VR Walking Tech Adds a Sense of Incline While Seated

According to AI TIMES, a joint research team from GIST and MIT unveiled a virtual walking system on September 30 that lets users feel as if they are walking on flat ground and slopes in VR by linking foot movements with leg muscle stimulation while seated in a chair. Even without visual cues, users identified uphill terrain with 78% accuracy and flat ground with 72% accuracy, suggesting that they could physically sense terrain differences that had been difficult to detect through simple stationary movements alone. The technology alternates toe-lifting motions with virtual steps and stimulates the muscles used in actual walking at those moments, increasing the sense that the avatar's movements are connected to the user's own body. The research team said that when the stimulation was adjusted to match the terrain, the sense of presence in the virtual space became stronger. In contrast, there were no clear differences among the comparison conditions in motion sickness or physical and mental burden. The key point is that it could supplement the sense of walking without a large movement space or sloped equipment, broadening its potential use in immersive content with significant space constraints.