The delicious-looking machine folds up like an outsized taco for straightforward transportation and storage.
After changing into pissed off by the dearth of efficient strolling options for VR, Mark Dufour got here up together with his personal weird contraption he calls the Taco VR platform. First reported by Hackaday, Dufour’s food-inspired machine combines a unique-looking omnidirectional treadmill with a sophisticated robotic platform. When not in use, the machine can match right into a small space of your own home or workplace.
To recreate the feeling of strolling, the Taco VR platform includes a sequence of motors, a slip ring for steady rotation, an Arduino Mega 2560 Rev3 microcontroller board, and two pixy2 cameras that monitor every step you absorb VR and transfer the platform underneath your toes.
However why name it Taco VR? While you’re not utilizing the machine, you may fold it up like an outsized taco for straightforward transportation and storage. Dufour developed the treadmill as a part of a hackathon, documenting his efforts in a four-part video sequence on YouTube.
The Taco VR platform makes use of gears to attach the stationary base plate to the platform. This ensures that the platform will at all times face the identical route because the tiles on the ground. To ensure your toes at all times have a spot to step, Dufour makes use of two disc platforms that use sensors to maneuver the treadmill as you are taking every step.
For the time being, the platform doesn’t assist up/down motion, however in line with a weblog submit, Dufour says it might be doable to introduce stated capabilities over time.
To construct his Taco VR platform, Dufour used Infento to seek out sturdy prototyping parts. He additionally used 3D printing to make any gears Infento doesn’t carry.
At present, there aren’t any security options constructed into the Taco VR platform. In line with Dufour, if this have been to change into an precise shopper product, he might add a big round encasing or one thing that you would use to catch your self in the event you lose your steadiness.
The VR treadmill business has made vital progress over the previous a number of years. That stated, the perfect answer will at all times be to ship experiences the place customers can bodily stroll round, corresponding to location-based VR video games like Uncontained. There are additionally dwelling options like Cybershoes or Virtuix, however Dufour desires one thing the place he’s in a position to “really feel” the bottom together with his personal sneakers and even his personal naked toes.
For now, the Taco VR platform is a prototype that all of us want we might strive. You possibly can be taught extra concerning the Taco VR platform on Dufour’s weblog web page, Blogfarts. He’s additionally listed the whole lot you’ll must construct our personal Taco VR setup on Github.
Picture Credit score: Mark Dufour
