A motorized chair capable of turning on its own is coming to Kickstarter. Roto is a simple solution that fills the gap between sitting and standing virtual reality, since it allows us to rotate without making any effort.
The points highlighted by the Kickstarter campaign are:
- Greater sense of freedom when moving through the virtual world.
- 360º turns without limits and without cable problems, up to 35rpm.
- The motorized turn allows us to explore effortlessly, in a comfortable and fun way. It is no longer necessary to force the turns of our neck and we can enjoy virtual reality for much longer.
- It enjoys gravitational presence through centrifugal forces. It will seem to us that we are there instead of looking at a screen.
- Nausea caused by the gyrations of the world around us is reduced by current control systems.
- Roto follows our guidance, so that developers and film directors can turn our body physically towards the action.
- Navigate naturally with intuitive controls, including pedals that we can assign to controls for walking (individual steps), running or accelerating, for example in a driving simulator.
- Little space! The Roto base is only 65 cm in diameter and 10 cm in height, the same as the base of any swivel chair. Plug in the pedals when you want to explore.
- Bluetooth connection for Android-based HMDs like Gear VR.
- Affordable thanks to its modular design. Buy what you need when you need it.
- The Roto base fits with the usual swivel chairs, or buy one directly in the campaign, you choose.
- Add a table for your steering wheel, joystick or keyboard and mouse.
- Built to last, you can upgrade the clip or adapter without cables according to your HMD and your budget.
The Roto platform contains an engine that rotates 360º in both directions, making exploration comfortable, pleasant and fun. As part of its modular design, users can add a cable-free adapter (compatible with Oculus Rift DK2) to solve the typical cable tangles, which becomes a base to place the PC. In the future it will be compatible with Morpheus and the CV1. This allows infinite turns in any direction. And it doesn’t matter at what speed we rotate, since it always knows which way we are looking, and that information is transmitted to the game using its SDK. And it is also possible in reverse: the game can rotate the chair automatically thanks to its motor.
The campaign concludes on April 17 and aims to raise £85,000. Shipments will be made in October of this year, and prices vary depending on our needs:
- £199: Roto platform with pedals and Bluetooth connectivity
- £299: Roto platform with pedals and Bluetooth connectivity and the wireless adapter for Oculus
- £339: Roto platform with pedals and Bluetooth connectivity and table
- £399: Roto platform with pedals and Bluetooth connectivity and chair
- £439: Roto platform with pedals and Bluetooth connectivity, table and the wireless adapter for Oculus
- £499: Roto platform with pedals and Bluetooth connectivity, chair and the wireless adapter for Oculus
- £499: early bird (100 units), complete Roto platform: pedals and Bluetooth connectivity, chair and table
- £599: early bird (100 units), complete Roto platform: pedals and Bluetooth connectivity, chair, table and cable-free adapter for Oculus
Roto is undoubtedly the opposite concept to a walker, since it allows us to perform the same function but from the comfort of a seat. The advantage over a fixed chair is obvious: users who tend to get dizzy when turning with a pad will not have that problem, since their body physically rotates along with their eyesight, which avoids the discordance with our vestibular system that causes so many headaches for many users. Of course it is an interesting method that we would love to try, and that has not stopped garnering praise among different developers.
