WizDish

WizDish, operating as ROVR Systems Ltd, develops an omnidirectional treadmill called the ROVR that simulates walking and running in virtual reality when used with a head-mounted display. The device is a round, concave, low-friction platform paired with a frame for user support; the user slides their feet back and forth in a reciprocating motion while wearing shoe covers whose soles carry ceramic discs to reduce friction. The company also sells shoes with the ceramic discs pre-fitted. Unlike mechanical omnidirectional treadmills, the platform is passive and has no moving parts.

A contact microphone embedded in the platform converts the sound of the user's feet into forward motion in the virtual environment: quieter, smaller movements produce slow travel while louder movements increase speed. Because the acoustic sensor cannot determine foot direction or body orientation, travel direction is taken from where the head or hand controllers are pointing, leaving the user's hands free for controllers such as Oculus Touch, Vive wands, Knuckles and the Xbox One Controller. The concave surface reduces vertical movement of the user's centre of mass and returns the feet toward the centre of the platform, while a waist-height ring provides support and a physical boundary. The ROVR interfaces with software directly rather than through the headset, so it works with multiple head-mounted displays.

The product is positioned as an approach to virtual reality sickness, which arises when motion is seen but not physically felt, disrupting visual-vestibular matching and proprioception; the company cites reports that two thirds of VR users experience it. Rather than reproducing leg kinematics exactly, the device aims to generate enough leg activity to approximate the proprioceptive cues of walking.

Founding story

Julian Williams, an engineer at the BBC with an MSc in Computing and an apprenticeship background in railway safety-critical mechanical and electrical engineering, began thinking about immersive locomotion in 2001 while developing a concept for a television game show that would place a live contestant inside a video game; the show was not commissioned but led him to virtual reality. He has described an experience playing Return to Castle Wolfenstein in the dark with headphones as the trigger for wanting to be 'inside the game'. After finding that several locomotion concepts he devised were already patented, he settled on the concave sliding-platform design, filing a provisional patent and later a US patent application in 2003 that was granted in 2008. Williams was introduced to Dr Charles King, a chartered physicist, Fellow of the Institute of Materials and holder of a PhD in physical metallurgy and the science of materials, with links to University College London, King's College London and Oxford Brookes University; together they developed and patented the low-friction material used in the platform base.

Business model

Design and manufacture of a VR locomotion peripheral, protected by patents on the device concept and on the low-friction platform material, sold with consumable/accessory footwear.

Sales of the ROVR hardware platform and of accessory shoes and shoe covers fitted with low-friction ceramic discs.

Traction

The ROVR1 was actively tested by more than 30,000 people between its 2012 release and 2016, and its sales contributed to funding development of the ROVR2.

Latest developments

The ROVR2, launched in 2017, is the current product, supplied via rovrsystems.com.