Carnegie Mellon University researchers have unveiled Wireality, a virtual reality haptic suit that essentially connects users’ hands to their shoulders using spring-loaded cables. This enables it to simulate touching objects in VR. The contraption itself sits on the shoulders, while the spring-loaded cables attach to each fingertip and the hand.
Wireality has gears that lock to create the feeling of resistance, and the design utilizes upper body mass to simulate heavy as well as fixed objects. In other words, the system can basically make flat and curved VR surfaces more lifelike. You’ll also be able to interact with touchscreen displays and buttons in ways that most VR systems cannot replicate. The researchers believe that a production unit may cost less than $50.
- PRECISION EYE TRACKING - Consistent, accurate eye movement tracking and analysis for creative and commercial purposes
- USER ANALYTICS - Uncover actionable insights about your users experience in VR using heatmapping, gaze tracking, and other interactions
- FOVEATED RENDERING - Optimize graphic fidelity in the user's line of sight reducing rendering workloads on GPUs
These strings are controlled by what are essentially little fishing reels which can be controlled by a computer. As you reach out into open space in VR, the strings are free to unwind. But if you collide your fingers with an object, it locks the corresponding strings for those joints. The strings can all be triggered at different times so that your hand can cup complex shapes, providing a high degree of touch realism,” said Chris Harrison, head of the Future Interfaces Group.
