Virtual Reality Device Hits The $1 Million Dollar Mark On Kickstarter

Image via Omni

Omni, the virtual reality device that gets you off your chair and into the game, has six days left before its Kickstarter campaign is over—and it’s already hit the $1 million mark. With just over 3,000 backers now, pledgers have come to understand that this is more than just a gimmick, but a transitional force within the gaming industry.

The Omni is a design two years in the making by Jan Goetgeluk, creator and CEO of Virtuix. The device allows the user to dive into any game that requires keyboard and mouse function using a base consisting of a low-friction surface with grooves paired with uniquely designed shoes that contain pins to fit perfectly into the grooves and keep the foot stabilized.

Together, the base and pinned shoes work in harmony to prevent the user from experiencing unwanted lateral slide and allow natural movement. The safety ring and belt are the clenching design feature (holds up to 285 pounds and prevents the wearer from slipping or falling down) that tie everything together.

The Omni is the first natural interface for movement within a virtual reality,” Goetgeluk told Wall Street Insanity. “There were dozens of patents that aimed for a similar goal, but none of the technology matched what we were doing. We took months just in the planning stages, researching different ways to produce an omni-directional treadmill that would separate our device from what was available on the market.”

And there’s no doubt that people see what the Omni is doing. In just over three hours, the Omni had fulfilled its goal of securing $150,000 (Virtuix had already obtained private funding for the device prior to Kickstarter), with weeks left in its campaign.

One of Omni’s biggest supporters is Palmer Lucky, an entrepreneur that’s no stranger to Kickstarter success. His headset device, the Oculus Rift, raised a little over $2.4 million and set a standard within the virtual reality niche of the gaming industry. The Rift is worn in conjunction with the Omni throughout several of its demonstration videos and Kickstarter campaign.

One source of inspiration for Goetgeluk during the concept and planning stage was the Microsoft Kinect. “Microsoft had just launched the Kinect, and hackers had started to break into the device and create fascinating applications,” he told Gamer Fit Nation. “I realized that the Kinect, with its ability to track someone’s full body optically without the need for cumbersome sensors, could be a game changer for full body virtual reality. We initially explored potential software applications for the Kinect, but the true missing link in full body VR is a locomotion device that allows you to walk around in the virtual world.”

Similar full-body immersion devices, such as The WizDish and Gamerunner are on the market. The WizDish, also raising funding on Kickstarter (has not reached a quarter of its goal with less than two weeks to go), was created in 2002 and bears similar resemblance to the Omni, yet with critical differences that make the latter more marketable than the former.

The UK-based smaller WizDish device also has a base and special shoes to accompany it, however, watching the gamer use the WizDish isn’t as pleasant; his movements don’t seem to be as fluid as natural movements—it appears very slippery to walk on and resembles skating, with no means of support. Though it claims to be easy to run and jump on, its several videos fail to accurately depict this.

The Gamerunner allows the gamer to walk or run as quickly as they like, using a uni-directional treadmill with navigational handlebars and an array of buttons for game control. Still, it restricts gameplay to certain functions.

To be able to fully encompass the virtual reality world, Goetgeluk needed to create a device that filled voids his predecessors could not: he wanted a natural interface that mirrored all basic human movements, including walking, running, jumping, crouching, or strafing.

Since the Kickstarter campaign has revved into full gear, Goetgeluk has found the abundance of work to be one of the hardest parts of its success.

“The sheer amount of work that goes into this is incredible,” says Goetgeluk. “I work from 8am to 2am. My days consist of answering emails, talking to backers, working on manufacturing, attending events. But I used to be an investment banker and I’m used to 100 hour work weeks.”

Despite the Omni’s sudden onset of success, Goetgeluk remains humble. “This is really the result of hard work and perseverance,” he says, “and I am so happy by the reception from the press and how easily the story was picked up and shared. The Omni offers a compelling experience and I’m thankful for the outpouring of support we’ve been getting.”

As the Kickstarter campaign edges to a close, Goetgeluk will be turning his full attention to manufacturing the device. Its initial run of prototypes for the Kickstarter backers are being produced locally in Texas, while the product thereafter will be produced overseas. Goetgeluk is currently “in conversations with manufacturing partners in Asia” to produce the shoes. Over the last three weeks, more than 2,500 devices have been sold.

As of now, a retail strategy hasn’t been strategized, but it’s on the fence. “We are not sure if we’ll go into retail,” says Goetgeluk, “but it’s a possibility.” When the Kickstarter campaign terminates, he will continue to attend major gaming and tech events to showcase the Omni.

After Kickstarter, the Omni will have a price point between $500-$600 (compared to WizDish at $300 or Gamerunner at $495), not including the headset or motion-detecting gun. If you have the money and space for it (though the Omni is specifically designed to be assembled and disassembled quickly and easily stored), you can kill two birds with one stone; you can get in a good cardio workout with an hour of gameplay, as Omni’s software tracks distance traveled and calories burned.

But Jan believes that the future of virtual reality extends far beyond the gaming niche.

When it comes to virtual reality, the gaming industry is just one aspect of a much broader picture,” says Goetgeluk. “Gaming is at the forefront because it is the easiest market to corner and has an immediate target audience. But the future of of virtual reality will be front and center, and a part of our daily lives.”

Imagine a world where a virtual reality company like Virtuix will have the means to partner with a company like StubHub to sell concert or sporting event tickets—putting the buyer in the middle of a show and giving them the full-body experience—while in the comfort of their own home. Imagine a world where you can pop into Google’s street view or tour a prospective home on a real estate website via a simple plug-and-wear method.

Ray Kurzweil, an acclaimed futurist and director of engineering at Google believes that the future of virtual reality lies in injections of nanobots into the brain that make it nearly impossible to discern the difference between an illusion and the real world.

In an interview with GOOD, he said: “By the late 2020s, nanobots in our brain (that will get there noninvasively, through the capillaries) will create full-immersion virtual-reality environments from within the nervous system. So if you want to go into virtual reality the nanobots shut down the signals coming from your real senses and replace them with the signals that your brain would be receiving if you were actually in the virtual environment. So this will provide full-immersion virtual reality incorporating all of the senses.”

Whatever the future of virtual reality hold, Goetgeluk hopes that, when the time comes, he’ll be at the forefront, pioneering its spread to the everyday consumer for everyday use.