Alphabet’s Google has filed a patent application for a new approach to VR walking shoes. The shoes described use tiny motorized wheels on the bottom to subtly redirect the user back to the center of their room when they walk towards the edges. If done correctly, the user would feel as if they have an infinite VR playspace.
The approach is an extension of earlier ideas of “infinite redirected walking”, which used purely visual distortions in scale of the virtual environment to try and achieve the same effect through tricking the user’s eyes. The issue with those approaches however is that they still required a very large playspace of around 20×20 feet to be effective, and may only be effective in indoor virtual environments. By adding actual movement to the user’s shoes, the redirection can be both optical and physical. As you’re walking towards the edge of the room, the motors in the shoes will activate in the opposite direction when your feet touch the ground.
Until recently, the main approach to physically walking through large virtual environments has been omnidirectional treadmills (ODTs) such as Kat Walk Mini or Omni. ODTs are pretty great at providing a true feeling of walking, but their sheer size means they are expensive both to build and to ship. Many people wouldn’t be able to fit them through their doors, requiring “assemble on delivery” designs that are even more complex and costly.
A much more simple approach to VR shoes is that of the recently successful Cybershoes Kickstarter. Cybershoes approach is to have the player seated on a bar stool like chair and slide along a slippery surface with slippery shoes. Very simple rollers transmit movement data back to the PC, but they are not motorized in any way. The main advantage of Cybershoes is its significantly lower cost compared to alternatives.
The disadvantage of the Cybershoes, and the main problem Google’s approach seems to be tackling is that it only works seated. In Cybershoes you can’t go prone, you can’t crouch, you can’t sneak, and being seated detracts from the immersion if your character is supposed to be standing. A standing solution without having to install or strap into a full omnidirectional treadmill could potentially bring standing walking VR to regular consumers one day.
Questions remain about how much these kinds of shoes would cost, whether the motors could be reliable enough for a consumer product, and just how seamless it would actually feel to use. But if the approach described in Google’s patent application truly works, it could be a revolution for VR locomotion. We’ll keep you updated on any further patents or news from Google about innovative VR locomotion solutions.
Before I talk about the Cybershoes, it’s important to frame the color the experience with framing from my past that I think many of our readers will relate to on some level. One of my first modern VR experiences was EVE: Valkyrie back at E3 2015 on the (then) Project Morpheus headset from Sony — a game in which you’re flying through space at blistering speeds and shooting down enemies. After that I got a Gear VR for my Samsung Galaxy phone shortly after and was forced to sit, stationary and unmoving, and just look around the room. Two polar opposite sensations. Then the Rift and Vive came out in 2016 and redefined how I viewed video games, with one major stipulation: physical boundaries.
When I played Job Simulator for the first time, I wanted to walk around the office. When I played The Gallery, I wanted to explore the entire beach coastline. When I played Vanishing Realms, I wanted to sprint down corridors past traps. Eventually developers started including artificial locomotion so you can just use the analog stick on the Oculus Touch controllers or the track pad on the HTC Vive wands to “slide” across the world like you do in non-VR games, but that’s an imperfect solution. It lacks physicality and tactile feedback on my body and in some cases just feels clumsy.
I’ve tried omnidirectional treadmills like the Virtuix Omni. I’ve tried the 3dRudder. I’ve seen the Kat Walk Mini in action. But those are all imperfect as well. While I’m not saying that the Cybershoes are perfect by any means, they do a wonderful job of delivering a direct physical interaction with the virtual world to cause movement that is both easy to use, comfortable, and above all else, surprisingly immersive.
To be honest, I was skeptical of the Cybershoes. After seeing their Kickstarter rapidly explode over the last few weeks it seemed like a lot of empty hype. The company contacted me to send a unit to my house to try in my own time and after spending about a week toying around with the device in Skyrim VR, DOOM VFR, Fallout 4 VR, and even Onward, my thoughts are turning around a bit.
Included with the Cybershoes themselves (shown above) the company sent me a swiveling bar stool-style chair, a circular rug, and an IKEA-style lamp stand to run the wires above my head.
The way the Cybershoes work are that you strap them onto the bottom of whatever shoes you’re already wearing — the strap itself reminded me of rollerblades. They’ve got rollers on the bottom that track your feet movement across the ground and transmit that back to your PC in the form of movement inside the game. You need carpet or a rug for it to work well (they’ll ship with a circular carpet if you need it.)
