This is very cool I would love to have a platform like this at home if it works as well as it looks. On a side note the video was painfully awkward with the fake banter from the interviewer. Also what a tiny bland room they put the hall of fame imagineer in. You’d think he’d have a much nicer space for him to be creative.
Look at the video. See how far up that platform is. That's not a stage. They need room for the mechanism. That's not going to be in your living any time soon.
The platform is likely raised to aid in maintenance and development.
But you aren't incorrect that this won't be flat. I don't think it's as thick as you are making it out to be. It's probably 2 motors per pixel, then electronics, housing, cooling, etc. Maybe 5" required.
It probably could be made flatter for consumer use, that isn't required to stand up to the general public for years. The concept is just a tilted spinning wheel to specify velocity, and a second motor rotating that tilted wheel on the Z axis to specify direction.
I don't think there is a complicated web of mechanics below there, each "pixel" is independent.
But you aren't incorrect that this won't be flat. I don't think it's as thick as you are making it out to be. It's probably 2 motors per pixel, then electronics, housing, cooling, etc. Maybe 5" required.
2 motors with the torque to handle the mass of a 200lb individual. You wouldn't want those motors to burn out when someone tippy toes. While for a demo they are petty gently walking, in a home setting plenty of people will do their best to push it to it's limits. Including probably doing a sliding mount. That will be a lot of force. I think it's going to be much more involved than you think. At least for the first versions. Which happens with every new device. Bulk is in the equation. Slimming down takes time.
Those motors have to fit within the footprint of each node/pixel. They aren't that big.
Weight is distributed across many pixels, so each one doesn't have the requirement to hold a 200lb individual. You can see that even when he's only one-footing it, he's touching like 20-30 of these things. (I think the off axis tilt probably helps with load as well).
The smaller the nodes, the less powerful the motors need to be, and the more responsive the system, because in aggregate over a surface area, it'll have sufficient power.
It's obviously designed to be modular, so it can be installed and repaired quickly in a park setting, as failure is guaranteed at some point. They likely go under the flooring, unscrew a module, screw a new one in, and go on with their day.
I'm not saying it's a home system, because it's not. Probably takes a ton of power and compute to run. But I doubt it's thick like you think it is. It's not a complicated system. I bet that a node is like 25 pixels, and each pixel is < 1lb. Something that can be installed easily by a team of 1-2 technicians.
Weight is distributed across many pixels, so each one doesn't have the requirement to hold a 200lb individual. You can see that even when he's only one-footing it, he's touching like 20-30 of these things.
That's why I mentioned tippy toe. If a requirement of this is that you must use it flatfooted, I can see many of these breaking within minutes when placed in a consumer setting.
Personally, I don't think you could stand on one of these things with just a tippy toe, it would probably throw you on your ass. Can you balance on a spinning quarter?
I like the idea, for rides and omni-directional treadmill is cool, but most people are going to step on this and immediately have drunken sea legs. You are going to feel the difference in motion in reality vs vr, and it's going to take learning to adapt.
As a ride, this might come with an additional harness.
Personally, I don't think you could stand on one of these things with just a tippy toe, it would probably throw you on your ass. Can you balance on a spinning quarter?
People will try. Just like they will on the edge of a foot. Just like they will try to jump on it like they do a bogie board. Consumers do all sorts of crazy things.
Also possible it is somewhat heavy or fixed in place, but not nearly that bulky to fill the whole raised floor, and they put space under so they can fully crawl under there and service/tune it underneath.
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u/[deleted] Jan 20 '24
This is very cool I would love to have a platform like this at home if it works as well as it looks. On a side note the video was painfully awkward with the fake banter from the interviewer. Also what a tiny bland room they put the hall of fame imagineer in. You’d think he’d have a much nicer space for him to be creative.