Shiny Doom Forum

[Trool]

this is really really cool I think, maybe we'll have holodecks in our life time...lol

http://www.trnmag.com/Stories/2004/081104/Shifty_tiles_bring_walking_to_VR_Brief_081104.html

EDIT: this kinda relates to the prev thing also, but in the visual department
http://www.uni-weimar.de/~bimber/research.php

I love any kinda vr tech just cause it's one of the few places in cs that involves a really cool demo u can do for ppl, most other cs things are hard to appreciate by ppl not cs....lol
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The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, isn't 'Eureka!' but rather 'hmm....that's funny.'

--Isaac Asimov

[fate]

what if someone walks in a diagonal?

[Trool]

this is a guess, but i think the pads move underneath u as u go and the can move at any angle...i think, but i could be totaly wrong on that....
_________________
The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, isn't 'Eureka!' but rather 'hmm....that's funny.'

--Isaac Asimov

[rklee]

this is pretty cool. it reminds me of the research being done on tiny versions of these. Some are used as kinda like a conveyor belt for tiny items. Some use magnetics but one really cool one that some people in my group has done uses piezo electrics. They actually successfully made one (centimeter range but with nanometer precision and speeds up to centimeters per sec)
The principle of it is based on standing waves. So piezo electrics vibrate at very very high frequencies when a high voltage is placed accross it. Now if you run it at certain resonant frequencies you get 'beats' or standing waves. Beasically each section will move at a regular motion, ranging from no movement to maximum movement (peaks). You can also get different frequencies to get different beats number of these peaks per distance. If you stick a tiny foot slightly on the right side of the peak you will get a moving leg that tends to push to the right making the thing go left. Same thing if the foot is placed on the other side of the peak. make a square with 4 strips of piezo electrics. These things vibrate in the order of megaherz. You actually only get an object that can be precisionly placed and also can move very high speeds (centimeters per second). If anyone's interested I can try to find the research paper that accompanies this from my group or also the original paper that was written about this... I think that's UC berkley. to make things short.
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"My Heart Is In the Work" - Andrew Carnegie

[Trool]

yah i'd defienatly like to take a look at the paper.
_________________
The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, isn't 'Eureka!' but rather 'hmm....that's funny.'

--Isaac Asimov