Earlier this month Ubisoft announced a new brand deal with haptic clothing creator OWO, which produces a thin and light shirt featuring electrode-based haptics. Strangely enough, the partnership isn’t targeted at the upcoming VR game Assassin’s Creed Nexus, but rather the non-VR game Assassin’s Creed Mirage.
OWO’s haptics provide 10 electrified zones around the user’s torso and arms, something the company says can deliver 30 sensations, with various impacts including bullet wounds, punches, machine gun recoil, wind and more. It seems like the ideal candidate for an Assassin’s Creed VR tie-in, but Ubisoft isn’t saying as much. Yet.
Image courtesy OWO
We reached out to OWO to see whether the company’s unique haptic shirt would eventually support Ubisoft’s upcoming Assassin’s Creed VR game. While the answer was non-committal, OWO says its partnership with Ubisoft doesn’t stop at Mirage.
“Currently, the only Ubisoft title announced to work with the OWO Haptic Gaming System is Assassin’s Creed Mirage,” an OWO spokesperson tells Road to VR. “As this is a long-term partnership, more Ubisoft titles will be announced in the near future.”
Notably, OWO already supports a handful of VR titles, such as Half-Life: Alyx, Pistol Whip, Beat Saber, Bonelab, Until You Fall, and Arizona Sunshine. These are all PC versions that require third-party mods, however individual developers can choose to support the vest on most any device since it connects via Bluetooth, much like bHaptics’ various haptic devices.
To boot, Ubisoft says it’s supporting OWO on Assassin’s Creed Mirage versions on PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One and PC. The edition will be available initially for purchase on OWO’s official website and will be sold as a bundle with the Assassin’s Creed Mirage game available through different retailers later on, the company says. Pricing isn’t clear yet, although the haptic shirt sells direct from OWO for €500 (~$560).
Equally unclear is when the special edition OWO shirt will launch; AC Mirage itself launches October 12th this year. Still, that leaves a fair amount of time between now and then to add in OWO support for Nexus, which is launching exclusively on Quest sometime Holiday 2023.
SenseGlove, a Netherlands-based creator of XR haptic gloves, has secured €3.25 million (~$3.5 million) in a series A funding round, something the company says will be used to accelerate its enterprise-focused SenseGlove Nova haptic gloves.
The funding round was led by Dutch venture capital firm Lumaux, bringing the company’s total outside investment to around €5.5 million (~$6 million). Previous rounds included investors Forward.One and Value Creation Capital.
The company says the investment will be used to continue development on its haptic SenseGlove Nova gloves and to develop new products. It will also be used to open an office in the US.
SenseGlove’s haptic gloves are said to let users interact in VR naturally and train muscle memory by providing the feeling of size, stiffness, and impacts of virtual objects. The company’s technology has been used in a range of industries, including manufacturing, healthcare, and training.
The company’s haptic gloves provide a combination of force and vibrotactile feedback and wireless compact design that primarily appeals to enterprise.
SenseGlove has provided its haptic gloves to firms such as Airbus, Scania, Honda, Cambridge University, TNO, Fraunhofer, and Siemens. In all, the company has worked with over 500 partners, including Volkswagen, P&G, and the Royal Dutch Army.
While squarely an enterprise-focused XR peripheral, SenseGlove Nova is also available for purchase through the company website. For small quantities, Nova regularly sells for €5,000 (~$5,400), however the company notes that larger quantities can cost less when contacted directly.
Just as the Game Developers Conference (GDC) got underway in San Francisco last week, French haptic specialist Actronika launched a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign for its first consumer-focused device, a haptic vest called the Skinetic. Happily, the vest was at GDC 2022 and gmw3 got a taster of this early in production device; leaving the demonstration quite impressed.
Now, haptic vests are nothing new when it comes to virtual reality (VR) immersion, the most well-known being bHaptics’ range of devices. It’s a niche market yet one that could very well benefit from a couple of competitors and Skinetic could very well be the vest to do that; in the long run.
GDC 2022 – Skinetic. Image credit: gmw3
XS to XXL, it should fit
Whenever I try on any peripheral designed for the body I’m always slightly hesitant because I’m a large guy. The last thing you want is for the product to either not fit around my frame or be unable to fasten, thus reducing the optimal haptic effect or making the whole endeavour null and void. Thankfully, that wasn’t the case. The Skinetic prototype fitted perfectly thanks to the easily adjustable side and shoulder straps.
