Ekto’s robotic boots may resolve VR locomotion problems

Ekto VR thinks it may possibly have just solved VR locomotion.

The Pittsburgh-based organization has discovered its to start with merchandise: the Ekto 1. It’s a pair of robotic boots that the enterprise promises are able of maintaining you in one spot although you wander forward. There is no simulating walking on the spot or strapping oneself into a VR treadmill. Look at it out doing the job with Fifty percent-Life: Alyx in the over online video.

The shoes use a carbon-fiber style and design that Ekto says is lightweight and use HTC’s Vive Tracker pucks to observe motion in VR. On the base of the system are two rotating plates that can twist to the direction the user is strolling in. After they set their foot on the floor, a established of wheels pull your leg again while you wander forward, supposedly supplying the sensation of going for walks, but trying to keep you in one particular place. It utilizes brakes for when you are standing even now to make positive you do not slip more than as if on a pair of skates.

I haven’t experimented with the Ekto A person, but as with any new VR technologies on the scene, safety is a single of our best worries about the package. In a prebriefing before this month, Ekto CEO Brad Factor certain the procedure has been through demanding testing to ensure security, even though we’d have to examination that for ourselves. It also does not aid operating just still, which is unsurprising given possible threats, however potential iterations could possibly help this.

It is certainly an intriguing design and could be a possible avenue to make VR locomotion a lot far more immersive than it is ideal now. But Ekto 1 is made only for company markets in its present variety and absolutely appears to be like far too huge, advanced, and pricey for purchaser use proper now. Factor notes the existing design is “affordable” for company methods but does say Ekto VR is interested in buyer applications in future purposes, hoping to attain that in two to 4 a long time.

This story originally appeared on Uploadvr.com. Copyright 2020