real world movement to signals software can process to give a true VR feel. The accelerometers and magnetometers in phones are decent for their intended purpose, but their intended purpose is not VR. This is no Rift killer.

I had the opportunity to ask Palmer Luckey (the founder of OR) directly about the possibility of smartphone based HMDs. It turns out he's looked into it quite a bit, but ultimately the unsolvable latency of the sensors made him move on. It could work for viewing 3D content or for situations where the head will only be moved fairly slowly, but it's not a great solution for most applications. I would note that a dedicated handset maker could create the hardware and drivers which fix this.

Re: Omni: The "Oculus Rift" of 3D Treadmills

#13

I see that X, the Y of Z is still going strong as an elevator pitch. What's wrong with "Omni: a 3D Treadmill"?

I can't comment on why it resonates so well with people, but I noticed that the same Kickstarter was posted earlier today using the original OP title "Omni: Move Naturally in Your Favorite Game" and it received hardly any attention.

Re: Omni: The "Oculus Rift" of 3D Treadmills

#14

I see that X, the Y of Z is still going strong as an elevator pitch. What's wrong with "Omni: a 3D Treadmill"?

Because people would ask; "Why do I need a 3d treadmill? I am perfectly happy running in a 2d line." It is not immediately obvious what it is for.

I think it would have make a lot more sense to say "Omni 3d Treadmill: The perfect complement for the Oculus Rift."

Re: Omni: The "Oculus Rift" of 3D Treadmills

#16
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good luck with that. What makes the Occulus Rift important is how fast it translates real world movement to signals software can process to give a true VR feel. The accelerometers and magnetometers in phones are decent for their intended purpose, but their intended purpose is not VR. This is no Rift killer.

That's speculation. Do you have factual evidence to prove that current accelerometers aren't responsive enought? Like a datasheet, a publication or something similar that isn't based on gut feeling. No offense, I appreciate the Occulus Rift as a high tech device that sets new limits in VR Technology, but Smartphones have come a long way sir. Are you saying that the iPhone4s, iPhone5, Galaxy S3, Galaxy S4 and Google N…

See my sibling comment to yours for more context. There are two main problems with the sensors in current devices. The first is that the communication layers (hardware and software) between the sensors and your applications can add 60ms or more. The rendering loop itself will add another 16ms (60fps) or 33ms (30fps). The second problem is that they fast, but not very fast. Generally phone position sensors can run 100 times a second. The OR sensors, on the other hand, run at something like 1000 times a second. This lets a processor in the goggles themselves do predictive algorithms which guess at future head motion allowing the higher level software to compensate for expected head motion.

The key is that humans can perceive latency around 20-30ms, and the phone is delivering around 80-100 in the best case. For what it's worth, I did real measurements on all this before giving up on the idea myself.

Re: Omni: The "Oculus Rift" of 3D Treadmills

#17

With regard to the Omni as a way to exercise, I wonder how it stacks up to actual running/walking since the user does not actually have to propel his or her own weight.

It must be somewhere in between. But definitely closer to running than walking. When running most of you effort is directed against the gravity, that is why the treadmills work.

Re: Omni: The "Oculus Rift" of 3D Treadmills

#18
post #2

Supplementary: The 3D Printed Occulus Rift killer. http://www.durovis.com/index.html

Good luck with that. What makes the Occulus Rift important is how fast it translates real world movement to signals software can process to give a true VR feel. The accelerometers and magnetometers in phones are decent for their intended purpose, but their intended purpose is not VR. This is no Rift killer.

OK, I just busted your theory. Sorry. :) It has 16G

The LSM330 has an user-selectable full scale acceleration range of ±2 g/±4 g/±6 g/±8 g/±16 g and angular rate range of ±250/±500/±2000 d.

Samsung Galaxy S4 accelerometers/gyro Datasheet: http://www.st.com/web/en/catalog/sense_power/FM89/SC1448/PF2...

Here's a FULL Teardown of the insides of the Samsung Galaxy S4. http://www.chipworks.com/blog/recentteardowns/2013/04/25/ins...

Re: Omni: The "Oculus Rift" of 3D Treadmills

#19

The "aha" moment for me, as an outsider to this industry, is using a special shoe to reduce friction and increase lateral stability versus only focusing on developing a 3D treadmill itself.

I completely agree, I was very excited until I saw the special shoes requirements. While I can see how it works, I don't really understand why they couldn't use a regular treadmill belt with some piezoelectric sensor to detect lateral movements.

Re: Omni: The "Oculus Rift" of 3D Treadmills

#20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good luck with that. What makes the Occulus Rift important is how fast it translates real world movement to signals software can process to give a true VR feel. The accelerometers and magnetometers in phones are decent for their intended purpose, but their intended purpose is not VR. This is no Rift killer.

I had the opportunity to ask Palmer Luckey (the founder of OR) directly about the possibility of smartphone based HMDs. It turns out he's looked into it quite a bit, but ultimately the unsolvable latency of the sensors made him move on. It could work for viewing 3D content or for situations where the head will only be moved fairly slowly, but it's not a great solution for most applications. I would note that a dedica…

I highly appreciate your feedback. Especially that the founders looked into that possiblilty, just shows how much class they have. Carmack doesn't support them just because they're cool. There is more to it.
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