Haptics – Page 10 – Augmented & Virtual Reality Confabulation

February 8, 2018

We Are Living in The Future: How XR Has Brought us into a Sci-Fi World

Science Fiction is dedicated towards exploring the fantastic things that might be possible in the future with science and technology. Often, they explore how these developments can be a two-edged sword. That doesn’t stop us from dreaming about what may be possible, but some of those possibilities are far closer that you might think, thanks to developments in immersive technologies like virtual reality (VR).

Remote Conferencing

Have you seen Kingsman: The Secret Service? If not, you should, because its a brilliant film. There’s a couple of scenes where characters are sat at a conference table, but most of the seats are empty – until you see the view through the glasses they are all wearing and realise that other people are there as augmented reality (AR) avatars.

There has already been a huge rise in VR and AR tele-conferencing software, with companies such as Hyperfair producing enterprise-based social VR to allow users collaborate with colleagues from all over the world, bringing up virtual prototypes and designs for others to examine, comment or improve upon.

Medical Technology

One of the low-key but impressive things about Star Trek technology was its ability to just let someone lay on a bed and wave a device over them to discover what ailed them. Though this kind of magical technology is still a few years away, VR and MR bring us tantalisingly close.

Doctors can now take advantage of immersive imaging technology to overlay X-Rays, ultrasound or MRI images on a patient, giving significant insight during complex surgical procedures. It is also possible to simultaneously take advantage of the tele-conferencing technology mentioned above to consult with world experts on the procedure being conducted.

VRSurgery_Header

Design and Prototyping

When the Iron Man movie came out in 2008, almost everyone I knew – and myself – really, REALLY wanted for those magical holographic display interfaces that Tony Stark uses to be real. The easy, intuitive nature of simply using your hands to pick up, turn expand or throw away something cannot be over-stated.

This idea is starting to seep into reality with the use of finger-tracking, haptics and immersive CAD technologies. The newly emerging generation of haptic gloves allows for a level of precision when interacting with VR, AR and MR objects that has previously been out of reach. Some companies are also already using things like the HoloLens for inexpensive prototyping options. Though this still requires a headset, very soon developments in light field technology could mean we are all using magical holographic interfaces.

Volvo Hololens

Education and Training

Many of us dream of acquiring new skills, whether that is learning how to play an instrument or getting into martial arts, or simply trying to keep fit. The impossible fantasy of having new skills downloaded into your brain like in The Matrix might still be pure fantasy, but another idea from The Matrix, the training program, is moving ever closer to reality.

If you are trying to take up regular running its difficult to remain enthusiastic if you are jogging through a typical grey, overcast English day. Similarly, its easy to feel ridiculous trying to practice your drumming skills in your garage, surrounded by dusty boxes and broken furniture.

With VR, you can strap on a headset and enter your own training program, which can become any environment you like. Want to jog across an idyllic tropical beach? Or drum on stage at the Albert Hall? There’s a VR app for that.

January 17, 2018

CES 2018 Hands-On: VRfree Gloves Feature Great Hand And Finger Tracking

One of my favorite pieces of tech that I saw at CES 2018 was the Maestro Contact CI haptic glove. Using little tiny motors, electronic tendons, and lots of wires, it was able to simulate what it would feel like to actually touch something in the virtual world. The VRfree gloves by Sensoryx are another glove solution I tried last week in Las Vegas, but this time they have a specific focus on hand and finger tracking instead, which is just as important for very different reasons.

Right now, the most popular input method for most VR content is to use handheld motion controllers like the Oculus Touch, PS Move, or Vive wands. These controllers track your hand’s movement through 3D space well and let you do simple things like pull triggers and pick things up. However, with a heavy reliance on button interfaces still it’s not an ideal way to truly feel like you’re part of the VR world.

Naturally, I was quite excited for my demo with the VRfree gloves since it meant reaching out and touching things with my hands and fingers instead of a hunk of plastic. All you do is strap this weird triangular sensor device (shown below) to the front of a headset and you’re good to go. It’s nice and light so you don’t even notice the weight difference.

The demo I tried included a handful of different interactions. Everything started with me standing in a very IKEA-inspired kitchen environment in front of a kitchen sink. I reached out with my right hand and turned on the faucet by grasping it with my fingers and the palm of my hand, then twisting. Water came pouring out in big glops.

To my side was a cup, which I grabbed and filled up, then proceeded to pick up a bowl to fill up as well. After that, because utilities are expensive, I turned the faucet off. It all worked seamlessly with great tracking, which is great to see. Previously I’d tried an old prototype of the Manus VR gloves, but these feel like an improvement. The tracking sensors inside the fabric were light and I quickly forgot I was wearing anything at all on my hand in the first place.

