Chasing the Virtual Carrot

February 19, 2007 3:12 PM

The Hamster Ball for Gamers
The VirtuSphere is a fully immersive virtual reality sphere that enables free movement in any direction for military and first-responder training (gaming), tourism (gaming), education (gaming), real estate walk-throughs (gaming), the possibilities are only limited by your imagination (gaming). You can run, jump, walk or otherwise locomote (i.e. roll a wheelchair) through an endless virtual world. And look like a total dork doing it but who cares? The videos make it look totally badass and fun and great exercise too! Though I do wonder what happens if/when you trip and biff.
posted by fenriq (15 comments total)

I WANT IT! (How much?)

Only problem I see is in sitting on virtual furniture.
posted by figment of my conation at 3:21 PM on February 19, 2007

virtual furniture?! we got no time for sitting! this is virtually a war.
posted by nola at 3:24 PM on February 19, 2007

figment, they say between $50 and $100K depending on software. I wonder if that comes with a free PS3?
posted by fenriq at 3:25 PM on February 19, 2007

Ok, 50k... I could get the pink one, and just live in it.
posted by figment of my conation at 3:32 PM on February 19, 2007 [1 favorite]

OK, so in middle school, I used to have these sort or weird fantasies, where I'd imagine that I was really in some sort of immersive VR. On a treadmill, surrounded by some sort of material that would both display my surroundings and also form all the objects/furniture/etc. I was probably being subjected to secret military tests or something. I was never really clear about that.

Anyway, this product only proves that it was all true.
posted by muddgirl at 3:41 PM on February 19, 2007

Does it come with a bed?
posted by tkchrist at 3:44 PM on February 19, 2007

I used to work at a place that had something similar, except it was a cube, so you couldn't walk very far. It cost several million dollars.
posted by delmoi at 3:48 PM on February 19, 2007

so this gives new meaning to running in circles?
posted by duality at 3:59 PM on February 19, 2007

For $1.08 USD, I could close Windows and buy my own solitaire deck.
posted by Smart Dalek at 4:19 PM on February 19, 2007

Bugger!
posted by Wet Spot at 8:15 PM on February 19, 2007

delmoi - Oh wow, I remember going to the 'cave' - the C4 - and testing things out (I tagged along a research group investigating VR systems for automotive simulators). We were walking around the Cathedral of Notre Dame, and the presenter made everyone fall a few dozen meters. That was the closest I'd ever been to throwing up because of a screen and some goggles.
posted by suedehead at 9:16 PM on February 19, 2007

This is even better than the Atlasphere.
posted by zardoz at 1:16 AM on February 20, 2007

So when will they motorize it? The Globe of Death^YT — where multiple motorcycle riders orbit inside a large steel mesh sphere (with someone standing in the center) — has been a staple thrill act for decades .
posted by cenoxo at 1:59 AM on February 20, 2007

One step closer to getting a holodeck...
posted by rfbjames at 11:14 AM on February 20, 2007

figment of my conation writes "Only problem I see is in sitting on virtual furniture."

If they had the user running on top of the ball instead of inside it they could accomodate furniture.
posted by Mitheral at 10:23 AM on February 21, 2007