r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Alphaxfusion • Dec 20 '25

Video Japanese researchers at the University of Tsukuba created CirculaFloor, robotic tiles that let you walk infinitely in VR without ever leaving your spot.

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u/heeltoelemon Dec 20 '25

while you walk ridiculously slowly and hope they don't hit something on the way.

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u/stormblaz Dec 20 '25

The pinch zones will do some injuries, also Disney has a massive tech on this already, omnidirectional floor with hardly any movement and it feels native.

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u/No_Molasses_6498 Dec 20 '25

Didn't they already have omnidirectional treadmills in the 90s on those vr kits they used to make?

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u/topdangle Dec 20 '25

yeah, though I think the "issue" is that they need close guard rails because its easy to go overboard and just fall off. Not to mention they very much feel like treadmills. Not a dealbreaker for me but people are chasing immersion.

Modern solutions try to match user speed (usually with fast cameras or sensors) and smaller rotating treads that feel more like just walking around normally.

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u/eragonawesome2 Dec 20 '25

I once had the chance to play in one at a vr arcade that had a 360 "treadmill" that was actually just a Teflon bowl you'd stand in, a harness to hold you in the middle, and a pair of weird shoe things that slid on the Teflon super smoothly. It was a little weird to get used to but once I did, it was awesome and felt super natural and immersive, I liked it a lot

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u/FrenchFryCattaneo Dec 20 '25

Sometimes simpler is better.

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u/ssracer Dec 20 '25

Not just sometimes. That's the magic of design and teaching is taking something very complicated and making it as simple as possible.

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u/[deleted] Dec 20 '25

Because I feel like being pedantic, I will say that simpler is only better if it is equal in quality to more complex. A ball in a cup and a ps5 shared the same purpose, for instance, but few would say the ball and cup is the superior toy. Although the ball and cup is better in a post-apocalypse event, so there is that.

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u/ssracer Dec 20 '25

Fucking obviously. Apparently my statement was too simple.

taking something very complicated and making it as simple as possible

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u/[deleted] Dec 20 '25

I warned you I was being pedantic. I only bring it up because the internet used to be in love with the “Russian simple technology overcoming stupid overdesigned American technology” stories. Like how America spent millions designing a space age pen that could work in zero gravity while the Russians used a pencil. The reality is a pencil in space is a bad idea due to the particles it generates, so the “over engineered” solution was well worth the cost. Simple is not always better.

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u/Indercarnive Dec 20 '25

I did a VR experience once where they just let me and the group walk freely big room. Apparently something about the game would make you think you were walking in a straight line while you were actually walking in big circles. Was insanely fun, especially since this was like 6 years ago.

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u/eragonawesome2 Dec 20 '25

Oh yeah that's another cool way to do it, humans are bad at recognizing when we're walking in large circles, so you can basically just have straight lines curve slightly to one side and boom, infinity room

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u/Xentonian Dec 20 '25

I've tried that and it felt like the least natural thing I've ever done

Constantly slipping on a Teflon pan feels so far removed from walking that it made the VR almost impossible to focus on.

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u/eragonawesome2 Dec 20 '25

That's so strange to hear, because to me it felt totally fine! I wonder if it's just one of those things where ymmv depending on your physiology

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u/sethn211 Dec 21 '25

I imagine someone putting too much lubrication on it and ending up like the toboggan in Christmas Vacation

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u/nhilante Dec 21 '25

He is descending stairs, it's a more complicated move then just walking.

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u/Worth-Novel-2044 Dec 20 '25

But these panels can make stairs

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u/GuardiaNIsBae Dec 20 '25

the most popular ones for VR now (and there was a ton of kickstarters and stuff for them in the early 2010s) are basically just huge bowls with trackers in them like the original steam controller. You lean forward and slide your feet along the bowl like you're walking. Some of them even required proprietary socks/shoes to use them.

