Disney unveils the moving carpet to move around in virtual reality, and it’s amazing!

Disney new tech giant? The firm has just unveiled the HoloTile, a moving carpet

Honestly, few people expected such a breakthrough to come from Disney. Meta, Sony, Apple, or more recently Virtuix… But Disney, which has so far shown only limited interest in virtual and/or augmented reality? No one could have anticipated it, and yet the entertainment giant was recently able to unveil its HoloTile, one of the first moving carpets allowing humans to move in virtual reality, while standing still.

Ready Player Onein truth

Anyone who has ever tried a virtual reality headset knows: perception of the real world becomes impossible as soon as you enter the virtual world, and movements then tend to become erratic, with always the possibility of bumping into a piece of furniture, a television or another person if you decide to move with the headphones on your head. To correct this problem, it is possible to use a mixed reality headset (virtual & augmented) allowing you to see your environment. But what to do if you want to benefit from total immersion, to move in the virtual environment?

It’s a puzzle that various tech companies have tried to solve since the advent of virtual reality: how to offer a feeling of total immersion by allowing the user to move (in other words, walk) when Is he in a VR universe? So far, all the solutions provided have been particularly shaky and clumsy at best. The connection between body movements and a virtual world was therefore difficult to establish, and visibly, Disney seems to be the winner in this race for innovation thanks to its HoloTile.

The accomplishment of years of research

This new technology, originally planned for Disney World parks, can easily be replicated for domestic use, linked to the use of a virtual reality headset. Created by the inventor Lanny Smoot (we also owe him the Star Wars lightsabers), the HoloTile is a kind of mat made up of numerous balls which rotate when used, then allowing him to keep his balance while essentially standing still.

In a video shared on the Disney Parks YouTube account, we are treated to a real-time presentation of how the carpet works. It is thus possible to see men taking small steps there. There inevitably remain some questions: is it possible to walk faster, or even run, using this technology? For the moment, this is obviously a work in full development phase, in other words quite limited in its use.

Source : Disney Parks on Youtube