Roller Coasters Ride Into Dizzying Realm of Virtual Reality
The idea started in early 2014 as a class project to reduce the dizziness that stationary VR users often feel because the brain sees motion but doesn’t feel it. Mr. Wagner approached Michael Mack, a top executive at family-owned Mack Rides who oversees its Europa Park theme park in southwest Germany. Intrigued, Mr. Mack let Mr. Wagner’s team ride coasters before and after park hours through that summer, using laptops and bulky VR goggles to perfect synchronization.
The first rough prototype eliminated VR-induced vertigo thanks to physical motion and wowed everyone involved, but faced problems. “People doubted it would work in the real world,” recalled Mr. Wagner.
Wireless VR technology wasn’t mature and computers couldn’t be mounted on roller coasters because the vibrations would destroy microchips. Wiring headsets to riders’ seats raised safety concerns about snagged cables.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/roller-coasters-ride-into-dizzying-realm-of-virtual-reality-1472571058