Disney casually broke the news of an exciting-sounding breakthrough to reinvent movement in VR. The HoloTile is an omnidirectional, multiplayer treadmill floor that could solve a huge problem with VR gaming and the metaverse: connecting body movement to the virtual world.
Solutions to this problem so far have been clunky, either opting for a tethered treadmill or going free-roam in large rooms, where running into other players or walls is a problem.
Disney’s solution is unique, appearing to be small balls that rotate to match your foot movement. There’s no need for a tether, and more than one person can use the expandable HoloTile VR treadmill. It seems like a perfect solution, though it’s still a work in progress.
In a video demonstration, you can see the people taking small steps, and the HoloTile keeps rolling for a moment after they stop walking. The HoloTile floor can also move objects like a conveyor belt but in any direction. In the video, you’ll see someone waving their hand to control a box as if by magic.
‘HoloTile’ floor for omnidirectional VR experiencespic.twitter.com/xbALAZsUtE
— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) January 22, 2024
Beyond creating the feeling of movement without actually moving, it also helps deal with real-world objects. The best VR headsets let you walk around in your physical room while your avatar matches that movement in the virtual space you’re seeing. That works great until you bump into a table, a wall, or knock over a lamp.
There are ways of alerting gamers within the headset of a virtual boundary. Mixed reality lets you see your surroundings. That’s one of the most intriguing aspects of Apple’s Vision Pro and Meta’s Quest 3, but large graphic overlays can still obscure portions of your room and break the immersion of the game.
Holotile is being developed by Lanny Smoot, the Disney Research Fellow, and Imagineer behind special effects used in the Haunted Mansion and Star Wars lightsabers.
Disney announced Smoot is being inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame, becoming the second Disney Imagineer to receive this honor, along with Disney founder Walt Disney, who was honored posthumously for the multiplane camera.
Google just dropped its latest AI model, Gemini 4 Carbon, designed to tackle complex coding jobs and cybersecurity threats. The company claims it can work through difficult engineering problems for days, finding hidden bugs and developing fixes across large codebases.
Gemini 4 Carbon also takes the top spot on Artificial Analysis' updated Intelligence Index, scoring 59 points, pushing out Claude Opus 5.5, OpenAI's GPT-6 Astra, and even its own predecessor Gemini 4 Argon.
Apple has just introduced a redesigned MacBook Pro with a few bells and whistles. The focus this time around is on a thinner and lighter build, and an upgrade to a touch-sensitive OLED screen without any ugly notch. And, in case you were wondering, there is definitely a price premium to pay for these niceties, which also include a glowing Apple logo at the back. What if you wanted to get the best that Apple has to offer? Well, the numbers are finally here.
For a mere $14,549, you can get yourself the fully kitted 16-inch MacBook Pro PROLED XDR with the beefiest laptop chip that Apple has to offer, and the best memory configuration in tow. For nearly $15,000, you treat yourself to the 16-inch version of the laptop with a nano-texture glass layer on the screen to reduce reflections and glare.
Apple has unveiled its first-ever touchscreen MacBook Pro. The company seems a bit confused about the naming, calling it the "MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display," which is tough to remember. If you look past that and review the full spec sheets, you might ask a genuine question: what are the differences between the touchscreen and non-touchscreen versions?
Given that Apple continues to sell both variants together, that's a genuine question. Luckily, you don't have to spend more time lining up the spec sheets side by side and hunting for differences hidden in the fine print. I took that bullet for you. Here's everything that's different between the PROLED XDR Display and the regular MacBook Pro.