Google patents ‘VR shoes’ for unlimited walking in limited space

Google has patented shoes that can give the user the feeling that they are walking, when in reality they are not moving, thanks to a base with wheels. This is to give users the feeling that they can walk through a virtual space unhindered.

The wheels under the shoes should only start turning when the user is close enough to the physical end of the room in which he experiences the VR experience. The spinning of the wheels should then move him away from the physical barrier in such a way that he doesn’t feel it. If this also happens quickly enough, a user feels that he can walk infinitely within a virtual world without requiring an excessively large physical space. The patent was published on November 15.

There is currently no actual product from Google, let alone information about a price or a release date. While such a patent means that a company has put some effort into a particular concept, it is far from a guarantee of a final product on the market.

Movement is another major stumbling block to virtual reality. When users have a seated VR experience, but this does involve movement within the virtual world, there is a risk of motion sickness. This is because the eyes perceive a movement that is not perceived by the vestibular system. A standing and walking VR experience does not have this shortcoming, but then you quickly run into a lack of space.

A VR experience in which a player really traverses a landscape is not really there yet. The American Virtuix has developed a kind of 360-degree treadmill to achieve the same effect, but this equipment costs about $10,000. Players can turn in all directions on the Omni’s treadmill, take steps on a slippery surface and are held in place by a harness. A competitor to the Virtuix Omni is the Kat Walk.