vr haptics – Page 2 – Augmented & Virtual Reality Confabulation

March 8, 2019

Tactical Haptics to Bring ‘Production-Ready’ Haptic VR Controllers to GDC 2019

Tactical Haptics has been working on a unique haptic controller design since its founding in 2013. While we’ve seen a number of prototypes over the years, the company is getting ready to show what it calls a “production-ready” version of its Reactive Grip VR controller, set to debut later this month at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco, California.

Reactive Grip is a haptic controller that relies on third-party positional tracking standards such as Oculus Touch, SteamVR tracking, and OptiTrak. To wit, Tactical Haptics recently pivoted from the consumer space to focus on VR location-based entertainment (LBE) and training, so instead of appearing at their normal South Hall booth this year, the company will be taking appointments in a meeting room (N2408) in the North Hall.

What’s special about Reactive Grip though is it provides a sort of touch feedback that doesn’t solely rely on buzzing haptic motors like you find in conventional VR motion controllers. Instead it applies in-hand shear forces to provide some pretty compelling physical feedback to the user, letting you experience things like the stretch of a bow and arrow, the inertia of a swinging ball & chain, or the impact of a sword.

The gif below demonstrates a bit of this using an early prototype, although it really does have to be felt to be believed.

Tactical Haptics’ Reactive Grip has been in a constant state of iteration since the company’s founding six years ago. Having already built what the company calls the minimum viable product (MVP) prototype of its haptic controller, as well as a shape-shifting prototype that can reconfigure into several positions using magnetic sockets, the company is now moving one step forward towards full production with its ‘production-ready’ model.

The new controller design is said to also offer similar reconfigurable magnetic sockets to the prototype we saw at last year’s CES, although this will come as a modular add-on in addition to modular third-party tracking attachments for Oculus Touch, Windows VR controllers, Vive Tracker, and OptiTrak.

“The production design is also simpler and more modular, allowing users to configure the controllers with or without magnet sockets (used to form new peripherals on the fly) and to use the controllers in the PC VR ecosystem of their choice. Add-on brackets enable this modularity,” the company says in a Kickstarter update.

So while our hopes for a consumer version of Reactive Grip have been basically dashed in the near-term with the company’s new business focus, it’s good to see these VR pioneers carrying on to find a home in LBE as the hype around the consumer VR market has cooled off since the initial consumer headset launch in 2016.

We’ll have feet on the ground at GDC 2019 this month, so check back for previews, breaking news, and all things AR/VR to come from the show.

The post Tactical Haptics to Bring ‘Production-Ready’ Haptic VR Controllers to GDC 2019 appeared first on Road to VR.

March 8, 2019

Tactical Haptics to Bring ‘Production-Ready’ Haptic VR Controllers to GDC 2019

The gif below demonstrates a bit of this using an early prototype, although it really does have to be felt to be believed.

We’ll have feet on the ground at GDC 2019 this month, so check back for previews, breaking news, and all things AR/VR to come from the show.

The post Tactical Haptics to Bring ‘Production-Ready’ Haptic VR Controllers to GDC 2019 appeared first on Road to VR.

January 12, 2019

Foldaway Haptics is Making a Thumbstick for VR Controllers That Pushes Back

Switzerland-based Foldaway Haptics is building a haptic joystick with force feedback. The impressive device, which can push back against your finger in any direction, could bring rich feedback to VR controllers at reasonable costs.

Over the years we’ve seen some really awesome haptic tech, like the HaptX glove that offers compelling tactile sensations and force-feedback on all five fingers. But it’ll take something simple and low cost to have any chance of finding its way into the consumer VR space which is currently dominated by controllers—which are rapidly converging on thumbsticks as the primary input mechanism (aside from motion).

That makes Foldaway Haptics’ solution quite interesting. The company is building what’s effectively a tiny three legged platform than can move and tilt in any direction. They’re adapting the mechanism to function as a joystick which offers force-feedback. At CES 2019 this week the company showed off a prototype VR controller with the mechanism built-in.

I tried the prototype running with a Vive headset and a small demo game that Foldaway built. In the game I saw a miniature cartoon farm in front of me at waist height; a few different animals were running around on the ground. When I reached out to grab an animal, I pushed down on the thumbstick to ‘grip’ the animal between my hand and my thumb. Upon grabbing the animal, the thumbstick became stiff (letting me know that I had successful grabbed something).

Each animal had somewhat different haptic properties. The pig, for instance, was a little bit ‘squishy’, allowing me to push my thumb down on the stick a bit. The penguin was ‘harder’ so the thumbstick resisted my thumb much more. If I squeezed too hard, the force-feedback would give out and the thumbstick would bottom out until I let go (I expect this is to protect the motors and mechanism from damage).

