Active Walking Interface for Human-Scale Virtual Environment

This paper presents a new locomotion interface that provides users with the ability to engage in a life-like walking experience by stepping in place. Stepping actions are performed on top of a flat platform with embedded grid of switch sensors that detect footfalls pressure. Based on data received from sensors, the system can compute different variables that represent user’s walking behavior such walking direction, walking speed, standstill, jump, and walking. The overall platform status is scanned at a rate of 100Hz with which we can deliver real-time visual feedback reaction to user actions. The proposed system is portable and easy to integrate with major virtual environment with large projection feature such as CAVE and DOME systems. The overall weight of Walking-Pad is less than 5 Kg and can be connected to any computer via USB port, which make it even controllable via a portable computer.