WalkOVR is an affordable solution to move in VR [+ Giveaway!]

Hello Tugra, it’s nice to host you on my blog. Can you introduce yourself to my readers?

It’s great to be here as well Tony. Thanks for hosting me. Briefly, I’m a Tech Savvy, VR enthusiast who has a background in Electronics Engineering and Product Management. I developed many software and hardware products in the past, not only as Electronics Engineer but also as a Product Manager, worked in some well-known corporates such as Nokia and Verifone then a couple of years ago I founded WalkOVR, the first wearable walk-in-place locomotion solution for Virtual Reality. 

Tell me more about your company WalkOVR

WalkOVR is a company specifically focused on user movements in Virtual Reality through its proprietary wearable solutions. We are offering various versions of WalkOVR as the industry’s most user-friendly, feature-rich, and affordable VR motion solutions, for everyone interested in a more immersive VR experience. As WalkOVR, we aim to change the way how VR is experienced and to upgrade the VR experience as a whole.

What is the backstory of the company?

WalkOVR has been founded in 2018 but has its roots in development since 2016. When we started this journey in 2016, we started it with the idea of a consumer-friendly omnidirectional treadmill for VR enthusiasts. If you can recall some known ODTs [Omni Directional Treadmill] in the market, they were/are huge to ship to home users and creates a magnificent shipping cost on the consumer side, and also not that consumer-friendly since at least two or even three people are necessary to build them at home. We worked hard on this task and eventually we created our own omnidirectional treadmill. Very compact to ship in comparison to the other brands in the market and also relatively easy to build at home. However, while we were creating our own ODT, we were also field-testing many other locomotion approaches and measuring the users’ reactions based on that solution’s user-friendliness and overall experience quality. Eventually after many field tests and user feedback, with some awesome reactions, we decided to pivot into wearable solutions in 2018.

How does the product work?

WalkOVR is a combination of wearable sensor systems which we call “OVR Nodes”. OVR nodes are little electronic devices that are worn on specific parts of your body like the Apple Watch on your wrist, but to be worn on your chest, waist, ankles, and knees. They have integrated 9DOF IMU-based inertial sensors and need no external sensor readings or base station to work. Every single OVR Node has also its own Bluetooth/WIFI capability which allows them to talk to each other as well as to your PC/VR system wirelessly. When a person moves with WalkOVR on her body, our PC side software receives movement data from OVR nodes and our algorithms transform that data into user movement for that specific game or app. As a result, VR users move in virtual reality with their own legs, physically and naturally.

What are its main features?

WalkOVR basically offers two main capabilities in one system: VR locomotion and full-body tracking. 

As a VR locomotion device: VR users experience the most natural way of walking and running in Virtual Reality. WalkOVR eliminates the dependence on the controllers and the headset for moving in VR. Our proprietary decoupling feature lets VR users move in the direction of their body, not the direction of their headset; meaning that they can look around freely while continuing to run forward if their enemies are chasing them in an action-packed VR game. This is the most natural way to move around which also helps our users beat the motion sickness and nausea caused by the standard movement features of current VR infrastructure. With WalkOVR, VR users’ dependence on huge play areas is also gone, because you can walk and run in place while also bending or crouching.

WalkOVR can also be used as a full-body tracking device. This means that players can see and show their real movements in virtual environments. You can basically dance in VR with your WalkOVR suit. This is widely used by our VRChat users and we improve the quality of our mocap features day by day. 

What do you think is the most important feature?

In my opinion, two features shine out among others. As I stated shortly before, we have a feature called decoupling which we introduced the concept to the VR industry. Decoupling separates the direction of the body from the headset. For us, decoupling is one of the most important features that a VR locomotion device needs to have in order to achieve the most natural way of moving in VR. In accordance with our way of thinking, the testing sessions that we performed during the development of WalkOVR showed that 7 of the 10 people that tried the WalkOVR (hence the decoupling feature) felt less or no motion sickness than the people who played without WalkOVR. This is incredibly important because it is our main purpose to improve the experience of VR enthusiasts. It is certain that decoupling increases the immersion to VR by decreasing the VR sickness and creating an experience closest to the real.