Co-founder Marco Salerno told me that the current prototype is capable of pushing back with two newtons (about the force of two apples resting on your hand), though they could feasibly push upward of 15 newtons with some different design tradeoffs.

Beyond force-feedback just in the up and down direction, the joystick can also tilt itself against your finger rather than just pushing back. This allows directional information to be conveyed to you through touch, which is a big deal because the simple vibrating haptics in any consumer controller (VR or otherwise) cannot convey arbitrary directional information.

A concept of what a it could look like with the haptic mechanism hidden within the controller. | Image courtesy Foldaway Haptics

The ‘platform’ of the mechanism of course didn’t feel quite like a traditional thumbstick because of the way that it pivots differently and because of its shape. However, Salerno says that the current prototype is designed to show the mechanism, but a more mature design could replicate a thumbstick much more closely in both look and feel.

The feedback offered by Foldaway is still largely an abstraction, just like vibration, but even if it’s not explicitly ‘realistic’, it can offer much richer information about the virtual world, which has the potential to add to immersion.

In describing the Foldaway thumbstick, Salerno told me that the mechanism is effectively a tiny “robot,” in the sense that it can be directed to execute precise movements and also use the force from the user as input to inform its motions . The mechanism, he said, is fundamentally designed after a ‘delta robot’, but the company’s innovation is the ability to make it very small while maintaining a wide range of motion, achieved through an “origami-like” construction.

According to the Foldaway website, Salerno holds a Ph.D in robotics and worked for three years as a researcher at the Reconfigurable Robotics Lab at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, a Swiss university. Salerno’s co-founder, Stefano Mintchev, holds patents for “foldable systems,” and also worked as a researcher at the same lab as Salerno.

Salerno told me that Foldaway has received around $500,000 in grants and is in the process of raising a $2 million seed investment.

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December 18, 2018

Brilliant Sole Wants to Put a VR Controller in Your Shoes

Moving around in VR environments usually means you’ll need to press down on a thumbstick or a touchpad. That’s all well and good for now, but it’s really not the most immersive way of getting around in large virtual spaces. Enter Brilliant Sole, a North Carolina-based VR startup working to bring VR controllers to the soles of your feet.

The company’s titular device includes nine axis IMUs for each foot, haptic motors, and Qi wireless charging. “Everything is embedded in the shoe insole,” Brilliant Sole CEO and founder Jeff Guard tells Hypepotamus.

It’s also said to emulate button presses from standard 6DOF controllers such as Oculus Touch and Vive motion controllers, letting you play seated, standing, and walking in-place while leaving your hands free for other tasks.

The device’s internal sensors are also said to track the foot’s force at specific pressure points to allow users to walk in place or in whatever direction they want to go.

Two haptic motors for each foot let users ‘feel’ the virtual world beneath their feet—something that could really up the immersion depending on the size of the T-Rex you’re hiding from.

“With Brilliant Sole, we ultimately want to be able to have you positionally track your feet (be able to look down and see them), then be able to control locomotion and feel the different ground surfaces underneath your feet through haptic feedback. It feels more natural than moving around with a joystick,” Guard says.

The company plans on launching Brilliant Sole to consumers in a crowdfunding campaign scheduled for early 2019.

The post Brilliant Sole Wants to Put a VR Controller in Your Shoes appeared first on Road to VR.

October 18, 2018

Hands-on: 3DHaptics Achieves Compelling Directional Haptics with Simple Hardware

MIRAISENS is Japan-based haptics company which is developing what they call 3DHaptics technology. I got a chance to try their latest demo this week at VRS 2018, which is able to achieve unique directional haptic feedback from a handheld device using relatively simple hardware.

The prototype 3DHaptics controllers from Miraisens do something that I didn’t previously think was possible. Being supported by nothing but your own hands, the unassuming prototype device uses vibrations to create sensations of an external force pushing or pulling your hand in specific directions. It isn’t a strong force, but it’s unmistakably directional. I closed my eyes and asked the demonstrator to choose random directions so I could guess the answer, and found that I was able to sense the intended direction with 100% accuracy.

The demonstrator ran me through a series of demos as I held the 3DHaptics prototype. After the simple directional demo, which allowed the demonstrator to point the device’s feedback at an arbitrary direction and amplitude, there was a series of examples using virtual springs which either asked me to compress or stretch a series of springs with one or two hands. The 3DHaptics feedback, combined with the visual feedback, was surprisingly compelling; it felt like the springs were pushing or pulling against my hands as I manipulated them. It felt almost like my hands wanted to move themselves in the implied direction.

