Virtual reality is becoming more popular, with new applications appearing almost daily in arenas from games to medicine and training to travel. The more development we see, the more realistic VR gets, with fewer boundaries than ever.

There are still some limitations, though. Until recently, moving around inside the VR environment has been a problem because most VR headsets can’t pick up on locomotion movements, like walking. Even for those that can, the user—wrapped up in the virtual world—might wind up walking into a wall or falling down a staircase.

3DRudder has changed all this with a controller that started out as something like a foot-powered mouse. The device, operated by the user’s feet, allows for natural movement within the virtual environment. Although its first iteration was wired, 3DRudder wanted to keep up with wireless VR headsets. Bluetooth functionality was the perfect choice for the next generation of their device.

We caught up with EVP Christophe Dissaux at CES 2017 to hear how the newest, wireless 3DRudder device is changing the face—or at least, the feet—of virtual reality.

(Credit: Daniel Kleiner)