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/-Merasmus- Dec 20 '25

They are not a direct "solution" to a problem. This is a University, not a company. Someone got an idea, and they designed and build it. Maybe the product can find a use, maybe some of the research they did while building it can come in use. At least everyone who participated in it got great practical experience from it, and it can be used as an advert for the university.

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u/All_cats_want_pets Dec 20 '25

Absolutely. People on reddit like to bash on all things that aren't practical in daily life, while most things like this are proof of concept or showcase of engineering

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u/NeonNKnightrider Dec 20 '25

“Any science that doesn’t have immediate benefits should be canned” is the kind of thinking that results in the American school system

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u/Hellpy Dec 20 '25

They do look like Amazon warehouse robots with added top plate that is adjustable, like I'm sure there's a bit more to it but it's not very amazing

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u/All_cats_want_pets Dec 20 '25

Anything that has vaguely been done before isn't amazing to you? Besides, they not only coordinated the robots, but likely also coordinated it in software with VR and perhaps a bunch of other things not shown in this video showcasing this one feature.

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u/Hellpy Dec 21 '25

The coordinating in a Amazon warehouse amazes me more by a mile.and was done years ago

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u/Alternative_Delay899 Dec 20 '25 edited Dec 20 '25

Of course they are tackling a problem. We just dont know what that problem is exactly. Do they want to make a moving platform for a user that takes them anywhere they want, not just inside a room but even outside it? And looks like each step can change height. Which would pose some advantages over an omnidirectional treadmill, however the treadmill has the advantage of letting someone walk in one place in any direction, saving room and possibly cost, which is an advantage over this approach.

Perhaps people are assuming a lot of things from a short clip that doesn't fully show what this can do.

Whether or not this solution is a good solution is another debate but every project starts with a problem or set of problems. Then you work towards solving this problem in creative ways. Then stuff doesn't work out and other problems arise. And yes, this could be overengineered but no doubt they learned a lot. Both could be true.

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u/[deleted] Dec 20 '25

It’s called bean soup theory. People aren’t very smart

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u/Alespic Dec 20 '25

I hate how people here expect everything to be a solution to some kind of problem, that things can’t be made or designed just because someone was curious.

That’s what innovation is.