How the Virtuix Omni Works

virtuix omni omnidirectional treadmill blueprint

Omnidirectional treadmills are not a new concept — there are patents that go as far back as 1996. There are many examples of protoypes, but for the most part they are huge, complicated, and prohibitively expensive. A ‘passive’ omnidirectional treadmill throws the complicated moving parts out the window which simplifies cost and complexity significantly.

The folks at Virtuix came up with smart design which enables a wide range of motion in a passive omnidirectional treadmill that could be suitable for users in the home. Virtuix CEO Jan Goetgeluk told me about how the team approach the design:

The Omni is the result of more than a year of researching, experimenting, and prototyping.  We explored every possible locomotion concept, ranging from active devices with motors and belts to passive devices with ball bearings.  Ultimately, we realized that passive devices are the only affordable option for consumers.  More so, the Omni does not have any moving parts, allowing us to keep the cost down.  The difficulty is to make an affordable, passive omni treadmill that allows you to mimic a natural gait.  We believe we have cracked that formula with the Omni.

The Virtuix Omni has a low-friction concave dish at its base, similar to the WizDish, which has grooves that guide a special shoe to achieve a natural gait.

virtuix omni concept shoes

Virtuix shared with Road to VR some early concepts of the Omni shoe which has a pin on the bottom that slides into the grooves. The pin is smartly designed as a plunger so that if you don’t land directly in the grooves it will push into the shoe until it is in the right position.

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“Most people need about 5-10 minutes to get fully used to the Omni, but after that period of getting accustomed, you are walking freely and naturally, and your brain thinks the same,” said Goetgeluk.

Gaming with the Virtuix Omni

Below you can see an early prototype of the Virtuix Omni used with Crysis Warhead (Crytek Budapest, 2008) and tracked with the Kinect:

Fortunately the Kinect won’t be a necessary add-on for the Virtuix Omni (though the software will support it).

The best experiences are likely to be those tailored specifically to the Omni. With that said, the company plans to be able to unofficially adapt the Omni to any game through their software that will emulate keyboard presses and mouse movements based on the real movement of the player.

Goetgeluk tells me that, “the experience of playing games with the Omni is unparalleled.” I absolutely hope that the Omni lives up to those words and I can’t wait to try it myself .

Expect more info soon with the Virtuix Omni Kickstarter due out next month. We’ll be watching this one carefully.

In the meantime, you can see updates from Virtuix at the company’s Facebook page and Twitter feed.
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Ben Lang
Ben is the world's most senior professional analyst solely dedicated to the XR industry, having founded Road to VR in 2011—a year before the Oculus Kickstarter sparked a resurgence that led to the modern XR landscape. He has authored more than 3,000 articles chronicling the evolution of the XR industry over more than a decade. With that unique perspective, Ben has been consistently recognized as one of the most influential voices in XR, giving keynotes and joining panel and podcast discussions at key industry events. He is a self-described "journalist and analyst, not evangelist."
  • George

    Looks cool, they will have to let the center ring move up and down though to accommodate ducking. My thought would a telescoping support for the ring, that attaches to the base, but is not fixed, instead would stay orientated to the back of the player. There would be a ball bearing plate that the telescoping rod would attach to, to allow such movement.

  • Lucas

    Well, it needs to get…heavier. You can see that the whole device is jumping with him.
    The list of *why* this is not good is longer than my arm so i’ll skip it.

  • Patrick McKee

    I hope he waits a little while before launching his Kickstarter. So more people who ordered Rift have them and know to support this. I am low on fund from backing almost everything everything Rift related. It’s good to see Palmer backing this he has real cred now.

    I have an idea how to make it “heavier” and save on shipping possibly. Have the consumer fill it with water, a water reservoir. So you ship a lighter product and make it heavier. I am sure they have thought of this. My concern would be hitting my leg on one of the arms, but with tracking the software could tell the user when it is safe to run or not.

  • deadering

    To me this looks much more promising to the wizdish. They are both awesome, though I feel this vituix is the right direction to go for gaming.

    As far as it shaking around and what not, I can not imagine this is the final design they are going to launch for the kickstarter. I imagine it will go through some evolution; you can even see it’s using plain wood for the harness/cradle thing. I’m sure a consumer version will be more polished. My biggest concern is first and for most durability. If I’m going to be jumping up mountains in game I want to know I won’t crush this thing after a few hours lol.

    This, with Occulus and Hydra… well let’s just say working out will be a hell of a lot more popular, since it will be as easy as playing an open world game or platformer.

  • kevin williams

    New to the group – hi

    Just fascinated if you all think this is technology you will have in your home – or go to an arcade to play?

    • Paul James

      Honestly, I think I can see VR bringing about a resurgence in public amusements and arcade style experiences. As Virtuality did back in the day, except of course wholly more successful and satisfying.

      It’d also be true for multiplayer positional tracking based stuff like Project Holodeck – where space and equipment cost is a high price of entry to play.

      • kevin williams

        @Paul – I have to agree (even though I am bias), I just can’t see this as home entertainment approach for the next five years? Even then – scaling down the needed components seems impossible to fit the post Crash consumer game sector?

        A VR entertainment system would have:
        – networked treadmills
        – networked player tracking
        – HD HMD / with spacial audio
        – network game infrastructure
        – updated content support

        No consumer game company (or individual) would be able to cover this cost with post 2014 hardware – just look at the PC specifications that are needed to run the appropriate HD HMD, tracking and interfaces (controls, treadmil, etc.,) needed for a accurate let alone adequate approach. The PS4 will not run this – period, so that is Generation-9 hardware (say 2016)!

        • deadering

          I’m not sure exactly what you mean. The Virtuix Omni, by design, is “the first omni treadmill that is affordable for household consumers”. Paired with the Occulus Rift, another great device being made to be affordable for household consumers, is another piece. Finally the Razer Hydra, an already affordable peripheral that is currently released, to finish the ultimate consumer-geared VR trio.

          All of these devices combined should have no problem running on any gaming PC made recently. For a hardcore PC gamer or enthusiast it would be even less of an issue.

          Besides, consoles are not even being targeted currently for any of these devices; they are solely PC for now. Not because they can’t run the hardware but because of licensing/costs/etc. They need a strong PC launch before they can consider moving to closed platforms like the PS4, 360, Wii U, and the like.