This document discusses various methods for locomotion in virtual reality, including room-scale VR, teleportation, and treadmills. It proposes a new invention called ROVR, which is a low-friction dish and footwear that allows the user to walk naturally in VR without requiring much space. ROVR aims to provide an illusion of natural walking through simple leg movements while being affordable, portable, and avoiding issues with harness-based treadmills such as discomfort, restrictions to movement, and safety concerns. Evaluation of early ROVR prototypes showed promising results for applications in virtual tours, training, and gaming.

2. Locomotion in VR
Many of the best VR experiences are standing
Room-scale VR not large enough
Only ‘sufficient motion’ needed in VR
Maximum Output for Minimum Input
“The power to be extraordinary”
Simple leg movement sustains presence
The most important feature of walking is that you
don’t think about doing it.

3. Visual-vestibular interaction
Visual and
vestibular senses
DO NOT MATCH!

4. Simulation sickness
Tracking latency, display persistence, smear, refresh, eye-
tracking, GPU - will all improve but are not a complete cure.
A perfect HMD will not solve this problem!

5. 4 WizDish inventions for locomotion
Low friction dish and footwear
No one would believe it possible
Low CoF mainly for drilling and automotive
Super low friction tech
Exercise without knowing it
Ultra simple, reliable, proportional motion tracking
Exploit complex tech you already own (PC sound card)
Highly innovative strong collapsible handrail
Instant start, then after training use as in real life

6. Acoustic tracking
Audio is the most basic I/O and always available

7. Ultra simple integration
• No SDK required
• Negligible CPU load
• No perceptible latency
• Fully proportional speed
• Versatile

8. Teleportation in VR (Blink)

9. Press comments
UploadVR on Fallout 4 teleportation
"The biggest concern.. I could easily teleport up to an enemy.. it feels like a cheap
and silly thing to enable"
Gizmodo
"suddenly appearing in another location makes you very quickly lose any sense of
direction“
Ars Technica
"Teleportation".. feels a little limited, while giant walk-simulation treadmills are too
expensive, hot, and bulky for realistic home use"
Rock Paper Shotgun review of The Lab
"Treadmill accessory for the Vive 2 please, Valve"
Digital Trends on ROVR
"if you want to move about in your virtual world, this is a good way to do so"

10. Hand walking
There are no quick wins

11. Physical comfort
Harness issues
• Not recommended by medics
• No balance, posture, core stability
• Pressure, friction and chaffing
(i.e. wear loose fitting clothes for exercise)
• Hot and tiring
• Impedes rotation
• Adjustment & hygiene
• Safety – Toppling, Trapped fingers
• Practicality – using & shipping
• Breaks presence
• Clothing
• Has to actually be fun

12. Clinical tests

13. Prototype ROVR 1
Box = 96 x 96 x 12 cm (about 3’ sq. x 5 inches)
Weight < 15Kg
Air freight = £30 Europe, £90 USA

14. Professional frame

15. British Army
Surprising result with 360 video and ROVR
– Could apply to guided tours and estate agents

16. Ongoing B2B examples
Samsung Olympic experience
ROVRs sent to Unity offices

17. TNMOC
The National Museum of Computing
Bletchley Park

18. FPS-Man by Tom Davies
Now on Gear VR

19. Summary
• Player comfort is mandatory
– Don’t make them sick or give them sores
• Standing and walking vastly improve presence
• Physical turning is a pre-requisite for FPS
• Variety essential for VR adoption
• An illusion of natural walking is sufficient
– Quickly ignored in favour of content

20. ROVR