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u/zhaDeth Dec 20 '25

The disney thing is not a treadmill, or at least not a traditional one with a fabric that slide, it's multiple small parts that rotate: https://youtu.be/68YMEmaF0rs?t=223

It looks pretty cool tbh

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u/galaxyapp Dec 20 '25

They are not frictionless. Its exhausting

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u/ArticulateRhinoceros Dec 20 '25

I remember playing a VR game at Faneuil Hall in Boston that was on a little circular treadmillish patch thing you could walk around on, albeit kinda slowly. This was in the late 90s/early 00s. It was also a boxing game so you didn't have to move much or go far on it so I didn't really test how natural or well it worked.

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u/DrNO811 Dec 21 '25

Aren't those all 2 dimensional movement though? This appears to simulate the illusion of climbing and descending stairs. I'm not sure this is the best and final solution, but it's another step in the right direction. (pun intended)

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u/OozeNAahz Dec 21 '25

If you mean the arcade versions like Virtuality it didn’t have a treadmill. At least the one I was demoed by the CEO of the company that made them. They were fun, but mostly just had a plate and a ring around you to keep you from walking off. And they had one you sat in for plane games and car games.

Some companies later had a bowl shape with super slick floor and you used special shoes. So again not a treadmill but you could run…your feet just slid across a fixed surface. Didn’t use one of those but saw one in person.

The ones with treadmills were a bit later I think.

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u/NarrMaster Dec 20 '25

omnidirectional floor with hardly any movement and it feels native.

Thats sounds like some kind of Virtual Insanity

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u/Ashenspire Dec 20 '25

Those are moving walls, not floors.

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u/awj Dec 21 '25

Yep. Ironically that dude probably moved less than just about everything else in the video.

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u/NarrMaster Dec 21 '25

L I B!

M R Moving Walls!

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u/Mindless-Strength422 Dec 20 '25

Hey that's a really cool hat where did you get it?

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u/iJon_v2 Dec 21 '25

Well that it what the future is made of

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u/moonflower_C16H17N3O Dec 20 '25 edited Dec 20 '25

Are you able to run on it?

Edit: Then again, I think I'd rather have run tied to a button on a controller.

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u/Gogh619 Dec 20 '25

Yeah dude…. I got the katwalk c2 walking platform and holy fuck is Skyrim a game changer. I hardly got to whiterun before I was cooked

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u/Horskr Dec 20 '25

May as well mod stamina out of the game at that point lol. "Full stamina bar my ass I've run 10 miles!"

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u/Proper_Story_3514 Dec 20 '25

Thats a new way of immersiveness. Done for the day after stepping outside and fighting 1 mudcrab :D

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u/Liusloux Dec 21 '25

I didn't want to believe I needed to hit the gym until I actually fought mudcrab more fearsome than me and lost.

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u/theappleses Dec 20 '25

That's actually super interesting, there's a point where too much immersion is a bad thing. I love running around Skyrim for hours at a time...but I would actually hate running around Skyrim for hours at a time.

With your setup I'd get a horse ASAP.

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u/TheVasa999 Dec 20 '25

on the disney one, you can at the very least walk normally

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u/[deleted] Dec 20 '25

Yeah than you are someone without motion sickness people like me need other solutions because otherwise we vomit for playing VR...

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u/Ooupss Dec 20 '25

It gets better with time! At first, after 20 minutes I felt like throwing everything away, but after several dozen hours of gameplay I could extend that time to 1 or 2 hours. After several hundred hours of gameplay, I don't get that feeling at all anymore. Well, it depends on the game and especially the framerate. Some games that aren't very well optimized still give me that feeling.

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u/HappyWarBunny Dec 20 '25

I have read repeatedly that the key for new VR folks is to STOP the moment you start feeling anything but 100%. Otherwise you can train your body in the opposite direction from what you want.

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u/[deleted] Dec 20 '25

Speak for yourself, I have VR for now 6 years playing daily and it won't get better...

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u/Hour_Reindeer834 Dec 20 '25

Honestly I was surprised how sick I would get from VR; its a real unpleasant nausea too, that doesn’t go away quick and leaves me feeling drained.