On the other hand, the importance and popularity of motion capture features can not be overseen. The capability of dancing in a VRChat dance contest is so far the most visible reflection of the metaverse that everybody talks about nowadays. Therefore mocap is one of the most important features that we will focus on more soon.

I noticed that you have a modular approach, and the user can buy a different number of tracking boxes (the OVR Nodes). Why have you chosen this modular approach and what are the possible configurations?

Flexibility. We all want flexibility. Why being forced to purchase a large system that we don’t necessarily need? I’m a gamer before I am an entrepreneur in VR and I always think we should get as much flexibility as possible as gamers. Before we released New Generation WalkOVRs, we noticed that the needs of the customers vary among themselves. While some VR gamers want to use their legs and walk and run in a more natural way, others just want to use the decoupling feature and eliminate the dependence on the headset. Also, some of the users don’t mind the price and want to try all they can get at once, while some are quite conservative on trusting a product and spend less. Therefore, we created 4 different WalkOVR models that include 1, 2, 3, or 5 OVR nodes. The system is totally expandable, meaning that you can buy WalkOVR ONE first, then you can include another ONE to make them WalkOVR TWINS. Or a user can purchase a WalkOVR Trio first, and later she can get a WalkOVR Twins to make WalkOVR MOCAP, in order to unlock the mocap feature. In fact, there are many doing this and purchasing further after realizing they are in fact happy with their first product. This need-oriented approach in our products is specifically designed for the specific needs of VR enthusiasts and for the ultimate flexibility.

How do you install it on your body? How much time do you need for that? And don’t you think that having to install such a system all the time creates some friction for the player?

According to us and to many of our users, the wearable design of WalkOVR is one of the simplest designs for a VR locomotion device. Wearing the nodes take 30 seconds; you just strap the OVR nodes on. Then you turn them on, click connect and state what node is positioned where on your body to calibrate, that’s all. It takes a few minutes for the very first beginners but after getting used to it, the process takes almost seconds. In the past, we had a cabled version of WalkOVR, WalkOVR Classic, and we know the hurdle of cables from the feedback we received; we improved the design. Lately, we had issues with the node positions and calibrating, we heard our users and improved the steps for node management and calibration now.

To be honest, we haven’t encountered any issue or difficulty while putting the OVR nodes on and received almost no negative feedback about the time our users spend putting OVR nodes on, but we are open to criticism and if there is an issue, we would be glad to hear it and try to fix it. For solutions like ours, especially in a relatively new industry like Virtual Reality, more time is wasted on the first time uses and understanding the product, rather than putting the nodes on. We did many mistakes in guiding first-time users and learned from our mistakes.

You provide walk-in-place locomotion. Why do you think is it an advantage over traditional VR locomotion and what instead is not good about that? For instance, when we did that with our previous startup, we noticed people tended to get tired easier when walking in place…

Awesome question. By saying traditional locomotion I understand the regular walking experience in a large play area, like in location-based VR centers right? So the traditional locomotion is walking itself basically? To be honest I don’t think the move-in-place solution has a distinct advantage against traditional locomotion, walking in a room. This is good, totally good as long as you have space. I’m not against the omnidirectional treadmill solutions either, in fact as shared at the beginning, we developed our own ODT earlier in our journey. However, the user needs to love that sliding mechanism either. Move-in place solution like ours is the most adaptable, affordable, and space-efficient solution for many VR enthusiasts. It can be rookie friendly or it can be a pro tool. You don’t need a large space to walk around, you don’t need a concave platform that you can’t freely move a couple of inches. Having some space to use your legs as you do in real life without any mechanical system is good for move-in-place solutions.

And about being tired. That’s the reality of physical VR. Based on our field tests there is no distinct statistical difference between using ODT, move in place, and even large space VR solutions. 

How long do the batteries last?

OVR Node batteries last 3 to 4 hours based on how active your VR gameplay is. To be honest it is not an issue to put larger batteries in a product just to make it lasts 10 or even 25 hours. However, this is a design choice. If you are developing a product specifically designed for an active VR experience where users are physically engaged, then you have to develop a product that is lightweight and low volume. So people should not feel your product on their body, right? Especially if you claim “enhanced immersive experience”. Larger batteries mean larger and heavier devices, tighter straps, etc. and users keep feeling there is something on their body. The feeling that something worn on your body with WalkOVR is usually minimal.

