Omni Directional Treadmill Surpasses Kickstarter in Hours

Omni Kickstarter

No surprise here folks. The Omni, an omni directional treadmill that's designed to allow you to walk and run naturally in videogames while using an Oculus Rift headset, has now been officially funded on Kickstarter - in just four hours.

It's already surpassed its initial goal by four times the amount - in less than a day. This thing has the potential to be the most funded project ever on Kickstarter, as the creators gave it a whopping 48 days of funding.

At the time of writing it's at $535,092 (the initial goal was $150,000) and there really aren't many of the first batch of Omnis left, so if you want one, head over to the Kickstarter now.

If you've not heard of the Omni before now, it's a treadmill that can move in any direction, the idea being, that you can stand on it and move around in a game, without going very far in the real world. It's an idea for virtual reality that's a slightly different take to the large, warehouse like room that would be required for a Holodeck like experience.

Of course you can feel and hear the treadmill moving around as you run on it, but if you're in a game, with an Oculus Rift headset on and a decent pair of headphones, it doesn't even register.

While it's far from perfect virtual reality, this is the first real step. Want to go for a real wander through Skyrim? Shoot the other team while actually running in Team Fortress 2? Check out the below video to see the capabilities of this system.