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Remember the Virtuix Omni? I\u2019ll never forget trying out an early version of the virtual reality treadmill in a hotel suite many E3s ago. The system, which features a concave platform and slippery shoes, was clever enough to influence Ready Player One\u2019s<\/a> take on the space. The electronics-free system finally started shipping earlier this year.<\/p>\n One thing you can say about VR is that it\u2019s inspiring a lot of creative solutions to different issues around the tech. Movement is a major one, of course. You lose some of that visceral sensation when your FPV avatar is cruising around while you\u2019re just sat there on the couch.<\/p>\n For the foreseeable future, however, all solutions will have some key drawbacks. Price is one in Omni\u2019s case, and likely will be for a lion\u2019s share of these sorts of peripherals. Other issues are size (it\u2019s huge) and sound (it\u2019s very noisy).<\/p>\n HoloTile \u2014 which recently made its YouTube debut at the end of a video honoring Disney Research fellow, Lanny Smoot \u2013 is an extremely clever and honestly quite elegant solution to some of these issues.<\/p>\n The system is comprised of hundreds of small, round \u201ctiles\u201d that look to be about the size of a silver dollar. Each serve as a kind of mini, omnidirectional treadmill. Working together, their only task is to stop the walker from leaving the pad.<\/p>\n \u201cI can walk on this omni directional floor in any direction I want,\u201d Smoot says in the video. \u201cIt will automatically do whatever it needs to have me stay on the floor. And what\u2019s amazing about this is multiple people can be on it and all walking independently. They can walk in virtual reality, and so many other things.\u201d<\/p>\n The ability to support multiple people is, perhaps, the most impressive bit of all of this. Of course, plenty of questions abound, including top speed (Smoot is moving very <\/em>deliberately in the video) and how much weight they\u2019re capable of sporting. The big caveat to all of this is that the HoloTile appears to very much be a research project at the moment.<\/p>\n One also assumes that a system like this in its current form would be prohibitively expensive for home use. If it\u2019s going to see the light of day, it seems likely that it will be as part of a Disney Parks VR experience.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n