The rest of my demo consisted of playing piano — which was neat, given the individual finger tracking accuracy — as well as shooting a gun at a target. Instead of holding down a grip button like you would on Vive or Rift, I just grasped it with my fingers and then pulled my index finger in towards me to pull the trigger. The tracking here was a little less precise because of how fine the movements were, but as long as I pressed my finger down very deliberately the gun fired when I expected it to.

I asked the team behind the VRfree gloves about haptic feedback, but that isn’t something that’s really on their immediate roadmap. They’re focused on getting finger and hand tracking down first.

As with any tech like this, the VRfree gloves are very impressive, but I’m not sure how they fit into the broader consumer VR market at the moment. But just getting them out there into people’s hands is the most important first step.

Let us know what you think down in the comments below!

Tagged with: CES, CES 2018, gloves, VRfree

January 11, 2018

CES 2018: Contact CI’s Maestro VR Haptic Glove Let Me Actually Feel Virtual Objects

Everyone does it the first time they try VR. It doesn’t matter if it’s a static 360 image, a passive 360 video, an immersive VR experience, or a fast-paced VR game, everyone reaches out with their hands in an attempt to touch the virtual world. This happens a lot on the Samsung Gear VR with people that aren’t very tech savvy. Even though the headset lacks a front-facing camera and has zero hand-tracking and zero haptic feedback, it doesn’t matter. VR has finally advanced enough that it can be so immersive and so convincing that we want to reach out and touch it with our hands, but conventional wisdom says that just isn’t possible yet.

Until now. Meet the Contact CI haptic glove, Maestro.

CES 2018 is a massive event that overtakes virtually all of Las Vegas and its surrounding cities with multiple convention center show floors, thousands of booths, and hundreds of thousands of people descending on the desert to learn about and talk about the latest and most cutting-edge technologies on the planet. And amidst it all I’ve gotta say that this little glove, the Maestro, may be the most impressive thing I saw all week.

Now to be clear, when I say most impressive I don’t mean that it’s super polished, or finished, or that it’s going to change the world. But this thing does something that no other device has ever done in my experience by letting me actually feel the sensation of touching things that don’t exist in the real world. And I don’t just mean it’s a glove with finger tracking — we’ve seen tons of those before. No, Contact CI have created a glove that actually simulates the tension, pressure, and push back of solid surfaces and objects as if they physically existed.

Let me explain.

See all of those wires and tendrils on the glove? They’re all connected to that base box that’s strapped to my wrist in the images on this article and they extend out into the little thimble-shaped cups at the tips of each of my fingers. They look a bit like tendons, don’t they? That’s because they are.

The team at Contact CI basically recreated a small slice of human anatomy by fabricating electrical tendons connected to a motorized faux-muscle that retracts and pulls on your fingers just like your actual muscles.

So when I’m wearing the glove and I reach out to press a button in VR, instead of my digital hand passing through the interface entirely as if I’m some sort of spectral being or like the surface is translucent, I’d feel resistance. Once my digital finger collides with that virtual button, the motors and electric tendons in my glove pull back on my finger in the real world, telling it that it’s just collided with something that has mass, which causes me to subconsciously stop pushing forward. By employing a mixture of visual and physical cues that look and feel super, super close to the real thing, my mind is telling my finger, “You just pressed a button so stop pushing your hand forward,” and that’s exactly what happens.

It’s incredible.

Imagine playing a game like Star Trek: Bridge Crew using these gloves. Instead of accidentally phasing through the desk, innacurately jittering around the interface, or never being sure if you actually pressed a button or dial correctly, these gloves could completely change that. Each one of those buttons you press and switches you flick would result in believable, physical feedback.

During my demo with the glove I tried out a brief VR experience using an HTC Vive with a Vive tracker attached to the back of the glove for positional tracking. I completed a series of calibration steps that had me twisting my hand and flexing my fingers before things got started and then I was off.

The demo consisted of a small table in front of me with a collection of balls, cylinders, and cubes. I reached out and first tried to grab a cylinder. At first my fingers bumped the edge of the table when I was reaching over and I felt the electronic tendons recoil my muscles backwards, causing me to flinch. I honestly thought I had hit something in the real world room I was standing in for a second before I realized what had happened.

Eventually I was able to curl my fingers around the cylinder, squeeze, and pick it up. There is no way to artificially simulate weight of course, but I could feel the pressure on the tips of my fingers as I held it. Once I opened my hand the pressure subsided and the cylinder fell to the table once again.

