FunEffect.com

<script src="http://www.vbs.tv/vbs_player.js?ec=JycHRvOvaJMsrAMSwlygEL5rBtWtDvvh&st=MOTHERBOARD&pl=http://www.vbs.tv/watch/motherboard/the-virtusphere
" type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8">

The Virtusphere is a 10 foot hollow sphere that serves as a "locomotion simulation" platform. Pair it with a head-mounted display and a 3D environment, and users can walk or even run around freely in different virtual worlds -- a first-person shooter map, architecture/construction sites, famous locations, museums, and more.

VBS.tv (Vice Broadcasting System), which put together the entertaining documentary about Twin Galaxies's Walter Day, published this informative piece interviewing the company behind the Virtusphere and demonstrating its Holodeck-esque experience.

One great thing about the sphere is that when you're tired of its virtual applications, you can push it off its platform, jump in, and pretend you're in that American Gladiators event.

One of the most common reactions gamers voiced after seeing Johnny Chung Lee's 3D head-tracking and interactive whiteboard demonstrations with the Wii Remote was "Nintendo needs to hire this guy!" It turns out that one of the big three platform holders did bring in the Carnegie Mellon University PhD (in Human-Computer Interaction) -- Microsoft now has the researcher working on its own motion control solution, Project Natal.

Lee didn't provide any new details on the sensor device, but he noted in his personal blog that his work on the project didn't actually appear in Microsoft's press briefing:

"I don't deserve credit for anything that you saw at E3. A large team of very smart, very hard working people were involved in building the demos you saw on stage. The part I am working on has much more to do with making sure this can transition from the E3 stage to your living room - for which there is an even larger team of very smart, very hard working people involved."

He went onto to say that working on Project Natal has felt like a "miniature 'Manhattan project' with developers and researchers from around the world coming together", describing the controller-free experience as a "pretty measurable step" towards a personal holodeck.