The development of virtual reality technologies is inspiring researchers to come up with many creative solutions to various problems. One of the key problems is movement. Full immersion is difficult if the user is sitting on the couch while their avatar is moving around. The recently introduced HoloTile system offers an elegant solution. It consists of hundreds of small round “tiles”, each of which serves as a kind of miniature omnidirectional treadmill.
The surface consists of modules that automatically adapt to the object located on them and, rotating, return it to its original position. Several people can be on the surface at once.
The developer himself noted that this is the world’s first omnidirectional modular floor for movement in place. According to Lenny Smoot, HoloTile can be used in VR games, art, or adapted for virtual travel.
HoloTile is currently a research project, but it is already safe to say that such a system in its current form would be prohibitively expensive for home use. It is most likely that the commercial version of HoloTile will first see the light of day as part of virtual reality at Disneyland.