After that I flicked a ball with my index finger and watched it roll around. Using the palm-side of my hand I brushed my fingers lightly against the cubes and balls just to ever so slightly feel the pressure increase letting me know it was a solid object.

Remember how I said I had to calibrate the glove before the experience started? Well, as great as the haptic feedback was (and believe me — it really was something remarkable) the finger tracking was a different story. Picking up objects was often tough and inaccurate and it never really seemed like it could tell how I wanted to move and curl my fingers. Even older finger tracking systems like Manus did this bit better. However, that isn’t a huge deal to me — finger and hand tracking has been solved and just needs some cleaning up and polish. The fact that the only issue is something that minor is worth noting.

Contact CI is not interested in creating a consumer-grade product at this time since they’re such a small (currently less than 10 employees) company. Instead, they’re looking to partner with headset manufacturers and input system developers to work out the inclusion of their haptic and hand solutions into the next generation of VR input methods. From what I saw at CES this week the Maestro is clearly a little ways away from being ready for anything like that, but platform creators such as HTC and Facebook’s Oculus should certainly take note.

Let us knwo what you think about the glove and any questions you might have down in the comments below!

Tagged with: CES, Contact CI, Haptics

January 11, 2018

Hands-on: Tactical Haptics’ New Controllers Let You Switch Your Grip on the Fly

This week at CES 2018, Tactical Haptics debuted a new prototype of their haptic VR controller which allows the devices to attach and detach on the fly in several different poses for different types of gameplay. The controllers are being piloted in IMAX’s VR arcade.

Reactive Grip

For the last several years Tactical Haptics has been developing VR controllers with a unique form of haptic feedback which they call reactive grip. It works by sliding sections along the grip of the controller to simulate torque forces in your hand (the pressure you’d feel while swaying a baseball bat back and forth in your hands). It’s a compelling sensation that goes far beyond mere rumble haptics.

Tactical Haptics is taking the controllers in a bold new direction which allows the them to be reconfigured on the fly to mimic hand poses that are commonly found in VR games, like a steering wheel or gun.

DIY Inspiration

Tactical Haptics founder Will Provancher says the idea was partly inspired by hardcore VR users who were making DIY controller mounts which would hold their Rift or Vive controllers in orientations mimicking the grips of a two-handed weapon for enhanced immersion for VR games that use two-handed guns.

Some hardcore VR users have been building DIY controller mounts to make the controllers feel more like a two-handed gun peripheral, like this one by Reddit user ‘are_you_sure_’

Rather than simply allowing you to change from one pose to another between games, the new Reactive Grip prototype, which connects in several different poses using magnets and guides, actually makes switching from one configuration to another part of the moment-to-moment gameplay.

Modal Gameplay

‘Asymmetric’ pose (two-handed weapons, etc.) | Photo by Road to VR

At CES 2018 the company was showing a demo where players would use the controllers in what I’m calling ‘Independent’, ‘Symmetric’, and ‘Asymmetric’ configurations, and switch between them on the fly. In the demo, when holding the controllers apart from one another (Independent), you see a pistol in one hand and a wand-like tool in the other. When you bring the two controllers together into the Symmetric pose, you see those items turn into a brand new tool: a gravity gun which has grips that match the physical orientation of the controller grips. And when you bring the controllers together into their Asymmetric configuration (a two-handed weapon pose), you see a gun appear in front of you in the game. Switching between these various poses to suit what tool or weapon you need in the moment actually becomes a fun piece of the gameplay.

Easy Switching

Though the magnets help guide the controllers together, it would be challenging to do so while blinded by the headset, if not for the smart addition of green indicators that appear in VR as you move the controllers close to each other. These indicators offer a virtual representation of the controllers’ various connecting points, and make it effortless to connect and reconfigure them as you play. After practicing just a few tries I was easily able to disconnect and reconnect in different poses.

‘Symmetric’ pose (steering wheels, flight yolks, etc) | Photo by Road to VR

Of course, as you’re using the controllers in their different poses, the Reactive Grip haptics adapt their behavior to uniquely suit whatever you might be holding in VR. When I was using the gravity gun tool in the demo (Symmetric pose), I could feel the grips causing a feeling of torque in my hands depending upon the direction I was swinging an object in the game. When I connected the controllers into the Asymmetric pose and fired the two-handed gun, I could feel the controllers kick backwards as if the gun’s recoil was pushing the grips against my hand.

Continued on Page 2: Pose Potential »

The post Hands-on: Tactical Haptics’ New Controllers Let You Switch Your Grip on the Fly appeared first on Road to VR.