So you sit in a swivel chair and you rub your feet across the ground to move. It sounds silly and it looks even sillier, but anyone that has a VR headset obviously has already surrendered to looking ridiculous. It actually works really well — surprisingly well, in fact. Personally I’ve never been one to get motion sick and I prefer to stand while in VR 90% of the time, but I actually enjoyed using these wonky shoe thingies. Swinging my feet in a chair isn’t the same as running on a Ready Player One-style treadmill, but in some ways it is better than moving a joystick in my hand.
Although running the wires above my head was a bit annoying to be honest. Having the cable dangling above me meant I could vaguely feel it tug every now and then. I didn’t get to try it out with the Vive Wireless Adapter, but I’d have really loved to do so.
Right now the Cybershoes only officially support HTC Vive and, for the most part, using them solves my biggest issue with the Vive as a VR platform: the controllers. If a game or app supports both Vive and Rift and I need to pick one, I always opt for Rift because of the Touch controllers. I just really, really dislike using the track pads for movement. But when wearing Cybershoes, I don’t have to awkwardly rub my thumb on the controller to move around, so suddenly the Vive wands are much better as just tools in my hand. Wielding a sword in Skyrim VR is more satisfying with a Vive wand than it is with a Touch controller, for example.
However, there is a huge loss of interactivity in some cases since you’re forced to sit down at all times. This means you can’t go prone in a game like Onward, or crouch down to sneak in Skyrim VR. You can’t physically jump to the side to dodge a rocket in DOOM VFR or quickly spin around to block a sword slash. Instead of whipping your body around in real life, you have to shuffle your feet and spin around in a chair which, frankly, is a bit annoying and inaccurate.
So it’s sort of a mixed bag in terms of immersion. But for some titles, like the ones that you wouldn’t typically move around the room in much and generally stand still, the Cybershoes seem like a marked improvement.
It’s also worth noting that the setup process, while relatively easy, is a bit intrusive for your space. For me, I have a home office that doubles as my VR room so I don’t mind leaving the lamp stand setup and just moving it to the side when not in use, but for some people it’d be inconvenient.
Cybershoes aren’t a massive leap forward for the VR industry, but it’s still a surprisingly convincing alternative for movement in VR. As of the time of this writing, the Cybershoes Kickstarter has raised over $235,000 of an originally stated $34,095 goal — the campaign ends on November 1st, 2018. That’s a huge success. However, if we can learn anything from recent headlines, Sixense proves that having a successful Kickstarter campaign is only the first step. Now the company has to produce and deliver the product to consumers.
What do you think about the Cybershoes? Are you going to back them? Would you buy a pair? Let us know down in the comments below!
Yesterday VRFocus reported on haptic vest company Woojer easily achieving its Kickstarter goal in a few hours, and now Cybershoes has done the same. The crowd-funding campaign only started this afternoon and within a couple of hours had sailed past its €30,000 EUR goal.
Having taken demo units to Tokyo Game Show (TGS), Gamescom and the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) this year – where VRFocusfirst came across and demoed the device – Cybershoes has developed a pair of slippery shoes enabling gamers to easily walk in virtual reality (VR). Designed to attach to the underneath of any shoe, the Cybershoes have a roller on the underside to track movement, all users need to do is naturally move their legs as if they were walking – whilst seated – to move virtually.
In development for over three years, the Cybershoes can support up to 220lb / 100kg – remember they’re not designed to be used standing – use radio, not Bluetooth, for stability and performance, and 3 hours of charging via Micro USB gives you 8-10 hours playtime.
With the funding goal now achieved the Cybershoes Kickstarter is currently sat on just over €45,000 with 29 days left to go. There are quite a few funding tiers, with the cheapest way to get your own Cybershoes being the €151 Super Early Bird. Adding a further €4 will gain backers the Cybershoes Carpet, designed to work perfectly with the device.Once the limited early birds are gone then the standard price is €193. There are also backing tiers for VR arcades.
And by the looks of things there shouldn’t be too long to wait. The shoes shown at this years events were the third-generation, with the final consumer ready version expecting to be shipped January 2019.
Cybershoes is compatible with SteamVR applications that use either touchpad or thumbsticks for free locomotion, such as those found on HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, and Windows Mixed Reality headsets. For further updates on the Cybershoes Kickstarter, keep reading VRFocus.
Vienna-based startup Cybershoes recently launched their much-awaited Kickstarter campaign, which seeks to commercialize the titular device that allows you to ‘walk’ in VR with your own two feet. Now, the Kickstarter has blasted past its initial funding goal and is full steam ahead.