Following the springs, I saw a series of scenes showing a marble rolling along a track. The haptics were used to convey the forces felt on the marble to me; as it wound along curves I could feel the controllers pulling in each direction. It was surprising how clear the direction was implied through the haptics, especially when the marble rolled up and down over a series of hills.

Haptics are about feedback, which means conveying useful information about something that’s happening. Accurate directional capability means that 3DHatpics can deliver information to the user which other devices cannot, which makes it particularly interesting, especially because it’s achieved with relatively simple, off the shelf hardware: linear resonance actuators (LRAs), the same haptic devices found in VR controllers like the Vive wands and Oculus Touch.

Miraisens says the secret sauce comes from the unique frequencies and waveforms with which they’re driving the LRAs. The company claims that the underlying tech is covered by several of their patents.

My understanding is that they need one LRA per directional axis, so the current two-LRA prototypes exert forces with two degrees of freedom; the company said they could achieve a third degree of translation by adding another LRA, though apparently there’s a challenge when it comes to balancing the haptics alongside weight and power consumption, as all are impacted by the number and size of LRAs used.

Because the 3DHaptics prototype uses LRAs just like existing VR controllers, the device is capable of the same simple rumbles and clicks that you feel today, in addition to the directional feedback. But it’s also able to recreate extremely detailed textural sensations (as if rubbing your hand across different textures).

Another demo I saw showed a marble which I was able to roll around on a surface by moving my hand. The controller vibrated in response to the surface texture, ranging from a coarse random pattern like small stones to a softer and more structured pattern like woven fabric. One of the surfaces had grooves in it, like the dips between concrete sidewalk segments; as I rolled the marble around I felt the fine concrete-like texture, and then a convincing bump/click sensation each time the marble crossed one of the grooves.

I was impressed with the capabilities of the 3DHaptics prototype, especially considering its size and simplicity. Miraisens told me that adding their technology to existing AR or VR controllers would add around $3 to the cost of each controller, at scale.

I was intrigued and occasionally mesmerized at what the 3DHatpics prototype was able to achieve, and asked if the team had experimented with the approach on a larger scale, like using wrist/ankle devices or even a full haptic vest. Miraisens Business Development Director Masatoshi Miyakawa told me that they hadn’t done such an experiment, and while it might be compelling, both friction and high nerve density is important for the 3DHaptics effect, and hands/fingers have a much greater density of nerves than the torso, not to mention greater friction through direct skin contact compared to the challenge of getting the haptic feeling to pass through a user’s clothes.

Speaking of nerve density, frequent high-amplitude vibrations in the hands can result in a numbing sensation; I asked if this was an issue for 3DHaptics. Miyakawa told me that their tech is not immune to this issue, and that when employing haptic feedback they need to consider the frequency of use and amplitude to ensure numbness doesn’t set in.

Miraisens, as Miyakawa explained, was founded in April 2014 and formed around research spun out of Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology. The company has raised $7.5 million to date, and is now beginning to seek a Series B round. Miyakawa also told me that the company doesn’t have any interest in designing its own controllers, instead it wants to be a technology provider for OEMs. Miraisens has been talking to the major players in the VR field and has been refining the device based on their feedback, Miyakawa said.

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April 16, 2018

Researchers Electrically Stimulate Muscles in Haptic Designed for Hands-free AR Input

Researchers at The Human Computer Interaction Lab at Hasso-Plattner-Institut in Potsdam, Germany, published a video recently showing a novel solution to the problem of wearable haptics for augmented reality. Using a lightweight, mobile electrical muscle stimulation (EMS) device that provides low-voltage to arm muscles, the idea is to let AR headset-users stay hands-free, but also be able to experience force-feedback when interacting with virtual objects, and feel extra forces when touching physical objects in their environment too.

Using a HoloLens headset, researchers show their proposed solution in action, which is made up of a backpack, a laptop computer running Unity, a battery-powered EMS machine, electrode pads, and visual markers to better track hand gestures. The researchers say their system “adds physical forces while keeping the users’ hands free to interact unencumbered.”

Both HoloLens and the upcoming Magic Leap One include a physical controller; HoloLens has a simple ‘clicker’ and ML One has a 6DoF controller. While both systems admittedly incorporate gestural recognition, there’s still no established way for AR headset users to ‘feel’ the world around them.

According to the paper, which is being presented at this year’s ACM CHI Conference in Montréal, the EMS-based system actuates the user’s wrists, biceps, triceps and shoulder muscles with a low-voltage to simulate a sort of ‘virtual pressure’. This perceived pressure can be activated when you interact with virtual objects such as buttons, and even physical objects like real-world dials and levels to create an extra sense of force on the user’s arms.