January 8, 2018

CES 2018: Tactical Haptics Shows New Reconfigurable Controllers

For several years Tactical Haptics has been showing different concepts for controllers that offer a sense of touch for your hands while wearing a VR headset, and the company’s latest iteration is debuting this week at CES in Las Vegas. The new design can be reconfigured to match different VR experiences.

The idea is that the new Tactical Haptics controllers can be used on their own in each hand or attached together to become different objects like a steering wheel, game pad or gun. According to CEO William Provancher, they apply “friction and shear forces through actuated plates on the surface of the controller handles, which creates tactile illusions of inertia, elasticity, impact, etc, when these shear forces are applied in response to the user’s actions.” The latest controllers from Tactical Haptics also do this combined with the idea that, when they are reconfigured, they can more accurately match the shape of a particular object.

The company developed a game it calls Colony Defense to show off the capabilities. We’ll have a hands-on report once we get the chance to try the new controllers, but the experience is said to have a player defend a space colony against waves of insects. At one point the player assembles a gun turret and, according to Provancher, you can feel the heft of the turret pieces and the “detent forces” as they pop into place.

IMAX is currently using an earlier version of Tactical Haptics controllers to enhance immersion with the Justice League experience at its VR centers, and Tactical Haptics plans to focus on location-based VR entertainment in the future for potential roll-outs of its systems. The controllers use 3rd party tracking currently, with mounts for both Oculus Touch and Vive Tracker.

Tagged with: CES, tactical haptics

January 8, 2018

Tactical Haptics’ New Prototype VR Controller Shapeshifts to Fit Your Game

Tactical Haptics’ newly developed haptic controller prototype uses mechanical sockets that allow them to be mated in different configurations on-the-fly, in order to match a particular virtual interaction more closely than standard VR motion controllers. The controllers incorporate the company’s ‘Reactive Grip’ technology, a unique form of haptic feedback.

San Francisco-based Tactical Haptics is debuting its reconfigurable haptic controllers together with new demo content at CES this week. The hardware is based on the haptic controllers used for Justice League: An IMAX VR Exclusive that has operated at the Los Angeles IMAX VR Centre since November 2017, but with the ability to be mated together in common interaction configurations, such as ‘gamepad’, ‘steering wheel’, or ‘machine gun’ poses.

As described in the press release provided to Road to VR, the mechanical sockets (which appear to be fitted with magnets) “provide a mate-point … to form a semi-rigid coupling between the controllers that allows the users to effortlessly maintain the mated poses.” The images are shown with Oculus Touch controllers for tracking purposes, but they also have mounts for Vive Trackers.

Colony Defense, a new game developed by Tactical Haptics to demonstrate the hardware, is a first-person experience with building and combat elements. The player is asked to join the two controllers to create a ‘physics gun’, then separate the controllers to operate a jet pack and weapon each hand, and the option to combine the controllers in the ‘machine gun’ configuration to operate a heavier blaster. The company says that “significant effort” was put into optimising the placement of the sockets to result in ergonomic poses and to aid on-the-fly reconfiguration while wearing a headset.

A new “brick breaker” style game called Cyber Smash is also at the show, which the company says demonstrates “feeling the inertia of throwing smash-balls and settling of the ball after it rebounds and is caught by the player.” As highlighted by the IMAX VR Centre partnership, the company is currently focused on location-based entertainment, and is working on multiplayer versions of both games for this purpose. It is seeking partner opportunities with high-profile LBEs while at CES this week.

Both games make use of Tactical Haptics’ core innovation: an advanced haptic feedback technology called Reactive Grip, showcased in various prototype controllers since 2013. Actuated plates in the controller’s handle apply friction and shear forces in the hand, creating various tactile illusions such as inertia and elasticity.

Stay tuned to Road to VR for further coverage of CES 2018, including a hands-on with the new Tactical Haptics controller prototype.

The post Tactical Haptics’ New Prototype VR Controller Shapeshifts to Fit Your Game appeared first on Road to VR.

December 27, 2017

The Wonder Ops

Elounda looked quizzically at the multi-coloured monolith. It appeared as though it was composed of membranes, fairy floss, and steel wool. The architecture seemed alive, somehow. Transfixed, she watched the structure carefully. She’d been sitting there all day in Dolores Park just staring, not blinking much. Her eyes were dryer than normal. “Must have been […]

December 22, 2017

Go Touch VR Raises $1 Million for Haptic VR Tech, Shows off DK1 Design

Go Touch VR, which is developing a simple haptic device that’s surprisingly effective, has raised €837,000 (approx. $1 million) in venture capital for ongoing development. The company has offered a look at the latest version of the VRTouch DK1 dev kit, which has come quite far from the 3D printed prototype we saw earlier this year.

