VR Gloves

Virtual Reality (VR) has advanced to the point where it's almost indistinguishable from reality. However, what's missing to make it completely lifelike is the sensation of touch. Fortunately, many developers are currently working on this.

The SenseGlove Nova is arguably the most well-known and popular haptic glove at the moment. This Dutch-based company develops robust gloves for VR training. The SenseGlove Nova allows you to truly feel virtual objects. Its robust force-feedback system delivers 20 Newton resistance within 10 ms. This means that the force-feedback gives a realistic representation of how virtual objects feel in the real world. The advanced technology of SenseGlove ensures that clicking and pressing buttons feel very realistic. This is particularly useful when the gloves are used in a VR training that involves a dashboard or other tools where the user needs to press buttons. With the use of various mounts, the SenseGlove Nova is compatible with a wide range of virtual reality glasses, such as the HTC VIVE Pro 2, Meta Quest 2, and Pico Neo 3 Pro. The SenseGlove Nova is already widely used for training in large companies, such as Volkswagen.

The Manus Prime is a somewhat lighter haptic glove than the SenseGlove Nova. This glove is specially developed for virtual reality training. With the Manus Prime gloves, the user can grasp and hold digital objects, feel different textures, and press buttons and levers in a realistic way. The haptic glove immerses the user even deeper into the virtual world. Each finger of the glove has a haptic module, allowing each finger to be individually controlled. The Manus Prime gloves are compatible with most industry-standard software platforms, such as Unreal Engine and Unity. This allows developers to create an application or VR training relatively easily and deploy the Manus Prime glove. Watch a video here where the Manus Prime gloves are used in a demo from Skoda.

At first glance, the HaptX Gloves look like a full robot arm. The glove is an exoskeleton that goes over the user's hand and wrist. Because the construction of this glove is larger than comparable VR gloves, it can incorporate more haptic motors. HaptX therefore compromises on compactness and ease of use, but returns a more realistic haptic experience. The HaptX glove is still lightweight and delivers an impressive 175 Newton pressure per hand. This is almost double that of comparable VR gloves with haptic feedback. In addition, a motion-capture system is built into the HaptX gloves. These track the gloves with 30 degrees per hand, to 1 millimeter accuracy and without noticeable delays. Perhaps the most famous demo of the HaptX gloves was when Jeff Bezos (founder of Amazon) put on the gloves to control a robot arm.

The Teslagloves are an addition to the Teslasuit. This suit is a haptic suit that can be used for motion capture. Unique to the Teslasuit is that it can also collect biometric data. This makes the Teslasuit particularly suitable for use in research and other applications where data analysis is important. The Teslagloves are an addition to this suit. The gloves have a lightweight design and form an exoskeleton around the user's hands. When the user picks up something in the virtual environment, the glove gives a slight resistance, making it feel as if the virtual object is physically being picked up by the user. The Teslagloves can be used in combination with the Teslasuit and can be linked to an HTC VIVE tracker.

The TactGlove from bHaptics is not yet available at the time of writing (expected end of 2022), but promises to be a good haptic VR glove. Unique to the TactGlove is that it is not only intended for the business market and realistic VR training, but can also be used by consumers. While many haptic and VR gloves are development kits (meaning: there are few to no standard applications available), the products from bHaptics can be used out-of-the-box with various games. The TactGlove looks like a normal black glove. But in the fingertips, a haptic point is built-in that can vibrate to simulate the haptic feedback. The TactGlove can be combined with other products from bHaptics, making it possible to bring the entire body of the user to the virtual world.

The WEART is not so much a glove as it is a series of sensors placed on the fingertips. The WEART's motor can be placed on the user's wrists via a magnetic connector. A tracker or controller can then be placed on it to accurately track the gloves. Unique to the WEART gloves is the fact that, in addition to being able to pick up something in the virtual world, the gloves also give feedback with temperature. The fingertips can feel cold or warm, depending on what the user touches in the virtual world. If you touch a metal plate, for example, the fingertips feel cold and the user really feels as if he or she is touching metal. But if the user is working in a VR training and hot steam is blowing somewhere? Then be careful because the user really feels the fingertips warming up (fortunately, the built-in temperature sensors can never get so hot that the fingertips burn).

Did this blog post make you excited about VR gloves? Or do you want to try them out? Then contact us! We would be happy to help you find the perfect solution for a haptic VR experience. In our showroom, we have a wide range of different VR glasses and haptic solutions to try out.