Google patents a pair of shoes meant to help users in VR environment

Google has patented a new pair of shoes which can break through virtual reality. The patent originally filed on May 9, 2018, details shoes that will help users move through virtual environments.

"In a system and methods, in accordance with implementations described herein, motorized footwear may be tracked by the system as the user physically moves, for example, walking in the physical environment. The physical can be translated into virtual movement in the virtual environment. Motor mechanisms of the motorized footwear may be actuated, based on, for example, a detected physical position in the physical environment of the footwear," explains the company.

The new patents also offer several explanations of how the motor system on board the shows would function. The motor would also supply power to another locomotion device, which will move the belt on the shoewear and force movements to stop after the wearer enters a specific distance or goes beyond the boundary.

"Actuation of the motor may, in turn, actuate a locomotion device of the motorized footwear, to move the motorized footwear back in a return zone defined within the operational zone. This may allow the user to walk while remaining within a defined physical space in the physical environment," Google explained.

Google isn't the only firm which has thought of a disruptive way to interact with virtual reality. Previously, a team of researchers which involved tricking the brain to solve the infinite walking program using the VR headsets.

A team of scientists from EPFL and ETH Zurich also developed lightweight VR gloves which were meant to help VR users touch virtual objects.