Disney inventor demoes HoloTile floor, a system that lets you walk around in Virtual Reality

Lanny Smoot, an inventor at Disney Research recently demonstrated a new technology called 'HoloTile Floor', which lets people walk on it without having to worry about crashing into walls when walking in Virtual Reality.

Disney HoloTile Floor | Disney HoloTile Floor VR walking

HoloTile floor can also be used to move objects like a chair from one place to another. (Image Source: Disney/YouTube)

Lanny Smoot, an inventor at Disney Research, has presented a new solution that aims to solve the problem of running into walls or obstacles when walking in Virtual Reality. Dubbed ‘HoloTile Floor’, the solution involves a system that consists of hundreds of small round tiles placed close to each other.

“I can walk on this omni directional floor in any direction I want”, says Smoot in a video on YouTube. He also claims that the HoloTile floor also supports multiple people walking on it at the same time in different directions. From what we can tell, these tiles are seemingly working together to create a sort of multidirectional treadmill that prevents the person(s) standing on it from leaving the pad.

When asked about what HoloTile floor can be used for, Smoot says the technology can be used in a room where multiple people need “to be somewhere else collaboratively and moving around doing different things. Apart from enabling people to walk when wearing Mixed Reality headsets like the recently launched Apple Vision Pro, the technology might also come in handy on dance floors, allowing dancers to perform different moves while staying in one place. The demo also showcased a use case where the HoloTile floor is used to move an object from one place to another.

Since Smoot seems to appear moving very slowly in the video, it is still unclear how much speed and weight the HoloTile Floor will be able to handle. Also, the technology still appears to be in the early stages of development, so it is pretty early to say if it will be available for purchase in the future.