I think it depends how it's supposed to be used. If you try to use it like a treadmill in a tiny room then no - and I'm sceptical it would work at all, because the motors would probably be overpowered by any kind of decent sprint or jump.
However I could imagine this to be able to expand the abilities of venues that already have enough space to let you walk around: You could have people move on their own as long as there is space, but then "stealthily" move them around when they think they're standing still, allowing either much larger geometries than would even fit in a hall or let you play around with non-euclidean geometries, etc.
But yeah, in general I agree, I don't see how this will enable some kind of VR breakthrough or even just move us in the direction on one: Even with this tech working perfectly, you'd be restricted to scenarios where you walk on flat ground and never touch anything. Even a basic hike in the woods has more complex interactions than that, not even starting with the kind of over-the-top acrobatics that we're used to from non-VR videogames.
So yeah, you could probably do the Stanley Parable in VR with this (without the staircases and the drops), but I don't see much else.
> you'd be restricted to scenarios where you walk on flat ground
I don’t think it’s either surprising or discouraging that flat walking surfaces get worked out before dynamic surfaces.
It might take a while, but it is inevitable.
A rolling wave, with a grippy active surface, could keep you centered while you perceived an upward slope. Seeing and feeling a vista of uneven slopes in VR would be fantastic. I would love Skyrim as a health app!
Also, simple tilting could provide the force feedback of changing speeds.
I wonder how quickly you can spin someone while they're walking without it being perceptible. If you have a large area, you could use sneaky rotation to constrain movement while minimizing the amount of sliding people around you have to do. Though I'm not actually sure that'd be less noticeable at practical sizes.
However I could imagine this to be able to expand the abilities of venues that already have enough space to let you walk around: You could have people move on their own as long as there is space, but then "stealthily" move them around when they think they're standing still, allowing either much larger geometries than would even fit in a hall or let you play around with non-euclidean geometries, etc.
But yeah, in general I agree, I don't see how this will enable some kind of VR breakthrough or even just move us in the direction on one: Even with this tech working perfectly, you'd be restricted to scenarios where you walk on flat ground and never touch anything. Even a basic hike in the woods has more complex interactions than that, not even starting with the kind of over-the-top acrobatics that we're used to from non-VR videogames.
So yeah, you could probably do the Stanley Parable in VR with this (without the staircases and the drops), but I don't see much else.