The present invention provides a mechanical system for creating motion with six full degrees of freedom; three rotational degrees of freedom and three linear-translational degrees of freedom. In its broader aspect, the present invention enables a user to physically experience full freedom of motion within a limited space.
In a preferred embodiment, the present invention provides a device in which the user will experience full freedom of motion in coordination with the user’s senses of sight, hearing, and touch. A user utilizing the motion simulating device of the present invention will be able to interact with an electronic environment using many of the same senses used in the natural world. The claimed invention enables interaction with an electrically generated environment by employment of the user’s natural center of balance center and sense of direction.
Active interactive solids, in contrast, are moved within the capsule under the control of the virtual reality system and may take the form of a solid representing a wall which moves within the capsule as the user “moves” within the virtual environment. In an alternative embodiment having application in the emerging field of so-called “virtual sex,” the visual images displayed for the user may be explicitly sexual in nature and the active interactive solids may be solids or semi-solids which represent an interactive partner in the “virtual sex” environment.
