One of the disappointments with VR is that we’re tempted to get up and walk around the virtual environment, which is both impractical and dangerous in small spaces. To solve that problem, Jamie Hyneman of Mythbusters fame is working on “electric shoes” to use with VR games, where “microcomputers in the shoes control the mini-treadmills and coordinate their movement with the game’s avatar.” Hyneman started an Indiegogo campaign to fund the next prototype, writing, “It might work. It might not. We’ll know soon.” The campaign page also notes that future applications for the technology might include indoor shoes for exercise and outdoor shoes for faster walking.
