The movie "Ready Player One" shows the charm of VR equipment very realistically, not only the VR glasses, but also the characters in the play can feel the impact of virtual objects on the body, and even the touch of grasping and touching through VR full-body suits including haptic feedback gloves.
Don't think that the application of virtual reality in movies is still far away, and now such scenarios are expected to be realized. The concept of virtual reality equivalent to VR glasses has long been outdated, and in addition to vision and hearing, touch will also become another expansion direction of VR virtual reality.
The concept of VR gloves is good, but the price power discourages
The concept of VR can be traced back to the 1932 novel "Brave New World" by British writer Aldous Huxley, which mentioned that headsets can provide people with sensory experiences such as images, smells, and sounds, so that people can better immerse themselves in the virtual world.
In modern times, virtual reality technology is much the same as described in the book, using sensor technology to simulate various sensory sensations to trick the brain, allowing users to experience immersive real feelings in virtual scenes, and it has been upgraded from the imagination of the novel.
Recently, SenseGlove, a Dutch VR glove and force feedback solution provider, announced the official launch of its VR device Senseglove Nova 2, according to the official introduction, this is the world's first wireless VR haptic glove unit that supports palm feedback. The device includes gloves and sensors, and has built-in vibration feedback that allows users to "grasp" virtual objects, "touch" virtual object textures, and support active contact feedback on virtual objects.
图源：Senseglove
To put it simply, Senseglove Nova 2 offers a realistic "feel" that other VR devices don't have, and the device simulates the most realistic collision feeling possible, depending on the size and type of virtual object.
Senseglove claims that the Senseglove Nova 2 is a big improvement over the original Nova in terms of finger tracking capabilities, and the current glove can also be extended to record the movement of the thumb, middle finger and ring finger, which is expected to be used in medical/industrial applications in the future.
In terms of price, the Senseglove Nova 2 is priced at a whopping $5,999 (about 43,553 yuan), and Senseglove will provide three sizes of the Senseglove Nova 2 according to hand size. Obviously, the Senseglove Nova 2 is not a C-end oriented product, or that the vast majority of consumers will not spend a huge amount of money to experience the so-called palm feedback.
图源：Senseglove
Referring to the customer portrait of the original Nova, Senseglove Nova 2 is likely to be purchased by universities, car manufacturers, aviation authorities and other companies and organizations for VR training and research.
Feel deceives the brain, what are the origin of VR gloves?
Immersion is the most important feature of VR equipment, and VR gloves are technological products to further enhance the sense of immersion. In the first two years, the VR industry set off a metaverse boom, and soon after Facebook changed its name to Meta, it announced a haptic glove device (hereinafter referred to as Meta gloves), which can reproduce the touch of grasping objects or stroking surfaces of different materials.
It sounds like the Meta Glove has similar features to the Senseglove Nova 2, but there are differences in the implementation process between the two. According to Meta, the prototype of the Meta glove costs about $5,000, with 15 inflatable plastic sheets placed on each finger of the glove, and the tactile interaction position is arranged to fit the wearer's palm, the underside of the fingers and the fingertips, while the glove also acts as a VR controller, the white marker on the back of the hand allows the camera to track the movement of the finger in space, and the internal sensor is responsible for capturing the bending of the finger.
图源：Meta Reality Labs
When the user enters the virtual world with the Meta glove, the inflatable plastic sheet on the finger adjusts the inflation according to the situation, simulating the real pressure. If the user's fingertips touch the virtual object, they will also feel a specific touch, and if they grasp the virtual object, the actuator on the finger will also become harder, and these touches can bring a stronger sense of realism to the user when combined with sight and sound.
From the outside, the Meta glove is noticeably bulkier than the Senseglove Nova 2, but considering it's only a prototype, there's a lot of room for improvement in the future. The main difference between the two is in the analog haptic technology, the Senseglove Nova 2 relies on vibration feedback and force feedback technology, while the Meta glove borrows from the miniature valve technology of soft robots.
In addition to technical differences, glove materials are also an important part of VR gloves. A pair of stiff, heavy, and easy-to-fall gloves can easily detach the user from the virtual experience, and to avoid this, gloves are extremely heavy, soft, and durable.
Most VR gloves today use materials technology, where flexible materials such as plastic and silicone are made into new stretchable fibers, which are then sewn or knitted into glove patterns. Among them, the silicone VR gloves previously researched by the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, and the tactile gloves equipped with McKibben muscles developed by the University of California, are representatives of the transformation of VR gloves by material technology.
As an important part of the VR ecosystem, VR gloves are designed to work with glasses, headphones and other equipment to create a stronger sense of immersion. However, due to space and materials, the cost of making VR gloves is quite high, so it has not caused much discussion in the consumer market.
With the miniaturization of technology and the maturity of material technology, VR gloves may not be unable to reduce costs and thus break into the consumer market. At that point, we may be able to experience some of the magic of VR in Ready Player One.
Grip, wear, touch, what is the future of VR haptic devices?
The evolution of VR technology has been a tortuous one, with repeated phases of expectation inflation, bubble bursting, and climbing recovery. Especially after the concept of the metaverse was shattered, the VR market suffered a huge setback.
According to a report by IDC, the global VR market shipments will decline by 10.7% year-on-year in 2023. The situation in the domestic market is even worse, with VR shipments falling by 39.8% year-on-year in 2023 to only 463,000 units, a decline of nearly 40%. I thought that the release of Apple's Vision Pro at the beginning of 2024 would rekindle the enthusiasm of the VR industry, but I didn't expect it to come quickly and go faster, and the VR industry ushered in a phased malaise.
Photo/IDC
The sluggish industry does not mean that the direction is wrong, in Xiaolei's view, VR technology still has a lot of shining points. At present, haptic devices are roughly divided into three categories, namely gripping, wearable, and touch.
There are many examples of gripping devices being used in the medical field, such as surgical robots, which allow doctors to perform remote surgeries with very delicate tools or perform tasks that cannot be done by a human hand. The addition of haptic feedback to surgical robots can improve surgical accuracy and reduce risk, and can also assist doctors in zero-risk training in VR, while experiencing what it feels like in actual surgery.
Wearable devices transmit tactile sensations such as pressure, friction, and temperature through subcutaneous nerves. Most of these devices are worn on the finger, and when the user touches an object in virtual reality, the device presses the fingertip with the corresponding force. Wristbands and VR gloves are also wearable devices.
Touch devices are easier to understand, and the smartphones we use every day have the function of clicking on the screen to get vibration feedback, which can also be understood as a kind of touch device. But when it comes to VR equipment, vibration alone is certainly not enough. A device called "data-driven haptics" realistically simulates the roughness, smoothness, and hardness of different surfaces and feeds back to the user with different vibrations.
The three seem to be technical directions for different fields, but they also have something in common. Senseglove Nova 2 is a great example of this, where we can see the shadow of gripping, wearable, and touch technologies, which combine to provide a more realistic haptic experience for VR haptic devices.
From the perspective of a longer cycle, a VR glove cannot perfectly restore the human perception system, and the VR industry also needs to add more equipment to realize the tactile perception of the body, feet and other areas. Of course, this is a long-term goal, and at this stage, the consumer market is still waiting for the birth of the first consumer-grade VR gloves.
VR, like AR, has experienced many ups and downs, and after each hibernation, a new round of carnival is bound to be ushered in. At present, the time for the rapid development and popularization of VR is not yet ripe, and the audience is still dominated by a small number of geeks and enthusiasts, and has not yet been popularized to the general public, but the vision of human beings for virtual space is engraved in the bones, although I don't know how long the dormant period is, but the VR market will eventually usher in spring.
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