Update (October 3rd, 2018): Still with 28 days to go, nearly 500 backers have put down a collective total of more than €100,000 (~$115,000 USD) at the time of this writing. Cybershoes has a few stretch goals ahead, including guaranteed support for z-scaling at $300,000 and a yet undetermined funding tier that will unlock software support for jumping. The project creator haven’t issued an update, so it’s uncertain what extra stretch goals they’ve planned. The original article follows below:
Original Article (October 2nd, 2018): The idea is pretty simple: the shoe coverings feature a barrel-style wheel, that when spun, translates to forward and backwards VR movement. Sitting on a swivel stool, you mimic a walking movement and travel in the desired direction.
We went hands-on at this year’s Gamescom, and it appears Cybershoes basically accomplishes what it set out to do: increase immersion and reduce VR-related nausea. And while Cybershoes aren’t a perfect solution, the device makes a compelling case for lighter, space-saving locomotion controllers that aren’t nearly as disastrous to the pocketbook like the larger, heavier, more expensive VR treadmills out there.
When we tried Cybershoes at Gamescom in August, strafing wasn’t a possibility, as the device lets you move forward and backwards, but not left to right; if you want to go left, you can either use an artificial locomotion method like snap-turn, or physically swivel yourself in that direction. The creators have since implemented ‘directional’ walking though, which makes your point of view independent from the shoes’ walking direction—something the creators claim is a more natural way of walking through and viewing the virtual environment.
A pair of Cybershoes comes with a wireless radio receiver (not Bluetooth) that connects via USB to your PC. Requiring three hours of charging via Micro USB, the creators say you should have between eight to ten hours of playtime. Since the shoes emulate button presses, any PC VR game with ‘free’ locomotion should technically support Cybershoes, including games such as Skyrim VR, Arizona Sunshine, Onward and Rec Room to name a few.
The basic funding tier, which includes a pair of shoes, costs €193 (~$223 USD), although a Super Early Bird tier cuts that down to €151 (~$175 USD). You will of course need a swivel chair and probably some way to suspend the headset’s cable (the company suggests IKEA’s Regolit lamp holder).
Milled from a single block of conductive plastic, the shoes are quite sturdy and are said to support up to 220lb / 100kg. A user’s full weight probably shouldn’t rest on the shoes though, as walking in them could result in a fall.
The campaign, which is set to last a month, is hoping to garner at least €30,000 (~$34,600 USD) in funding.
VR treadmills are usually pretty bulky, expensive, and have a questionable utility outside of the initial wow moment of seeing one in action. Vienna-based Cybershoes however are aiming to get your feet into the game with a pretty simple concept that is less silly than it appears on first blush.
I got a chance to pop into the Cybershoes booth at this year’s Gamescom where a decent crowd had already formed around the VR users strangely moving their feet back and forth while seated.
Strapping the weighty plastic soles onto my sneakers, which were secured tight with snowboarder style quick straps, it was my turn to play a couple of minutes of Doom VFR (2017) on HTC Vive and peddle my feet, spinning the barrel-shaped wheel either backwards or forwards. From a physical standpoint, the results were pretty positive, as I naturally moved my feet as if I were running in place, spinning the little wheel underneath with ease.
While it was a simple setup experience, and moving forward and backwards was a breeze, the experience does leave something to be desired. Because you’re sitting on a swivel-style bar stool, if you want to turn in VR—assuming the game doesn’t support so-called snap-turning—it means you have to physically rotate yourself with your feet to face the direction you want to go, which isn’t great for when you have to make quick turns.
That said, you will need some way to suspend the cable over your head so it doesn’t get tangled around you during play. The demo space was outfitted with a makeshift cable guide re-purposed from IKEA’s Regolit lamp holder, which the company suggests using; they’ll also be suggesting a few chair models when the project makes its way to Kickstarter in September.
Image courtesy IKEA
As for the shoe’s construction, I found them to be really quite sturdy. Milled from a single block of conductive plastic, the shoes are designed to both hold up to 100kg (~220lbs) and eliminate static discharge—something that’s extremely important, as you are essentially rubbing your feet on the carpet and potentially storing static charge throughout your game session.
The padded straps are essentially plucked from snowboarding boots, which allow for easy cinching and release—a good thing, considering you probably shouldn’t walk around your house with the things still on your feet for fear of faceplanting. Enterprise users will also likely appreciate the fact that they don’t have to strap unwitting first-timers into anything elaborate, or require users to wear special low-friction shoes like in some VR treadmills.
