A metaphor for life, I guess. Jeremy Hsu writes in Popular Science that Hiroo Iwata of the University of Tsukuba in Japan has developed robotic tiles that sense what direction a user is going in and move ahead to provide a place to step. With further development, it could be used in virtual reality simulators in order to imitate movement over distance:
Video at the link.
http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2009-09/video-japans-robot-tiles-create-infinite-walkway
Image: DigInfo Video News
The robot tiles emerged as the brainchild of Hiroo Iwata, a virtual reality researcher at the University of Tsukuba in Japan. A touch-sensitive conductive fabric covers each robot and gauges the pressure applied by a walking person's foot, which goes toward predicting the next step.
Ultrasonic sensors also help relay position and orientation of each tile back to a central computer that acts as the conductor. It's an oddly serene robotic ballet, even when two tiles have queued up to move down the line.
Video at the link.
http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2009-09/video-japans-robot-tiles-create-infinite-walkway
Image: DigInfo Video News
But if this idea really takes off I see a future where these blocks get so fast that you'll be able to run and jump on them without falling off. And then the first true outlines of the holo-deck become visible.
Coming years we'll see these blocks getting faster and faster. And they'll also get smaller and smaller upto a point where in the end after some decades of development you'll see a kind of nano-blocks that make kind of a semi-"fluid" surface that can accomodate multiple users on the same surface.
Combine this technology with virtual-touch-suits, VR-headsets and Wii-tech and you get a whole new sensation with those games and training-equipments that are out there...
http://www.neatorama.com/2009/02/28/enhancing-the-virtual-reality-experience/