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"Science fiction operates a little bit like science itself, in principle. You've got thousands of people exploring ideas, putting forth their own hypotheses. Most of them are dead wrong; a few stand the test of time; everything looks kind of quaint in hind"
- Peter Watts
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| Auto-Treadmills (Needle-Gym) | ||
| A simulation-exercise room floor that allows the user to walk and run on a consistently realistic surface. |
Using your feet is a great way to pick a direction - even in a virtual reality simulation space. But how can you keep walking - while staying in a limited area?
| The young, and breeding females, we let flash by without harm. But then,
trailing and already foaming with fatigue, came the old buck, its leap leaden,
unsteady, and I knew the program really was taking it easy on me today.
Long Stick howled. I sprinted from cover, swiftly taking the lead. The auto-treadmill's bumps and gullies matched whatever terrain the goggles showed me, so my feet knew how to land and thrust off again. The body suit brushed my skin with synthetic wind. Flared nostrils inhaled sweat, exhilaration, and for a time I forgot I was in a tiny room on the eightieth floor of a suburban Chitown con-apt, surrounded by fifty million neighbors. |
| Technovelgy from Natulife,
by David Brin. Published by Fantasy and Science Fiction in 1994 Additional resources -
|
Here's a description of what the floor actually consists of:
Cursing I tore off the helmet, gashing my cheek on the strap. The body suit
still formed a matrix of other-world sensations -- hot savannah wind and gritty
moccasins. But abruptly my eyes saw a tiny, off-white chamber, its coarse floor
of needles mimicking a steep hillside. Sense-conflict made me sway in confusion
as I dove for the door.
Take a look at the VirtuSphere Immersive Virtual Reality "hamster-ball" for one way to have your infinite directions in a limited spae. You might also take a look at the CirculaFloor (Smart Tile Holodeck?), which I saw demonstrated at Wired's NextFest 2005. If you maintained a slow, strolling pace, the little circula-floor tiles would rush along to give you a place to step; it was a trip.
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Natulife
More Ideas
and Technology by David Brin
Tech news articles related to Natulife
Tech news articles related to works by David Brin
Auto-Treadmills (Needle-Gym)-related
news articles:
- inFORM Dynamic Shape Output Device
- VirtualGreen Putting Simulator Like Brin's Needle-Gym
- Automated Treadmill Adjusts To Your Pace
- Augmented and-or Virtual Reality Shoes From Google
| AI Worms That Spread |
| Great. Now AIs Have Access To Hacking Tools |
| Tongue-Controlled Tong Wearable Mouth Computer |
| Interpol Launches Metaverse For Law Enforcement |
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'And he had been sent with troops, supplies and bombs to command Russia's most trusted post, the Moonbase.'
'What is your population', I asked. 'About eighty millions.'
'THE autobus turned silently down the wide street of Hydropole. Robot-guided, insulated from noise and cold...'
'The car had no steering wheel, and no one drove!'
Now that's power walking that Hugo Gernsback would have approved.
'It was disturbing to think of the Flatline as a construct...'
'...he rewired the delivery robot so that it would serve him midnight snacks.'
'On went the electric-yacht faster and still faster.'
'...the huge vessel had spun, with a sickening lurch, through a complete half-circle, the instant the power was reversed.'
'...he realized that it was not quite a clear lens. Speckles of colored brightness swirled and gathered in it.'