Image captured by Road to VR
The shoe’s single barrel-style wheel seemed to feature interior ball bearings as well, the same way a skateboard wheel spins effortlessly. Cybershoes CEO Michael Bieglmayer told me that the company at first wanted to go with a laser setup, like those found in computer mice, to reduce the chance of mechanic wear even more, but the variability of user’s ground texture essentially made this a non-starter.
In the end, the idea is essentially to reduce VR-related discomfort while making things more immersive by letting you ‘walk’ in VR. Cybershoes basically accomplishes this, and appears to be well on its way to full production, as the version I tried at Gamescom was a near-final prototype. While Cybershoes aren’t a perfect solution, the device makes a compelling case for lighter, space-saving locomotion controllers—one that checks many of the same blocks as VR treadmills at this point. Starting at less than $300, it may be just at the right price-point for VR enthusiasts with less square footage than disposable income too.
The company’s Kickstarter is slated to arrive in September which ought to shed more light on the project’s funding tiers, final price and delivery date.
This year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) 2018 seemed to be mostly about virtual reality (VR) software rather than hardware. There were little pockets on some of the smaller booths, one of which was Cybershoes, a VR startup showcasing its new product ahead of a planned Kickstarter launch later this year. Naturally, VRFocus couldn’t pass up the chance to try this new idea of moving around in VR (actually walking) whilst still being sat down.
So essentially Cybershoes are two devices that attach to the soles of each shoe. Much like those old school roller skates when you were a kid, they comprise of one big strap that goes over the top of your foot to keep the device in place and then you can set off.
Unlike omnidirectional treadmills that require you to stand on a smooth surface and try to walk without falling over – which can take a while to acclimatise to – the Cybershoes were far easier to adjust to and use, mainly because you’re sat down rather than standing. This also has the added benefit of being able to be used by a far wider array of people no matter what their physical ability is like.
For the E3 demonstration the Cybershoes had been tallied up with DOOM (2016) so attendees could run around at blast demons to their hearts content. To begin with all seemed fairly good being able to physically walk about and turn on the chair when needed. The Cybershoes have a smooth, slippery, sole so there’s no friction to deal with.
However a videogame like DOOM quickly highlighted some issues with Cybershoes due to the nature of the format. If you’ve not played DOOM then to put it simply it’s a frantic first-person shooter (FPS) what requires a lot of movement to stay alive. Cybershoes just couldn’t replicate this movement quick enough – or more accurately the old legs couldn’t – meaning that death was soon inevitable.
Demoing this kind of technology at an event does help to highlight how things need to be perfectly adjusted to the user for an ideal play session. For example the chair was too short meaning a 6ft bloke like myself had to bring their knees up to maintain the walking motion – no sliding your feet back and forth on the floor – making for a far more leg tiring experience than if the seat was high enough to just casually walk.
Ideally you’d want to use Cybershoes on a far more open-world adventure where you could take your time for the most part – wandering around the wasteland of Fallout 4 VR would be kind of cool – and where jumping wasn’t needed.
The E3 Cybershoes were still prototypes at the end of the day and did exactly what they needed to, help people walk in VR without actually moving anywhere. One aspect of the design that also shone out was the robustness. Even with demo after demo for three days the Cybershoes stand was still going strong so they can definitely take some punishment. As an alternative to direct locomotion the Cybershoes certainly offer an interesting option, in this niche VR market however it remains to be seen how much demand there will be.
The ever growing lineup of virtual reality (VR) gaming peripherals has made way for interesting developments in how users interact with their favourite VR title. Cybeshoes is one such product in which players are able to actually walk within virtual space thanks to the product attaching to the user’s shoes/feet. During the recent Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) 2018 show, VRFocus’ Nina Salomons was able to catch up with Michael Bieglmayer, Cybershoes’ CEO to talk about their upcoming product.
The Cybershoes work by offering the user an affordable and innovative way to navigate within virtual space all thanks to the movement of their own legs. By sitting on a rotating chair or stool, a user is then able to have complete 360-degree freedom to explore to their heart’s content.
“So we make the shoes for walking in VR, we’re the first VR shoe makers.” Bieglmayer explains: “We said ‘Hey there’s this big virtual reality out there and you can’t walk in it’ so we make shoes for walking in virtual reality. We emulate the touchpad of the controller so it is already working with the games that feature some kind of movement.”
