Wind display device for locomotion interface in a virtual environment

This paper describes development of a wind display system for the TreadPort virtual environment locomotion interface, which is cumulatively known as the TreadPort active wind tunnel (TPAWT). Computational fluid dynamic simulations and experiments with a scaled model test-bed of the system has resulted in a combination of passive and active controls capable of controlling wind speed and angle acting on a user in the environment. Development of the full scale TPAWT system is then described, which requires consideration of system geometry, integration, packaging, wind loads, and instrumentation.