Lanny Smoot.
Heard of him before? The second person ever from the Walt Disney Company to have themselves inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. The only other person is Walt himself.
He’s invented quite a few really cool things for Disney, including BB-8’s drive system, the mechanics behind the eyes in superhero masks and helmets, interactive zoetopes (those cool spinning devices that play an animation when spun) and the most realistic retractable lightsaber to date, which is used in all the latest Star Wars films.
I mean, that’s flipping cool and all, but why are we talking about him on NAG?
Well, Lanny’s latest invention is not just for Disney and their epic space battle franchise.
The rotating array of macarons that Lanny has called the Holotile Floor is a breakthrough in the VR space.
The Holotile Floor is an omnidirectional device that allows users to walk without actually moving anywhere. It tracks your location, and the small round discs, which act as mini treadmills, work together around your feet, ensuring that you stay on the floor space at all times. It is also capable of having multiple users on the same space, which other, more cumbersome devices like an omnidirectional treadmill don’t support. The Holotile Floor was designed to tackle the main problems that other VR movement devices have been facing, such as their size and noise, which could remove from the VR immersion.
This sort of technology is exactly what VR needs to take itself to the next level, allowing users to be tracked not only on their heads and arms but on their legs as well. While this technology is still in development, one day, I hope we can have something as awesome as this in our own NAG HQ VR room. Until that day, I’ll just have to keep my eyes on Lanny’s social media accounts as he becomes the next moon-walking superstar.