There are some trade-offs when using this sort of system though, making it somewhat less practical for long-term use as it’s configured now. Two of the biggest drawbacks: it requires precise electrode placement and per-user calibration before each use, and it can also cause muscle fatigue, which would render it less useful and probably less comfortable.

But maybe a little muscle stimulation can go a long way. The paper discusses using EMS sparingly, playing on the user’s keen sense for plausibility while in a physical (and not virtual) environment.

“In the case of [augmented reality], we observed users remarking how they enjoyed nuanced aspects of the EMS-enabled physics, for instance: “I can feel the couch is harder to move when it is stopped [due to our EMS-based static friction]”. As a recommendation for UX designers working in MR, we suggest aligning the “haptic-physics” with the expected physics as much as possible rather than resorting to exaggerations.

It’s an interesting step that could prove effective in a multi-pronged approach to adding haptics to AR wearables, the users of which would want to stay hands-free when going about their daily lives. Actuator-based gloves and vests have been a low-hanging fruit so far, and are quickly becoming a standard go-to for VR haptics, but still seem too much of a stretch for daily AR use. Force-feedback exoskeletons, which stop physical movements, are much bulkier and are even more of a stretch currently.

There’s no telling what the prevailing AR wearable will be in the future, but whatever it is, it’s going to have to be both light and useful—two aspects EMS seems to nail fairly well out of the gate.

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February 23, 2018

Prototype VR Controller Dynamically Distributes Weight to Fit Virtual Objects

There’s no doubt about it; weilding a real controller that matches the weight and feel of a virtual object is far more immersive than having a disconnect between the two. The problem, of course, is that if a controller is made to fit too specific a role, it’s less useful for interacting with a wide range of virtual objects. A novel prototype based on an HTC Vive controller attempts to solve this problem by allowing the controller to redistribute its weight on the fly.

Created by Manuel Rosado, a Madrid-based VR developer, the so called Nyoibo prototype controller uses a series of interconnected servos to redistribute the controller’s weight to more accurately match the currently held object. The motors and weight are also used to create haptic feedback emulating the kick of shooting a gun.

In a video showing the prototype in action, you can see the controller’s various shapes corresponding to a smaller gun like a mini Uzi, a larger gun like an AK, and even a sword.

While the total weight of the controller of course doesn’t change, the center of gravity (and thus moment of inertia) does, which goes a long way to altering your perception of the held object’s shape. Rosado notes in the video that the virtual weapons in this case don’t have any artificial recoil; their movement is entirely based on the real feedback from the Nyoibo prototype.

While the Nyoibo controller is well demonstrated for use with various weapons, it’s easy to imagine how the concept could apply more broadly to represent other items like tools, sports equipment, and more.

Rosado says he’s working on a similar prototype for the Oculus Touch controllers. He appears to still be actively developing of the device; a short video posted earlier this month appears to show a slightly more refined prototype.

So cool, #HTC haptic control at #freakend pic.twitter.com/RulZjTjfkb

— JavierCantonFerrero (@jcant0n) February 10, 2018

Communicating weight and shape of objects in VR is a big challenge, and it’s being approached from several angles. In addition to Rosado interesting work, we’ve also seen shapeshifting controllers which allow players to manually change between different poses on the fly, static controllers which use physics to create the illusion of the player holding larger objects, and even software-driven approaches to communicating weight to players.

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November 30, 2017

‘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.

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November 10, 2017

‘Haptic Shape Illusion’ Allows VR Controllers to Simulate Feel of Physically Larger Objects

In a study lead by Eisuke Fujinawa at the University of Tokyo, a team of students created a procedure for designing compact VR controllers that feel physically larger. Exploring the concept of ‘haptic shape illusion’, the controllers have data-driven, precise mass properties, aiming to simulate the same feeling in the hand as the larger objects on which they are based.

Simulating the feel of real objects is a fundamental haptics challenge in VR. Today’s general-purpose motion controllers for VR work best when the virtual object is reasonably similar in size and weight; very large or heavy virtual objects immediately seem unrealistic when picked up.

One solution is to use specific controllers for a given application—for instance attaching a tracker to a real baseball bat; in a hands-on with one such solution, Road to VR’s Ben Lang described the significance of gripping a real bat and how that influenced his swing compared to a lightweight controller. But swinging a controller the size and weight of a baseball bat around your living room probably isn’t the best idea.

As shown in the video below, researchers from the University of Tokyo attempted to create much smaller objects that retain the same perceived size. The team designed an automated system which takes the original weight and size of an object and then creates a more compact but similar feeling output through precise mass arrangement.

