Running Tube presents a unique physical controller for a novel Virtual Reality game. The controller consists of a hollow physical tube with physical balls inside it. The player holds the tube horizontally using both hands, and can tilt it to different angles, and the balls roll freely inside the tube, according to the tilt. The Running Tube game was designed specifically to require titling and balancing actions.

The physical balls create an inherent feedback to the tilt. There is a perceptual gap between the VR world and the tangible experience, which forms a design space. The goal of Running Tube is to explore the experience of the perceptual gap between the sensation of the physical balls and the representation of the virtual ones, within a playful context.

By Orly Trublenkov, Laura Staulz and Bat Sheva Horowitz