'The Void' can be future of 'virtual-reality'

A new project called 'The Void' is an experience that aims to let people explore a virtual world in a physical environment.

In a 60-by-60-foot room in Salt Lake City, Ken Bretschneider is taking virtual reality experiences to another level, the Washington Post reported.

As soon as next summer, customers visiting The Void could don his custom-built virtual reality gear and not only be immersed in a different world, but able to walk and run around in it.

What looks like a bland room lined with dense foam walls, will be transformed into something entirely different. Bretschneider was unhappy with the current experience of virtual reality, in which a person is generally confined to a room or chair in their home.

Bretschneider said that he wanted to jump out of my chair and go run around, he wanted to be in there, but he felt like he was separated from that world just sitting down playing a game. So he often would stand up and then he couldn't do anything.

To have an experience like what Bretschneider envisions would require having a huge open room in one's home, and the technical know-how to hang sensors that track players' locations.

Bretschneider wants to build virtual-reality gaming centers in every city in North America, Asia and Europe. In the fall, construction will start on the first location, in Salt Lake City. It will include seven of the 60-by-60 foot gaming pods, where groups of up to 10 can compete.

The Void is developing its own technology after finding that existing options on the market weren't fast enough. The frame rate that could be displayed on the headsets was one major sticking point.

He also plans to apply different textures and materials to the foam walls, so that a player's sense of touch contributes to the experience feeling real.

The experiences will last at least a half hour. He wouldn't divulge an expected price, other than to say it will be affordable.