Virtuix Debut Omni

The leading alternative XR input product vendor to start early shipments late 2023

Last Edited: August 1, 2023

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Today, Virtuix announced the shipment of its Omni One beta units ahead of general public distribution. The move sees the firm distribute more than 1,000 by the end of 2023, with further plans to deploy the product to roughly 8,000 products to investors by Q1 2024.

The release schedule of Omni One will also see the firm open preorders for the product to the general public in late 2023, with shipments starting in Q2 2024.

Virtuix’s Omni One distribution roadmap follows a successful crowdfunding process which saw the firm gain $4.5 million of its $5 million goal. Moreover, due to its crowdfunding success, Virtuix is closing the campaign early on August 10th.

Jan Goetgeluk, Virtuix’s founder and CEO added:

We’re thrilled about the success of our investment campaign and our community’s excitement about Omni One. Omni One is a groundbreaking product that sets us up for rapid revenue growth. We already have a waitlist of 35,000 interested customers, and shipping just 3,000 units a month would bring in $100 million in annual revenues. We’re ready to scale.

Additionally, to add more capital to its crowdfunding success, JC Team Captial is joining as a lead investor, and the firm’s CEO, Parth Jani, is joining Virtuix’s board of directors assisting with scalability and profitability goals leading into 2024.

The firm is introducing its Omni One product for $2,595 or via a $65 monthly payment plan.

The Omni One treadmill is a directional input device that allows users to walk, run, and crouch within a VR environment without controller inputs.

The Omni One product allows users to explore VR by walking on the treadmill in any direction to reach complete immersion. Moreover, the product permits full-body, “unrestricted” movements such as crouching, kneeling, and jumping.

The Omni One also incorporates safety features to prevent operators from falling and colliding with their surroundings.

Virtuix’s Omni One item is roughly 4 feet wide (120 cm), 5 feet in length (150 cm), has a base level of 4 feet (120 cm), and rounds off at 70 kilograms (150 pounds) in weight.

In a recent exclusive interview with XR Today, CEO Jan Goetgeluk explained that the Omni One device is a derivative of the firm’s previous commercial products for entertainment venues.

Goetgeluk noted:

We have the Omni Pro, the commercial version of Omni Arena, which is a full turnkey attraction with four Omni [treadmills] for commercial entertainment. And recently, we started shipping Omni One, our first consumer version designed for the home.

Virtuix aims to integrate into the consumer market after success in commercial markets. At the moment, the XR space is on the precipice of a controller-free revolution which sees headset operators turn to alternative input methods like eye tracking, hand tracking, and products like the Omni One to improve usability and accessibility.

Goetgeluk said that, despite its experience in vertical markets, his firm started with a “big vision” for the consumer market when Virtuix began operations ten years ago.

Goetgeluk also added:

But we pivoted to the commercial market since the consumer VR space was slow to take off. So, we’ve been successful in the commercial space, but it’s always been our vision to go back to the consumer and have a version for the home. We started working on that 2-3 years ago, so it’s been a pretty long development process, but here we are today.

Moreover, Goetgeluk said Virtuix has significant demand from enterprise and entertainment end-users. The CEO noted that the firm shipped “over 4000 of those [omnidirectional treadmills] in 45 countries,” with entertainment being the most significant use case.

However, Goetgeluk remarked that enterprise training and simulation use cases for clients representing law enforcement, military, and corporate training made up a notable percentage of its clients – “for example, we have a company that uses them for training on how to maintain an oil refinery or a drilling platform.”

The product package also includes a Pico 4 headset ready for at-home use. The firm chose to leverage Pico brand devices over other competing brands due to its flexibility as an OEM partner.

Virtuix required an accompanying consumer-grade VR headset on which the firm could install its software. The CEO noted that Omni One software has its own games store, operating system, and social features – “it’s our own platform if you will.”

Goetgeluk said that only a few headset vendors allow OEM partners to leverage XR devices in the manner Virtuix requires, remarking “a company like Meta, for example, they’re not in it to be an OEM and work with other parties.”

The CEO also noted:

So we have a great relationship with Pico, we think the Pico Neo 3 Pro is a great headset, the Pico 4, by the way, is not out yet in the US, so it’s as simple as that. We’re shipping with the Pico Neo 3 Pro today. Will we upgrade to a better headset at some point? I think that’s obviously inevitable, but we’re very happy with the new 3 Pro right now.

Pico’s device boasts features such as a 4k display at 1200 pixels per inch, pancake lenses, a Qualcomm XR2 chipset, 8GB of RAM, and three facial tracking infrared cameras.