VRgluv’s VR Touch Interface Lets You Feel The Virtual World

VRgluv revealed a haptic feedback peripheral device for virtual reality systems that offers force feedback and pressure sensitivity that lets you feel the virtual objects you interact with.

Virtual reality is all about immersion. The perfect VR experience would fool all your senses and convince your brain that you are somewhere that you aren’t. So far, we have VR HMDs that do a reasonably good job in fooling our visual senses, and we have audio technologies that can simulate realistic environment acoustics. But there isn’t much traction on touch, taste, and smell--yet.

We haven’t heard any news about virtual taste simulation, but technically, fragrance simulation technology exists. One of our writers sacrificed his nose for science at Ubisoft booth at Gamescom 2016, and a pornography company launched a scandalous smell-o-vision device in late 2016. But the technology isn’t going mainstream anytime soon.

However, we do expect that haptic touch devices will soon be popular. We’ve written about several VR glove devices before, including CaptoGlove, Manus VR, and GloveOne, but none of them offer the breadth of features that VRgluvs do.

VRgluvs offer complete hand tracking with high-fidelity finger tracking. The gloves feature a universal tracker attachment system, which lets you use a Vive tracker or Vive controller to provide Lighthouse tracking. The gloves are also compatible with Oculus Touch controllers so you can use them with an Oculus Rift. VRgluv said it designed the mounting system to attach to your wrist to provide accurate wrist rotation tracking.

The VRgluvs' variable force feedback and force sensitivity allow you to feel the shape and texture of virtual objects. The force sensitivity also lets you vary your grip strength. For example, if you pick up something light, you won’t have to hold it as tightly as you would a heavier object.

VRgluv said that all of the sensors and electronics fit within the VRgluv. It doesn’t include any tethered devices such as batteries or extra components, which means you don’t have to worry about wires.

VRgluv said the VRgluv haptic gloves would hit the market in April, but it hasn’t announced the release date or price yet. If you’re interested in more information, you can sign up for the company’s mailing list at www.vrgluv.com. VRgluv said it would also release SDKs for Unity and Unreal so that developers can easily add support for VRgluv to their games and experiences.