The paper refers to several ecological psychology studies into how humans perceive the size of an object through touch alone, supporting the idea that perceived length and width is strongly related to the moment of inertia about the hand position.

The team concentrated its efforts on this haptic shape perception, collecting data from participants wielding different sample controllers in VR to determine their perceived sizes, having never seen the controllers in reality. This data allowed the creation of a ‘shape perception model’, which optimises the design of a large object within smaller size constraints, outputting CAD data for fabrication.

The object is deformed to fit the size constraints, holes are cut out, and weights are placed at specific points to maintain the original moment of inertia.

The team had VR developers in mind, as this approach could offer a potential benefit in demonstrating a product with a more realistic controller. The CAD data output means that smaller, safer prototype controllers that give the impression of wielding larger objects can be created quickly with a laser cutter or 3D printer.

Further information and the full paper is available on Fujinawa’s website. The research is being presented at this week’s VRST 2017, the 23rd ACM Symposium on Virtual Reality Software and Technology held in Gothenburg, Sweden.

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June 22, 2017

This Flexible Thermoelectric Skin Has Made Me a Believer in Thermal Haptics

Korea-based TEGway is developing ThermoReal, a thermoelectric array which can generate heat and cold with impressively low latency. The flexible nature of ThermoReal could make it suitable for integration into VR controllers, gloves, and more.

I’ve tried a few different thermal haptic devices throughout the course of my VR reporting, but nothing that really impressed me. Usually the effects are hard to notice because they don’t feel particularly hot or cold, and they take so long to activate that it’s hard to sell the illusion that the effect is being caused by something happening in the virtual world.

I got to try the ThermoReal thermoelectric skin at the Vive X Batch 2 demo day in San Francisco this week and it’s led me to become a believer in the value of thermal haptics for the first time. That’s thanks to three things:

Latency

ThermoReal—which is a thermoelectric generator based on something called the Seebeck Effect—is impressively quick to react. I held a prototype wand which had the ThermoReal skin embedded in it as I watched a video of a man jumping into a river. The moment he plunged into the water I could feel the wand get cold to the touch. Another video showed a car blowing up and the heat effect kicked in almost immediately with very little ‘spin up’ time. Keep an eye on the ‘thermal imaging’ section of the clip above to see how quickly the device changes temperatures.

TEGway’s Thermoreal prototype device | Photo by Road to VR

In addition to hot and cold, the device can do both at the same time in close proximity, which is perceived as an amplified ‘pain’ effect compared to just using heat alone.

Our sense of temperature is not nearly as latency-sensitive as our senses of sight or hearing, but thermal haptics must still be fast enough to help our brains connect what we’re seeing with what we’re feeling. For many potential thermal haptic scenarios, it feels like ThermoReal has passed an important latency threshold that helps sell that illusion.

Amplitude

It isn’t just the speed of the hot or cold effect, but the extent of it too. I was impressed with how the device could achieve its maximum level of cold so quickly.

Even more than the cold effect, the heat effect was so great that I had to loosen my grip on the ThermoReal prototype at times; I was honestly concerned the device could burn me. I asked one of the creators if there was any risk of injury and was told that the device would only get up to 4°C hotter than body temperature. Based on how hot it felt, I’m still skeptical of that claim, though it’s possible that the rate of heat increase (rather than the measured temperature itself) could signal to my brain a more severe sensation of heat; I’ll be interested to learn more about the minimum and maximum possible temperatures of the device.

Form-factor

Thermoelectric generators like ThermoReal are not new. What is new, says TEGway, is the form-factor of their device. It takes the form of a flexible skin-like array of conductors which can be curved and wrapped around various surfaces, which could make it perfect for integration into VR controllers, gloves, or even suits.

They say it’s the “world-first ‘Stand-Alone’ high performance flexible [thermoelectric device].

– – — – –

For any good haptic device, figuring out how to use it is always the hard part. For ThermoReal, there’s a number of promising applications beyond simply making the player feel hot in a hot environment and cold in a cold environment.

As a few examples to get your imagination churning, the speed and amplitude of the temperature effects should be suitable for conveying the temperature of objects held in the user’s hand. That could mean, for instance, allowing the player to feel it when their energy-weapon has overheated, or feel the cold of a snowball when held in their hand.

The company also says the ThermoReal skin can create the temperatures in discrete areas, potentially allowing for the feeling of virtual objects moving across the player’s hand. You can imagine a sticky snail crawling across your hand, or possibly even larger creatures—like a snake coiling around your leg—if the tech was integrated into a suit-like device covering a larger portion of the player’s body.

Continued on Page 2: Lingering Questions »

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