If you’ve ever watched kids jump on a bed, you know that there’s nothing like a kid to show us what true abandon really is. That feeling of jumping as high as you possibly can is an amazing feeling, whether you’re on a bed or in a bouncy house or on a trampoline or standing up in front of you desk for your 20/20/20. JumpMod is a wearable devise that enhances the feeling of jumping. Here’s more from hackaday:
The group, led by [Pedro Lopes] at the University of Chicago, uses a two-kilogram weight worn on the back to help provide the feeling of jumping or falling. By interfacing it with the virtual reality environment, the weight can quickly move up or down its rails when it detects that the wearer is about to commit to an action that it thinks it can enhance. Wearers report feeling like they are jumping much higher, or even smashing into the ground harder. The backpack offers a compact and affordable alternative to the bulky and expensive hardware traditionally used for this purpose.
With builds like these, we would hope the virtual reality worlds that are being created become even more immersive and believable. Of course that means a lot more work into making other methods of movement in the virtual space feel believable (like walking, to start with) but it’s an excellent piece of technology that shows some progress. Augmenting the virtual space doesn’t always need bulky hardware like this, though. Take a “look” at this device which can build a believable virtual reality space using nothing more than a webcam.