Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/04/26/marques-brownlee-tries-disneys-360-treadmill.html
…
7 Likes
Yeah, it was a really clever invention and neat to see. But despite the fact that it’s been in the news a lot lately it’s actually something they first built and patented in 2017. But its future real-world utility is still TBD.
Those guys are really cute in person, especially when they’re in groups. They’re charismatic enough that you very quickly forget about the operator with the controller who is standing nearby.
2 Likes
I still think it’s insane that Disney built three robots that walk like little ducks and are differentiated only by their red/orange, blue and green color detailing and they didn’t name them “HU-E,” “LU-E” and “DU-E.”
The only excuse I can think of is that Silent Running did it first.
12 Likes
Marques Brownlee: Could be sick for VR
I see what you did there!
7 Likes
Whatever happened to the VR that was supposed to subtly shift your direction by taking advantage of saccades? That would eliminate, or at least vastly decrease the need for funky treadmills.
As expensive as those treadmills are likely to be, that pales in comparison to owning a home with a room that’s big enough that you could walk around in circles without realizing it.
4 Likes
I’ve seen a number of videos that talk about this, but this is the first one that actually explained how it works. Genius!
I wonder what the maintenance is like - seems like it would be highly vulnerable to breakage if too much weight was placed on a particular cylinder, or just because of the stress of use. It also seems like any sort of dirt falling on it would quickly gum it up or wear it down, too.
2 Likes
I wish that more tech reporters and YouTubers went through the effort to look up the patents when explaining this stuff. Disney may not have wanted to talk about it in detail publicly but the technical details in the patent are public information.
1 Like
Even weirder, it seems like at least one video mentioned rotating tiles, and that just left me more confused. (I was imagining a flat tile rotating on a completely different axis, which doesn’t really make sense.) I don’t know if previous videos didn’t understand it themselves, or didn’t have the resources to do the diagrams that made it clear, so didn’t bother really trying to explain it.
1 Like
The Plague could have used this.
1 Like
He also low key shows off the light saber that actually extends from the hilt! (time cue: 04:40) First time I’ve seen anyone outside of the Rey character at Galactic Starcruiser use it.
1 Like
This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.