It was very comfortable in fact, even with the protruding cable that ran down my back to the PC. This Actronika assures me is only for this prototype, with the final production version being fully wireless, having in-built WiFi5 tech.
Getting the vibe on
The Skinetic haptic vest has 20 actuators across the front and back panels, using Actronika’s patented voice-coil motors (VCM). What this provide was some excellent variance in feedback, from subtle environmental changes to full-on getting shot in the chest.
The first testing bench was a basic simulator environment where drones would fly out, circle around and shoot a number of different guns. Single-shot pistols hit with a satisfying thud, and I kept turning around to dynamically vary the placement between kidney shots to higher shoulder hits. Then in came the machinegun wielding drone, peppering me with projectiles that didn’t have the same force yet the actuators kept up nicely with the rapid-fire.
By far my favourite of the gun tests was the laser beam. You always see this in movies and videogames cutting through enemies, leaving a charred hole in its wake. Well, that’s essentially what the Skinetic was reproducing here. The haptics began building upon the front, gradually getting more intense whilst the back very slowly started to build in effect, as the virtual laser beam cut through me. Quite the unusual experience and the closest I’ll ever get to being run through with a lightsaber.
After that Actronika unleashed environmental effects that were far more full-body. Rain dabbled across my chest and down my back, whilst a sudden surge of fire seemed to activate all the actuators at once, almost in a nice massaging rhythm. The climax of this sequence was the nuclear blast where a wave of rumbling from front to back rippled across my torso. These larger explosions and effects are dramatic and in the right scene probably highly effective, yet for me, in this test, it was the more precise feedback that had the greatest impact.
Guns at the ready
This was all passive testing, simply stand there and take the impacts. Really what I wanted was some in-game action to demo the Skinetic on. And Actronicka provided in the form of a mode for Half-Life: Alyx. In a small sandbox area, I was treated to all the guns, being able to drop in enemies like the Combine soldiers, the odd headcrab or two and that annoying electric dog thing.
Low and behold, this experience was far more satisfying, taking a few rounds from the Combine gave a suitable short, sharp kick from the vest. It’s the only time I’ve ever encouraged the Combine to shoot at me, it gives the false sense that you’re wearing protective body armour.
A movie to move you
Actronika might be targeting gamers and VR players with the Skinetic – it was demoed with a Valve Index after all – yet the company doesn’t just see it being used in that regard. To complete the demonstration the team had married the vest up with a short scene from Avatar, with the idea that one day you could walk into a 4D cinema and put one of these on.
It was the scene where Jake, now controlling his new blue body encounters some of the local wildlife, first standing his ground against the giant rhino-like creature before that big, black, six-legged cat appears. As he runs through the jungle the vest provides that extra emphasis on each step, fall and scramble to safety. Having seen the movie several times, those additional haptics do provide extra depth to the spectacle.
Adding some skin to VR
I certainly wasn’t disappointed by the Skinetic haptic vest, as it delivered the kind of feedback I expect from this type of device. The actuators had enough power in them to really deliver a forceful response to input like gunfire, shooting games being one genre that truly benefits from haptics – you know if you get shot in the back for one thing.
However, this isn’t a final product and Actronika still has a long way to go to complete that Kickstarter. The other unknown is compatibility, having a technically awesome vest is one thing, having the software support from developers is another issue entirely. Some support is already there like the Half-Life: Alyx mod but much more is needed.
Skinetic is technically on point and it’s not due to be released until 2023, so gmw3 can’t wait to see how the vest is refined further.
At CES 2022 I tried bHaptics TactGlove, an upcoming $299 product for Quest 2 (and, apparently, PC VR too).
bHaptics is the same company behind the TactSuit, supported in games like Onward. Unlike the force feedback gloves I tried, TactGlove doesn’t actually restrict the movements of your finger. Instead it simply has per-finger precision vibration motors (Linear Resonant Actuators).
The idea is to add the missing feeling of touch to controller-free hand tracking games. bHaptics SDK is already supported by top hand tracking experiences including Unplugged and Hand Physics Lab.
To be honest, I was expecting TactGlove to feel like a gimmick. Since I’d also tried real force feedback gloves at CES, I wasn’t expecting simple vibration to add much to the feeling of immersion. But I was wrong. Comparing TactGlove to those $5000 products isn’t even fair – the real comparison is to using Quest hand tracking games normally, where you have no haptics at all. This lack of haptics is one of the most common complaints about controller-free hand tracking, and it’s exactly the problem TactGlove solves.
