One thing going slightly viral lately is footage of Disney’s “HoloTile” infinite floor, an experimental sort of 360° treadmill developed by [Lanny Smoot]. But how exactly does it …
If you watch MKBHD’s video, you see him spinning himself around on a chair. The chair legs are in constant contact with some part of the cone thingies while they’re rolling, which means friction, which means wear. I posted a screenshot from MKBHD’s video in another response that shows what looks like debris all over the surface of the cone rollers; the debris is not uniform and is quite clearly not part of the roller material (I put a screenshot in the reply to another comment, so I’ll just link it here), so I assumed that it was from testing the treadmill with various objects.
Yeah, there’s friction, just like there is friction from walking on marble steps, such as those in the Tower of Pisa. But since they are mostly moving with the object on top of them, wear is reduced. In the end, the little wheels will be working in concert to move whatever object is on them in a given direction, but they are round and so will have a bit of drift in short order, which is managed by putting the wheels at angles so only a portion of one side is touching the object. They are likely made of a moderate friction substance with high durability and are probably replaceable, just like the tires on your car.
If you watch MKBHD’s video, you see him spinning himself around on a chair. The chair legs are in constant contact with some part of the cone thingies while they’re rolling, which means friction, which means wear. I posted a screenshot from MKBHD’s video in another response that shows what looks like debris all over the surface of the cone rollers; the debris is not uniform and is quite clearly not part of the roller material (I put a screenshot in the reply to another comment, so I’ll just link it here), so I assumed that it was from testing the treadmill with various objects.
As well, there was no need to be a dick about it.
Yeah, there’s friction, just like there is friction from walking on marble steps, such as those in the Tower of Pisa. But since they are mostly moving with the object on top of them, wear is reduced. In the end, the little wheels will be working in concert to move whatever object is on them in a given direction, but they are round and so will have a bit of drift in short order, which is managed by putting the wheels at angles so only a portion of one side is touching the object. They are likely made of a moderate friction substance with high durability and are probably replaceable, just like the tires on your car.