Steve Minutillo :: messy-78messy things

This item is a few days old, but today is the first time I came across a video demonstration, in the comments on the Slashdot story.

Did you ever wonder how Captain Jean-Luc Picard could walk and walk and walk inside that tiny Holodeck and never bump into the walls? The Star Trek writers, if pressed, muttered some explanation involving tractor beams and replicators. (Just like the Heisenberg Compensator: How does it work? “They work just fine, thank you.”) But the researchers at the VR Lab at the University of Tsukuba in Japan solved the problem, for real, with only 21st century technology. Stone knives and bear skins? No! Moving tiles! They skitter around on the floor, shadowing the movements of your feet. As you walk, they move into place just in time for your feet to land, and then slide across the floor, matching your pace. It’s a very early implementation, the speed is limited, but I think they’re on the right track.