Shifty tiles bring walking to VRAugust 11, 2004 /Technology Research NewsResearchers from the University of Tsukuba and ATR Media Information Research Labs in Japan have constructed a moving floor that allows the user to stay in place while walking in a virtual environment.
The device makes it possible to literally move through a virtual environment, and could be used to simulate operations like disaster evacuations, according to the researchers.
The device, dubbed CirculaFloor, consists of movable sections of floor equipped with ultra-sound sensors that keep track of the floor section positions, and magnetic sensors that keep track of the motion of a user's feet....
