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"  LAS VEGAS\u2014Sony&amp;#039;s rumored virtual reality headset may not have materialized at this year&amp;#039;s CES, but that doesn&amp;#039;t mean there&amp;#039;s a lack of VR presence at the show. Among the rows of booths at a conference room on the first floor of the Venetian Hotel, Virtuix Omni showed off the latest version of its omni-directional treadmill for gamers donning virtual reality goggles. A small throng\u2014with conspicuously more people than the booth&amp;#039;s neighbors\u2014had gathered around the machine to watch a strapped-in gamer wearing an Oculus Rift headset walk, sprint, and point his gun around a video game environment. (The player was demoing Half-Life 2 at the time.) The obvious enthusiasm surrounding the Omni points to a growing audience of technophiles enamored with the idea of blurring the digital and physical worlds of gameplay. In fact, when the Virtuix Omni made its debut on Kickstarter last June 2013, it reached its goal within three and a half hours. Omni consists of a reverse dome-shaped plastic platform, specially made shoes that minimize friction on this platform&amp;#039;s surface, and a support harness that promises compatibility with people who are between 4&amp;#039;8&amp;quot; and 6&amp;#039;5&amp;quot;. Of course, the whole thing is hooked up to a gaming rig too. The first iteration of Omni used a Kinect sensor to sense a player&amp;#039;s walking and running motions, but now Virtuix is showing off a prototype with 40 capacitive sensors and 9 microcontrollers for processing. The sensors measure the pressure of a player&amp;#039;s foot on the curved floor, and then it translates that data into the equivalent of what would have been button presses on a controller to simulate a person&amp;#039;s running movements. Jan Goetgeluk, the founder of Virtuix, says the company had considered making a number of improvements on the Omni, including the ability to crouch, but that would make the system much more expensive for mass consumer consumption. However, the team is developing these versions for use in special partnerships with the military and other research agencies. In the meantime, the company has released an SDK for developers to come up with their own games using the product. The Virtuix Omni is available for pre-order today on shop.virtuix.com. It costs $500 normally, but you can buy it for a discounted price of $450 when you use the promo code &amp;quot;FullVR.&amp;quot; Purchased units will ship in May 2014. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/culture/gaming/a9944/new-virtuix-omni-vr-prototype-shown-off-at-ces-2014-16359704/>