What would you do if you could feel the rain falling, a heart beating, or even practice archery, all from the comfort of your own home? This immersion capability would offer a new dimension to virtual environments, allowing users to live in a particularly realistic imaginary world.
A recent invention developed by a team of researchers from the National University of Singapore promises to heighten the sense of touch within virtual reality, with the aim of providing a more authentic and immersive experience in the metaverse.
The invention in question, called HaptGlove, is a lightweight, wireless haptic glove (a glove for “touching”) that provides users with the equivalent of the sensation of skin touch, as well as motion sensations, when we interact with a virtual object.
If the concept of haptic glove is not new, current technologies are not able to offer a realistic feeling of touch. For example, the usual designs of these gloves use motors that vibrate, which could not replicate the sense of touch, especially when it comes to simulating the hardness and shape of an object in virtual reality.
Other haptic gloves use a pneumatic system, which generates a sense of pressure, but their large size largely limits users’ movement, researchers say.
“My experience with reality and the metaverse has always been unsatisfactory. Virtual reality shouldn’t just be about the visual and auditory experience; we should be offered the ability to interact with objects in virtual reality. However, common methods of tapping a virtual panel or interacting with another avatar lack the touch feeling that exists in the real world. This prompted me to work with my team to design a haptic glove that enables ‘physical touch’ in the virtual world,” said Professor Lim Chwee Teck, who is the director of the Institute for Health Innovation & Technology, and leader of the research team.
Almost in real time
What’s special about the HaptGlove, according to the research team, is that it’s equipped with lightweight pneumatic controls, in addition to having microfluidic technology, all aimed at reducing the size and weight of the device. device significantly, in addition to not requiring bulky accessories.
“The unique design of the HaptGlove allows users to interact with the virtual world in a more natural and realistic way, which will give freer sensations in virtual reality,” added Prof. Lim.
The glove contains five pairs of haptic feedback modules, one for each finger. These modules are remotely controlled to “feel” a virtual object in terms of shape, size and hardness.
Basically, this feeling is made possible thanks to microfluidic pressures generated in real time by a pneumatic system. It is also possible to simulate the size and hardness of an object touched by the avatar, in the virtual world, by restricting the position of the user’s fingers. This adds to the realism of the virtual interaction, say the researchers.
And according to the latter, using proprietary software, the delay of the tactile sensations of the gloves is less than 20 milliseconds, which is approaching “real time”.
The most recent haptic glove prototype weighs only 250 grams, well below the more than 450 grams of other commercial models.
Beyond video games, the researchers argue that their glove could also be used in medicine and education, including helping surgeons better prepare for operations by simulating a hyper-realistic environment, or providing a direct experience for students in simulating the palpation of different parts of the body.
