The Virtualizer lets you run and jump in virtual reality games!

The Virtualizer lets you run and jump in virtual reality games!

The Cyberith Virtualizer is a gaming rig that lets you walk, run and jump through virtual reality environments. It's part harness, part baby bouncer and part omni-directional treadmill.

The Virtualizer is designed to help players feel physically present in a non-physical world. It can be used with virtual reality headsets such as Oculus VR and it seems to be a response to Oculus CEO Brendan Iribe's comments about how immersive the VR headset is: "We'll need some seatbelts for people. You want to stand up, you want to walk around."

The Virtualizer is not dissimilar to Virtuix's Omni, an omni-directional treadmill that Wired.co.uk wrote about last year, but it has a lot more features. It has a low friction flat base-plate (on which you walk) in the centre of a frame with three vertical poles. These poles each have arms attached to them, which extend towards a central ring that fits around the player's waist. The central ring features a fabric harness -- much like one you'd use for something like abseiling -- that the player is strapped into. The end result is a little bit like an adult-sized baby walker.

When the player jumps within the Virtualizer, the movement is replicated with precision within the game. "Achieving this is vital for a truly immersive experience because obviously you will break immersion if the positioning of your body in-game and in real-life are different," explains the project's Kickstarter page. Vibration units -- which use audio transducers rather than rumble packs -- in the base plate provide haptic feedback for if, say, a grenade explodes next to you in-game. This allows the player to feel it. Optical sensors detect the movement of your feet on the baseplate while sensors inside the pillars and ring-construction detect your vertical position and angle.

Beyond gaming, Cyberith believes that there could be applications for psychological therapy, education, training and architecture. "Why not explore historic sites, walk through a DNA strand or go for a walk on the Moon with the Virtualizer? Or why not take a walk through your future home before it's even built or design 3D models while you're standing inside of them?"

You can pre-order the Virtualizer from Kickstarter from $599. For that you get one without any of the built-in sensors. The pre-order price rises to $999 for the Virtualizer HT, which is the all-singing version with haptic feedback.