Design for Locomotion Interface in a Large Scale Virtual Environment ATLAS: ATR Locomotion Interface for Active Self Motion

In this paper, we focus on the sense of locomotion, in particular, the sense one feels while walking in a large space. Walking is the most basic way of moving around, and a lot of information can be obtained by doing so, e.g., sensing, hardness, humidity, and so on of the space. The locomotion interface we have developed is named ATLAS (ATR locomotion interface for active self motion). Our design goal was to eliminate the need for a walker to "learn" how to walk and for equipping the walker with obstructive sensors. We employ a treadmill approach for ATLAS. In the initial trial state, ATLAS can estimate the working speed from the walking motion visually, and control the speed of a belt to synthesize the real feeling of walking in a virtual space. First, we describe related works of locomotion interfaces and our design. Next, we show the method utilized for motion analysis and how to control the belt speed. Finally, we conclude with a description of our first trial ATLAS and the experimental results.