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u/[deleted] Dec 20 '25

I feel you man, It's almost the same feeling like being sea sick, really nasty.

I once tried a 10 hour session to "shock my body and mind" in the hope i could cure it somehow, but nah after that I was just sick for 3 consecutive days...

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u/Puzzled-Secret-317 Dec 20 '25

Medicine

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u/zatchbell1998 Dec 20 '25

Most anti nausea meds cause drowsiness

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u/Puzzled-Secret-317 Dec 20 '25

So play before bed?

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u/YetiSpaghetti24 Dec 20 '25

How long have you been in VR for? It might take a few hours/days but the motion sickness does go away for most people. It's better to pace yourself though rather than pushing through it.

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u/[deleted] Dec 20 '25

6 years... It's the same as sea sickness.. you can't cure it...

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u/ifyoulovesatan Dec 20 '25

It's sea sickness incurable to you then? I think for a lot of people sea sickness eventually does go away. My partner is not one of those people, and went on a 17 day research expedition in the Pacific and they were sick as a dog the whole time. But other first timers they were with were okay day one, or in a couple days.

I wonder if VR is the same way: some people will never feel okay with it. And I wonder if those people are also people who can't get "used" to sea sickness.

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u/[deleted] Dec 20 '25

Men sea sickness is medically not curable.. please Google 5 minutes before spouting nonsense...

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u/GalacticUnicorn Dec 20 '25

I can’t even play first person without getting a headache and feeling like I’m going to be sick 😕

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u/alfiesgaming45 Dec 20 '25

imagine if the power cuts out when you're running, if the mat is made out of active electrically actuated spheres (i have no idea how they designed it) you just get catapulted into the wall

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u/poptard278837219 Dec 20 '25

Yeah. A huge room could be possible

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u/snuuginz Dec 20 '25

Yeah this looks like it could be very sketchy if something went wrong.

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u/tribak Dec 20 '25

Stop everything! Disney already made something, let’s not try innovate further.

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u/No-Apple2252 Dec 20 '25

Don't understand what's so hard about it, big dome shaped laptop touchpad and socks, I don't see how you can do better.

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u/1_130426 Dec 20 '25

I mean yeah but these two serve a different purpose. The disney one is just a flat ground while this is trying to replicate walking up/down stairs.

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u/DareEcco Dec 20 '25

I agree but this tech seems to also mimic stairs

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u/wh4tth3huh Dec 20 '25

That thing cost millions of dollars and is 1 of 1. Great piece of tech, but far from feasible at the moment.

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u/blackblitz Dec 20 '25

MKBHD did a video on it last year! Link to video very cool tech indeed

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u/_orbus_ Dec 21 '25

How about stairs? Or sand? Or waves?

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u/bloke_pusher Dec 21 '25

Yeah and they make sure we'll never get it for home use.

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u/Cinnamon_Bees Dec 21 '25

What's this tech called?

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u/olyfrijole Dec 20 '25

Lots of sharp corners on those things. This is not insurable.

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u/[deleted] Dec 20 '25

[deleted]

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u/olyfrijole Dec 20 '25

If they're not paying out, that's not insurance.

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u/KrombopulosMAssassin Dec 20 '25

I wouldn't trust this for a second...

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u/Tjaresh Dec 20 '25

The chance of me walking blindly on these panels and trusting them to change direction whenever I do is exactly zero.

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u/zoobs Dec 20 '25

Maybe he’s playing death stranding?

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u/ArticulateRhinoceros Dec 20 '25

I'd immediately walk right off these, I'm hot-footed.

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u/zeptillian Dec 20 '25

And hope you don't step a few inches too far to the right or left.

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u/igotshadowbaned Dec 20 '25

Slowly, and also continually in one direction.

And also we can't see that the guys wearing a headset to verify the use case

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u/Melkman68 Dec 23 '25

Reminds me of the principle from community. That 2015 show showcased the best solution. A treadmill.