Ask HN: How much would it cost to build the ultimate VR hardware system?
That got me thinking... what if I could combine the running, ducking, and aiming of Nerf with the visuals and general awesomeness of CoD? The ultimate toy... Snow Crash without the brain stem tap.
I'm picturing a 15ft diameter ball with precision servos coming in from all directions attached to a full body suit and helmet combo with built-in projection glasses.
The servos would sense your body motions to animate your character model and would also provide feedback... the sensation of running, climbing stairs, crawling on your stomach, leaning on a wall, getting shot. The helmet would control point of view.
You would have full range of motion within the ball and the ball itself could move up and down and rotate in all directions to provide the appropriate gravity simulation.
The development scope would necessarily include modding a game to accommodate the inputs and outputs that the suit needs. CoD would have to enable reaching down to pick up a grenade and lifting a gun, Skyrim would enable riding a horse and swinging a sword, etc.
Success is defined as being able to do every stock action in the game using the body movement that you use in Real Life and with the sensations of RL... gravity, obstacles, etc.
So, if you picked one game (let's use Skyrim) to port, how much would it cost to build a fully functioning system including hardware, software, and game mods?