Cybershoes are designed to work with plenty of titles including all of the popular ones currently available on the market. In the interview, which you can watch in full below, the product was being demonstrated with DOOM VFR however as Bieglmayer mentions, many more games are supported. “So all the popular games from Bethesda studios are really awesome, and I personally love Arizona Sunshine.” So long as a title supports touchpad input for movement it is possible to get the Cybershoes working with it.
Users will have the option to use Cybershoes in a number of different ways depending on their play style. As Bieglmayer explains: “So there are different modes. You can either follow the gaze or you follow the shoes and the gaze is separate from the walking movement and you can also do like jumps, so yeah different stuff. We also support attacking and picking things up from the ground also.” Yes, you can kick with Cybershoes if you so wish.
Cybershoes are planning to launch a Kickstarter in the near future and VRFocus will be sure to bring you all the latest on the product in the future. You can find the full interview from E3 2018 below as well.
With the advancements in virtual reality (VR) technology, developers of peripherals continue to create new products as a means to extend the immersive experiences into new areas. For Cybershoes, this is just their goal as they have introduced a new product designed for VR enthusiasts that will any them to step into new worlds like never before.
The Cybershoes allow a user an affordable, innovative accessory that is strapped directly onto the wearers feet, allowing them to literally walk, run or flee within VR. The product is being demonstrated at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) 2018 with an accompanying swivel bar stool to offer a unique VR journey. The Cybershoes are compatible with any VR game and are able to function with SteamVR, HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, and Windows Mixed Reality headsets. With the additional of the Cybershoes on a users feet, all of the movements of the player are controlled by the users own physical movement, so they can feel like they are actually exploring those ancient ruins or fleeing from a horde of undead.
“VR is an endless space, but you cannot walk in it,” said Michael Bieglmayer, inventor and CEO of Cybershoes GmbH. “The Cybershoes are the solution to that problem, as they allow you to walk in virtual reality, and enhance your immersive experience by letting players control their gameplay through natural movement, and it can be used by anyone with a VR system and a swivel bar stool.”
The Cybershoes have been designed with a number of benefits and features in mind. The number one of which is affordability, ensuring that any VR enthusiasts will be able to pick them up and add them to their VR setup. Easy setup and calibration ensure a simple, fast, and reliable set up process ensure users can jump into their experiences as fast as possible. The level of immersion that is then offered by the Cybershoes thanks to their natural movement system will ensure users feel like they are experience real life within the virtual world.
The Cybershoes also have usage beyond that of gaming, allowing them to be employed in training and planning for industrial facilities, physical rehab programs for the elderly, and architecture and construction previews. Any experiences that has some form of natural movement can benefit from the Cybershoes, extending the experience to a new level.
Cybershoes plan to launch a Kickstarter in the near future for the product to get it into users hands, or feet, as soon as possible. VRFocus will be sure to bring you all the latest on Cybershoes in the future so stay tuned for more.
The second day of 2018’s Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), Los Angeles, has come to a close. VRFocus has scoured the show floor looking for the latest and greatest in both virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), and in the recap video presented here you can find all the hits-and-misses from the show.
Following yesterday’s bombardment from Bethesda Softworks, Ready at Dawn, Twisted Pixel, Squanch Games and more, this second day began in earnest with a deep look at Thrustmaster’s new hardware offerings; the new TPR Rudder and a HOTAS Flight Stick add-on, the Replica F/A 18 Hornet. This was followed by a look at the one and only AR experience seen so far at E3, The Pixel Crushers’ ARia’s Legacy, both located in the Los Angeles Convention Center South Hall.
The new hardware continues with Cybershoes, CaptoGlove and Woojer Ryg, in addition to a fresh look at HTC Vive’s wireless adapter, created in partnership with Display Link and Intel. Back on the videogames side, we have Rebellion and Dream Reality Interactive’s Arca’s Path VR, Multiverse Inc.’s Seeking Dawn, and finally First Contact Entertainment’s Firewall: Zero Hour.
All of these you can find in the video below, while tomorrow brings us to the final day of E3 2018. There’ll be more from Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), as well as a first look at XSEED’s Gungrave VR and a fresh update from Kite & Lightning on the team’s progress of Bebylon: Battle Royale.
What else is happening at E3 2018? In terms of AR and VR, not much. It’s a slow year for the emerging medium – and for videogames as a whole, considered to be a mid-cycle year for consoles which are not offering anything particularly new – with eyes on the recently launched Oculus Go as a head-mounted display (HMD) geared more towards the mass market than the core videogames audience and still some way from the upcoming launch of the Santa Cruz HMD. As ever though, VRFocus will be on the ground bringing you all the latest news as it happens.