But is this added sense of touch worth $300? That’s difficult to say. For now, I’d say no, simply because the library of controller-free hand tracking games is still very limited.
bHaptics did however tell me the price is mainly a function of current supply chain issues. If by next year the Oculus hand tracking library is significantly more fleshed out and bHaptics can get the price down to $200, the value proposition may just shift to the point I’d recommend it.
TactGlove should be available to developers in Q2 and ship to consumers later this year. It’ll be available in three sizes.
A new year means that it’s time for the annual CES event in Las Vegas, drawing tech companies both big and small to showcase their latest wares. bHaptics, the maker of the TactSuit haptic vest, has unveiled its newest product set to arrive later this year, consumer-ready haptic gloves called TactGlove.
Leveraging its experience of building the TactSuit, bHaptics’ TactGlove has been designed to work with camera-based hand tracking systems, such as the one employed by Meta Quest. The glove comes equipped with 10 Linear Resonant Actuators (LRA) placed at each fingertip which can be individually controlled using the bHaptics SDK so that developers can programme precise feedback.
TactGlove will consist of an inner and outer glove, both worn like any normal glove. The inner glove is there for hygiene. Machine washable, this allows multiple people to use the TactGlove when required. bHaptics will be releasing the TactGlove in Medium, Large and Extra Large sizes.
“We are committed to connecting people through the haptic technology and TactGlove truly marks a milestone in that sense because it allows people to have a realistic interaction not only with virtual objects but also with their friends and colleagues in VR/AR settings at a very affordable price,” said Kiuk Gwak, CEO of bHaptics in a statement. “We are excited to see changes that TactGlove will bring to the virtual interaction as we move into the Metaverse era.”
Having already partnered with multiple developers to ensure support for its TactSuit (over 100 apps and counting), the company is already well underway ensuring support for its upcoming glove. For CES this week visitors will be able to play Unplugged and Hand Physics Lab using TactGlove.
To begin with, bHaptics will release TactGlove developer kits in Q2 2022 with a plan to launch a consumer version towards the end of the year. Unlike other haptic gloves which can cost thousands, the TactGlove will be firmly priced to encourage consumer sales, coming in at $299 USD.
And it’s not just the TactGlove bHaptics has on show at CES 2022. Its full TactSuit product lineup will be there including the flagship TactSuit X40. As further XR announcements are made at CES 2022, VRFocus will keep you updated.
2021 was a stand out year for XR. Both virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) saw some technological leaps, some great videogames and a glimpse of the future. Both technologies are shaking up several industries while laying the foundations for the metaverse. To celebrate the year, we’ve chosen some of our highlights as we look forward to what 2022 might bring.
After the Fall
Probably the biggest VR launch of 2021, After the Fall brings zombie-slaying back and makes it more fun than ever. With co-op modes, cross-platform play and constant action, it’s a title that feels perfectly at home in VR. The game is gorgeous – aside from the grisly zombies – and playing on high-end hardware ensures a smooth experience. The intuitive controls allow for a great experience, and while there are some minor flaws, After the Fall is set to be one of the biggest and best VR games in recent years.
Resident Evil 4
The best Resident Evil game finally has a VR option! Armature brought everything that made the game such a standout success and revolutionised it with plenty of accessible VR additions. We loved the new interactive features; cocking and reloading the weapons, the malleable storage system, pulling grenade pins, all of these bring the action to life like never before. While it’s not the prettiest game, thanks to the browns and beiges of the original game, it’s still a great spectacle to behold.
Ragnarock
VR often brings out the best in rhythm games, mostly due to the accelerometers embedded in the controllers. It gives a sense of interactivity that button presses can’t achieve. In Ragnarock, thumping away on the drums feels invigorating and refreshing. It helps that this Viking environment is backed by a soundtrack of rock and metal. Energising your boat of rowers, you bash out rhythms and melodies on small drums in the hopes of scoring well. Even when you don’t, it doesn’t feel like a chore replaying songs, because who doesn’t love bashing drums and creating a foot-tapping moment of bliss?