Actually, charging time matters more than the depletion time and OVR nodes are charged approximately in 30 to 45 minutes.

How do you compare WalkOVR to competitors like Vive Trackers, Perception Neuron, Virtuix Omni, EktoVR, or Kat Loco?

In the wearable locomotion device category, WalkOVR is the best. Period. We are best not only because we are the first-ever move in place locomotion device in the market and pioneered the industry with an affordable VR locomotion solution; but also because we are the most feature-rich and at the same time affordable solution in the market.

The VR industry started to be considered large, however, the market of VR locomotion and motion capture devices is relatively small even with new members in the field; we think there are still many steps to be taken on this road. We still improve ourselves; especially on the motion capture side. We keep watching new solutions and technologies in this area. We keep evolving.

In all cases, all solutions in the industry still trying to figure out the best possible user experience for its users. I think this competitive approach benefits the VR market in general since it adds so much value to the development of the industry and VR technologies as a whole.

With which VR experiences is your system compatible? Should games be built with your SDK to support your hardware?

No, no definitely not. This is a point where I say “I’m also a gamer”. We can’t force users to wait for new, specifically developed games to use your solution, right?

As long as it is a Steam VR game and supports smooth locomotion, we release a game profile for that game and it’s all. Our users can create that game profile/binding themselves as well through the SteamVR menu. WalkOVR is compatible with hundreds of games, and with most of the headsets in the market, including the most popular ones such as Oculus Quest/Quest 2, Rift, Valve Index, and HTC Vive. As the number of SteamVR games increases day by day, WalkOVR users keep using their devices with those games. if our users think WalkOVR can’t be played with a newly released game, or if they want to play an unpopular game with WalkOVR, they can share their request with us and we’ll release a game profile for that specific game in a day.

What is the cost of such a solution, and how can people buy it?

There are 4 WalkOVR models that people may choose based on their expectations from the VR experience. if they want the simplest form of VR locomotion through upper body maneuvering with a decoupling feature, they can go with WalkOVR ONE, for $64 USD. If they want to use their legs and feel more natural but without upper body maneuvering the WalkOVR Twins would be the best choice for $119 USD. If they are kinda pros and want to use their legs with decoupling plus upper body maneuvering to strafe and move backward then WalkOVR TRIO is the choice for $169. If they want to benefit from all existing and potential uses of WalkOVR with all features included in TRIO plus motion capture and even more precise locomotion, then the ultimate solution is WalkOVR MOCAP for $249 USD.

All these options may be found on our website.

What are your future plans?

We will keep improving ourselves in all aspects. We will definitely improve the motion capture features while pushing the quality level of the locomotion to even higher with advanced features. We believe in customization and openness as well, so we will continue to provide more advanced customization parameters to our users so they can modify all the motion capabilities of WalkOVR. We brought a new feature: Vive Tracker compatibility, where everybody can benefit from WalkOVR algorithms for locomotion no matter if they have WalkOVR or not. We are bringing a new feature where everybody, no matter if they use WalkOVR or not, can track how many calories they burn in a VR session or how many real-world meters they walk with WalkOVR.

What is your long-term vision? How can full-body tracking and natural locomotion evolve 10 -15 years from now?

Every external device, including the wearables, will be gone. Anything regarding virtual reality will be through neural transmissions in 15 years. In fact, I believe Elon Musk has a hidden agenda regarding VR and metaverse with his Neuralink initiative 😊

What’s your view on the current metaverse hype?

90% of those who comment about Metaverse have no idea what is coming.
90% of those talked around Metaverse is total BS.
90% of real Metaverse will be built by those currently unknown.

I believe people still conceptualize metaverse with the current status quo with their current perception which makes no sense.

However, that is always good to see it is hype for the future of humanity.

Is there anything else to add to this interview?

One more thing, the world is getting through really tough times. First COVID then the war we see in Ukraine. As far as I see, VR industry is more silent than it should be. VR is actually the best candidate to be a cure during these hard times and we all need to increase our voices for those people facing the hardest difficulties of the war. It is not a game happening in Ukraine and people suffer. By this interview I would like to call everybody to support at least one Ukrainian creator in any way we can, so we can maybe relieve some wounds of whom suffers from war.