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It is now Week 12, and student presentations have begun. Of the week, the product that had me excited on the concept, was Cybershoes.
It is now Week 12, and student presentations have begun. Of the week, the product that had me excited on the concept, was Cybershoes.
A long time ago, when Skyrim VR was put in the spotlight with me and many of my friends with this video here.
You would see it often on Facebook or shared YouTube links. Even memes took advantage of the clip because the concept was that cool. Such a big jump in possibility that VR was capable of.
Just like in class, we talked about how the goal of VR was to immerse you in a virtual world, separate from our own. Obviously there are a lot of hurdles towards that end. Imagine that we're in a cooking simulator in VR. Simple enough, you have your controller and you can flip a burger. The hard part is simulating everything else. The weight of the burger or the beefy smell of it coming towards you.
Movement is also a huge way to immerse someone in virtual reality. The main representation of movement is made through a controller.
Cyberith Virtualizer, however, showcased a way to walk around by YOU walking around (in one place actually). You get put inside this ring that keeps you stationary while you slide-walk around a smooth surface with overshoes on top of your normal shoes.
Enter the Cybershoes that Simran chose for Student Choice.
First thing you notice is the smaller profile. It's a whole of a lot tinier than the Virtualizer for sure. It isn't some huge mechanical doohickey just sitting in your home. Can you imagine using a Cyberith Virtualizer inside your own home every time you wanted to play VR? You would have to make an appointment with yourself just to find the time to prepare to use it.
But the Cybershoes tell me a different tale when I look at them. Someone can just reasonably put on their shoes and get to gaming sooner and probably have an easier time doing so as well.
As Simran pointed out in the website, there are 4 versions available. Just the Cybershoes and Cybercarpet running for $299 going up to Cybershoes Business Edition going up to over $1000 dollars. The very reasonable Cybershoes + Cybercarpet for consumers is definitely a win in the saving section versus the Cyberith Virtualizer that may run over $700 per unit.
So like we mentioned earlier, Immersing oneself into a world takes a lot. Having someone interact in the virtual world brings a lot to the table regarding immersing someone in it. A lot of effort has gone into seeing the world, which makes sense. The controllers with which to directly interact with the world has also found itself successful in player use.
Not much has been using the legs however, which is why it's so important and amazing that there are several efforts to implement it. They are our main source of locomotion after all and also the most familiar way we move.
Adding your feet adds so much dimension on how we can use VR as well. I can think of a few ways we can use it:
- Live walkthroughs of Apartments, Condos, Houses when hunting for living spaces
- Workout games/programs (If there were accurate feet sensors, dancing could be an option)
- Sports that have a lot to do with feet (skateboarding, rollerskates)
Basically, there's a lot of unexplored potential with these feet/leg based controllers and I am so excited to see more of it in the future.
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