Pikmin Bloom
Niantic Labs’ games always want us to go outside. They’re urging us to put down the mouse or controller and interact with life outside our four walls. Pikmin Bloom is its latest attempt to get us exercising and interacting with the natural world. It’s more about walking than Pokemon Go, as there’s very little need to stand around. Players must find seeds that hatch into cute Pikmin then nurture the relationship by walking, with the app counting steps. It’s a very sedate experience, it’s one that teams up with the nature around us offering a peaceful escape from our world.
The Climb 2
If there’s a better looking videogame in VR, we haven’t seen it. And we’ve played a lot of games! The Climb 2 is a stunning view, whether climbing snow-capped mountains or high rise skyscrapers. Stopping every few minutes to appreciate the scenery is a joy, and that’s no surprise given the game is running on the Crytek CryEngine. Perhaps better than the view is the feeling of adrenaline when climbing, leaping and saving yourself from a deathly fall. The game gives a light workout to your arms, but it’s entirely welcome. The dynamic objects which could spell disaster at any second keep your heart in your mouth and your fingertips gripping on for dear life. The Climb 2 sounds sedate on paper, but in (virtual) reality it’s a nerve-shredding experience!
VR/AR Concerts
Sadly, in 2021 the global COVID-19 pandemic is still a thing. This means that artists, musicians and film studios are looking for new ways to interact with fans. VR and AR experiences are a booming business and a guaranteed path to extra revenue in a world where concerts are being cancelled or moved from date to date. Through VR apps like Oculus Venues and MelodyVR, you can still attend the gigs of your favourite stars. Megastars Billie Eilish, Lewis Capaldi and Khalid are leading the way, and the adoption of low-cost headsets will make these experiences even more common in a post-pandemic world.
Wizards Unite is Closing
Sometimes you can have too many eggs in a basket. Niantic Labs has seen massive success with their headline game Pokemon Go and their latest release, Pikmin Bloom. This has perhaps overshadowed Harry Potter Wizards Unite; it certainly didn’t help that players didn’t shift from pocket monsters to waving magic wands. Wizards Unite just wasn’t sustaining itself, making $39.4 million in lifetime revenue compared to the $1.1 billion from Pokemon Go in 2021 alone. Sometimes a smash hit brand just isn’t enough.
Haptic Feedback
As VR technology evolves, so too does the need and want for more haptic feedback. We’re beyond rumbling controllers and racing seats that thud and jerk along with a game. Companies like HaptX, Meta and Tesla are all investing heavily into technology that will encompass our entire bodies; gloves that mimic the pressure and weight of physical objects when in a digital world; bodysuits which can react to impacts or environmental changes in a metaverse space. Each of these companies showcased their tech in 2021 to the astonishment of pretty much everyone, for better or for worse.
Facebook rebrand
If you somehow missed Facebook rebranding to Meta, you must have been living under a rock! Mark Zuckerberg shook up the tech world by announcing his company Facebook would now be known as Meta. Why? Because he envisions the future of the internet as the metaverse, a term first coined in the novel Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. This future, according to Zuckerberg, will be an extension of our physical selves into the digital landscape of web 3.0, through VR and AR technology. Meta wants to help usher in this technological revolution using its power, influence and money to research and launch new hardware and software which will take us into the next evolution of the internet.
Metaverse
The metaverse is here! Well, kind of. The latter half of 2021 has been awash with talk around a metaverse. What was once a concept that few people acknowledged has now become a buzzword that even your grandmother knows (Thanks Facebook… oh, Meta). Whatever your thoughts on the metaverse, it’s coming up fast. In fact, to some, it’s already here. If you’re playing Fortnite or Roblox then you’re already on the first rung of the ladder, and projects such as Somnium Space, Decentraland and The Sandbox are waiting for you to jump in. This ownership driven, decentralised digital space is an important change to the way we use the internet. Are you ready?
Unreal Engine 5
2021 finally saw the release of Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 5, bringing a dearth of powerful development tools to the industry. With so many developers utilising Unreal Engine to create their projects, this new iteration gives us a glimpse of what’s to come over the next decade. Launching with an interactive ‘“experience” collaborating with The Matrix Awakens, players and creators have seen the potential and it’s revolutionary. The level of detail and fidelity UE5 will bring is likely to change the landscape of games, from battle royales to VR puzzlers.
