So You’re Wearing VR Goggles. How Do You Move Around?
When I put most people inside a VR headset, the first thing they say is:
“Whoa this is awesome, I actually feel like I’m here! How do I move around?”
They then immediately begin blindly walking around in realspace and bumping into furniture. At this point I gently but firmly remind them that contrary to what their senses are telling them, they are still very much standing where they were ten seconds ago and if they take another step they just might squish poor fluffy or smash their face into a wall.
Pretty soon this routine won’t be necessary because the industry will converge on standard ways to take control inside the virtual.
Though the computer mouse was invented in 1968, the desktop didn’t arrive until 1970. It took engineers and designers two years of experimentation to come up with the metaphor that brought us icons and windows, but once established it quickly became the standard. Virtual reality headsets have only just come on the scene, and as of yet there is no standard method for controlling movement through and interaction with a virtual space.
There are however, some options.
Controllers
The most straightforward solution is to go with what is already known to work. Videogame controllers have 20+ years of user-driven-design baked into them and many people are already knw how to use them. Most controllers have two joysticks, a plus shaped d-pad, some flat buttons and trigger buttons for each hand. Traditionally, when playing first-person games one of the controllers controls the movement of the player and one controller points the player’s view (often aiming a gun). The first joystick is already taken care of by the virtual realityheadsets because they take care of pointing the view just by tracking the user’s head. This means that only the movement joystick is needed, leaving the other joystick, and all the rest of the buttons free to control other actions.
The controller approach is a solid one. Controllers will probably gain the most traction the fastest because:
- They are widely available
- They are inexpensive (many people already have them)
- Let people use VR while sitting and not taking up space with movement and gestures
The drawback of this is that it’s not very immersive. Using a controller may remind people that they are not really there which is the opposite of what virtual reality is all about. For a less obtrusive movement control experience, less traditional hardware is required.
Omnidirectional Treadmills
There’s already a wonderful machine that lets people walk while standing still and it’s called a treadmill. The first solution most engineers have come up with is some sort of a mash up of a treadmill and a trackball to create a walking surface that tracks the walker’s steps. A lot of great work has been done to make this a reality, and there are a few working products or prototypes out there (most notably the super neat Omni).
As cool as these devices are, I’m not entirely convinced that they are really the best solution in controllerless-movement for a few reasons:
- Fitness is paramount these days, but most gamers don’t want to actually be running in real life as much as they are virtually in say, Destiny or WOW
- They are bulky and non-portable, (some of them even rely on a harness hanging from the ceiling which would require serious preparation/construction)
- They will probably be expensive
- Only one person at a time can use one
Spatial Sensors
Sensors like the kinect and leap motion work by using coherent light to create a 3D picture of an entire room or person. While initially seen as a novelty, they have gained much traction in the last few years as a possible mouse replacement.
I am all over these for VR because:
- They have been proven to work in living rooms across the world
- They are portable
- They are relatively inexpensive (I got an original Kinect of craigslist for $30)
- More than one person at a time can use them
- In addition to tracking foot movement through the space, they can also track a person’s entire body for gestures and interactions
That last one is a killer. Being able to move naturally and use your hands has been seen as the holy grail of Virtual Reality since at least the 80’s when we were all introduced to Star Trek’s Holodeck. Incredibly, some people have been working on exactly this. To create a holodeck, surround yourself with 3 or more kinect sensors hooked up to a central processing computer and wifi router, don a wireless VR headset or Oculus/laptop/backpack and enter the virtual. There’s only one problem: walls.
Come back next time to see how moving around a VR holodeck might work.