Back in March I first saw Go Touch VR’s VRTouch haptic device, a small module designed to attach to the ends of your fingers which presses against your fingertips when your virtual hand comes in contact with objects in the virtual world. It’s a simple but smart approach that’s surprisingly effective for touching and holding small virtual objects—when I tried the prototype earlier this year I found that having something that’s not part of your body ‘pushing back’ against your fingers offers a convincing sensation of poking and grabbing that rumble just can’t provide.

Go Touch VR has announced nearly $1 million in venture funding, and is now showing off their VRTouch DK1 dev kit, which is being sold on a select basis through an application process.

‘Justice League’ IMAX VR Experience to Debut Haptic VR Controller from Tactical Haptics

The new IMAX VR Centres aim to fuse the best arcade VR games with the best peripherals, for an experience you can’t get from your home VR headset. For the new (and awkwardly named) Justice League: An IMAX VR Exclusive experience the Centre is set to debut the ‘Reactive Grip’ haptic controller from Tactical Haptics.

Tactical Haptics has been on the VR scene since the early days, developing their novel haptic technology which they call Reactive Grip.

The unique haptic tech incorporates sliding bars into the palm-grip of a controller, which can apply shear forces that replicate the feeling of an object moving within your hand (like the grip of a pistol, sword, or tennis racket twisting and pushing back against your palm). It’s a convincing and immersive effect that can’t be achieved with traditional rumble haptics.

Tactical Haptics has continued to develop the tech over the last few years but hasn’t quite found a fit in the evolving VR market landscape. The company took the project to Kickstarter back in 2013 (years before Touch or Vive were announced), but failed to garner enough support from developers in the nascent VR community (hardly an ‘industry’ at that point). Last year the company raised $2.2 million, and has been exploring new opportunities afforded by the growing out-of-home VR entertainment market.

Now the company has announced that the Reactive Grip controller will see its commercial debut in a pilot project that pairs the device with the Justice League: An IMAX VR Exclusive experience in the IMAX VR Centre in Los Angeles to start:

The integrated haptic feedback will allow players to step into the shoes of the iconic DC Super Heroes and experience the inertia and impact of swinging Wonder Woman’s sword, the recoil of Cyborg’s white noise gun and mini-cannons, or the feeling of the drag reducing on Flash’s hands as they accelerate through a subway tunnel to save Metropolis.

The latest version of the controller is said to be “simplified, more robust, and more integrated than […] prior controller designs,” and is made to support both the Vive Tracker and Oculus Touch as tracking options. Tactical Haptics says they’ll be offering more details on their latest Reactive Grip controller design later this year and at the start of 2018 at CES.

The post ‘Justice League’ IMAX VR Experience to Debut Haptic VR Controller from Tactical Haptics appeared first on Road to VR.

November 22, 2017

AxonVR Rebrands as HaptX and announces Haptic Gloves

AxonVR have previously been involved in virtual reality (VR) technology with its patents for wearable haptic technology for interfacing with VR. The copmany has now rebranded and announced a new line of haptic gloves.

AxonVR have officially rebranded at HaptX, and has announced its first product, the HaptX Gloves, haptic wearable devices that allow VR users to experience realistic tactile feedback. The gloves feature over 100 points of tactile feedback, and are capable of up to five pounds of resistance per finger, with sub-millimetre motion tracking.

“HaptX Gloves are the result of years of research and development in haptic technology,” said Jake Rubin, Founder and CEO, HaptX Inc. “What really sets HaptX Gloves apart is the unprecedented realism they deliver. Our patented microfluidic technology physically displaces the skin the same way a real object would when touched, closely replicating its texture, shape, and movement.”

“We’ve reviewed the wearable haptic solutions out there, and the HaptX prototype provides the most realistic feedback by far,” said Dr. Jeremy Fishel, Chief Technology Officer of SynTouch, the leading tactile evaluation company. “HaptX marks a fundamental breakthrough in our industry’s ability to simulate touch.”

“Enterprise and entertainment users require a higher level of immersion than today’s VR controllers can deliver,” said Joe Michaels, Chief Revenue Officer at HaptX. “HaptX Gloves will allow our customers to get more out of their VR applications—whether they’re administering virtual training, designing three-dimensional objects, or developing a VR game.”

“This name change reflects our company’s dedication to delivering realistic touch through advanced haptic technology,” added Rubin. “HaptX Gloves are a huge step toward our long-term goal to deliver a full-body haptic platform, ushering in a world where virtual reality is indistinguishable from real life.”

HaptX Gloves are planned to begin shipping to certain selected customers in 2018.

VRFocus will bring you further information on HaptX as it becomes available.