Sony’s 8K headset
As reported by our very own Peter Graham, Sony unveiled a prototype VR headset with not only 8K visuals (4K per eye) but also ultra-low latency. This bodes well for the company’s future, given they are soon releasing an upgraded VR headset for the PlayStation brand. Will we see this fidelity over there? It’s unlikely, but the new technology could make waves in industrial and medical avenues. This jump in technology bodes well for the future of Virtual Reality.
Niantic Lightship
If you’re an AR developer, then 2021 was a good year. Niantic Labs, the company behind pretty much every hugely successful AR mobile game, released their ARDK tools for developers to use. What does this mean? Well, it means that the software they use for their titles, including mesh mapping and semantic wrapping, two features that track and map the world seen through a smartphone camera, as well as their multiplayer API, can be utilised by any development team. This sharing of technologies can only benefit the AR community as a whole and further achieve great things in the world of AR.
AR/VR in medicine
Many see Augmented and Virtual Reality as something built for games and experiences. Contrary to that view, both AR and VR are breaking down barriers in the world of medicine. Therapists are using VR to virtually visit their clients or help PTSD sufferers acclimate to the world. AR helped frontline workers learn how to care for those ill with COVID, using phone apps to triage patients when needed. Back in the virtual world, surgeons are completing spinal surgeries and trainee medical students are learning how to intubate patients using the technology rather than plastic dummies.
Digital Influencers
In 2021, the world of influencers got a bit more digital and a bit more creative. Since the advent of social media, influencers have become ubiquitous with the software – a selection of people touting products for corporations. However, with graphical software innovations, virtual and augmented reality, plus motion capture, we can now find digital avatars living the influencer life. Though right now, they aren’t trying to sell us anything, except maybe their art. CB from Casas Bahias, CodeMiko and Blu are amazing CGI avatars living digital lives, creating comedy, drama or interactive experiences.
HaptX makes some of the most formidable haptic gloves around thanks to the company’s microfluidic technology – just take a look at the HaptX Gloves DK2 for proof. But the company isn’t focused purely on hands, it wants to build full-body haptic devices. To aid in that vision for the future HaptX has entered into a multi-year partnership with another haptics producer, Haption.
The French company has been making force feedback devices for a couple of decades, its current model is the Haption Virtuose 6D that can deliver up to 15 lbs. of grounded force feedback. With the exclusive partnership in place, Haption will discontinue production of its own HGlove haptic gloves marketing HaptX Gloves to their customers instead.
“HaptX has invested nearly a decade of research and development to design and manufacture haptic devices for the hand and beyond,” said Jake Rubin, founder and CEO of HaptX in a statement. “We’re excited to leverage Haption’s commercially proven Virtuose platform to help bring our transformative technology from lab to marketplace.”
The next step for both companies is to start down the route of full-body haptics, a far more challenging endeavour than just hands alone. You can see below HaptX’s concept of what this may eventually look like, a highly futuristic vision of enterprise VR.
“Haption has developed advanced force feedback systems for over 20 years,” Jérôme Perret, CEO of Haption adds. “We’re thrilled to combine our best-in-class force feedback with HaptX’s unique true-contact haptics to deliver a new level of fidelity and immersion for our customers’ mission-critical applications.”
HaptX has built its own proprietary system for haptic feedback in its gloves where that microfluidic tech activates 133 tactile actuators that can gently press your skin up to 2 mm, applying up to 40 lbs of force feedback per hand. For the latest updates on immersive haptic technology, keep reading VRFocus.
If businesses are looking for ultra-high-end virtual reality (VR) solutions there are a select few companies involved in the space, whether that’s for headsets or complementary accessories. SenseGlove unveiled its professional-grade device during CES 2021, a force-feedback haptic glove called the Nova. Priced at a very enterprise-level $5000 USD, this month the SenseGlove Nova began shipping to customers.
Until the Nova came along, SenseGlove initially started with its clunky, bright blue development kit, managing to reduce and streamline the force-feedback experience into a far more useable form factor. This saw the design move from larger, mechanical appendages to a mechanism inspired by human tendons. The gloves work thanks to four magnetic friction brakes applying resistance through wires running down the thumb and three fingers – the little finger is excluded.
The process enables the SenseGlove Nova to deliver up to 20N of force per finger – equivalent to the weight of a 2 kg (4.4 lbs) brick. Thus, users can “feel” what it’s like to pick up and hold various objects to gauge their shape, texture, stiffness, and more. That, in turn, makes for a far more immersive experience, ideal for the training and research applications the glove was built for.
VR training has become one of the major use cases for the technology in the enterprise sector, especially where trainees have to handle hazardous materials or carry out complex tasks with dangerous machinery. It’s not just about reducing risks either, VR has also been useful when designing and testing physical prototypes, with devices like the SenseGlove Nova enabling designers to really get “hands-on” with their digital creations.
“Easy-to-use and accessible haptic gloves represent a huge step forward for the VR training industry,” said Gijs den Butter, CEO of SenseGlove in a statement. “The usability of the gloves is as important as their technical features, as it delivers natural interaction and allows the ability to scale up the training process, which is why the SenseGlove Nova is lightweight, wireless, compatible with standalone headsets and easy to put on and remove.”
Available in three different sizes with the fabric detachable from the electronics for easy cleaning, the SenseGlove Nova‘s $5000 cost can be reduced if you’re after a few. Bulk orders of 10 or more will get you a discounted rate of $3,500 per set of gloves. Quite often seen used in conjunction with the Pico Neo 2 headset that can automatically track the gloves, SenseGlove Nova can be used with Oculus Quest and HTC Vive headsets by mounting the controllers on the gloves – mounts are supplied.
VRFocus will continue its coverage of SenseGlove and all the latest enterprise-focused hardware applications.
Microsoft Research presented a prototype VR controller which can dynamically adapt its shape.
Called ‘X-Rings’, the device uses a stack of four motor-driven expandable rings with capacitive sensors to simulate grasping and even deforming virtual objects.
Like with the Valve Index controllers, X-Rings is strapped to your hand allowing you to let go and naturally throw. But instead of grabbing the same handle, X-Rings adapts its width with the four rings.
Since the ring plates have capacitive sensors and the motors have current sensors, X-Rings knows which plates your fingers are or aren’t touching, and the force they’re applying. Combining this sensing with the motors enables advanced interactions such as breaking virtual glass or ceramics by squeezing too hard.
Changing shape, which the researchers refer to as “shape rendering”, takes less than 100 milliseconds (9 frames at 90 Hz).
To assess the effectiveness of X-Rings, Microsoft conducted user testing. Users were shown six virtual objects out of reach. They were then instructed to grasp the device with no visual cue and guess which object it was supposed to be simulating. The researchers say the result was an 80% success rate.
This isn’t the first time Microsoft has showed off advanced VR controller prototypes. In 2019 it showed off TORC (TOuch Rigid Controller), designed to simulate grabbing small objects with your thumb & first two fingers. Last year it showed PIVOT which provides a grasping surface only when needed, leaving your hand completely unencumbered when not holding a virtual object.
Microsoft’s VR controller research portfolio is growing more & more impressive, but will any of this ship in products? The company has repeatedly played down chances of an Xbox VR headset any time soon, even as recently as July. The Windows VR headsets it partnered with six PC manufacturers on make up less than 6% of SteamVR, and only HP remains as an active partner. Still, the VR market is in its early days, and Microsoft could be waiting for technologies like X-Rings to be ready to make a serious play.
HaptX, the company building VR gloves with advanced haptics, this week announced that is has raised $12 million in a Series A-1 investment which will be used to open a new headquarters based in Redmond, WA, and expand its team.
This week the company announced it has raised $12 million in new funding in a Series A-1 investment round, bringing the company’s total capital raise to $31 million.
The round largely (if not completely) consists of capital from existing HaptX investors: Verizon Ventures, Mason Avenue Investments, Taylor Frigon Capital Partners, and Upheaval Investments.
Along with the new funding, HaptX says it’s opening a new 15,000 square-foot headquarters in Redmond, WA, growing its existing San Luis Obispo, CA office by 50%, and over the next 12 months hiring “dozens of new positions across all areas of the company.”
Image courtesy HaptX
Earlier this year the company launched its new and improved HaptX DK2 VR glove with improvements to haptics, force-feedback, size, comfort, and manufacturability. The latest version is said to apply up to 40 pounds of force-feedback per hand, along with better stiffness and lower latency. At the same time, the DK2’s magnetic finger-tracking tech has been shrunk down from two external boxes to a small board which is built directly into the gloves.
With the new funding announced this week, the company says it will be manufacturing a second run of the DK2, with the first run purportedly selling out within six months—not bad for a glove with a price tag of tens of thousands of dollars per unit.
