Haptic hydrogel "skin" simulates touch in VR and AR - New Atlas

While exertion is making large strides successful absorbing our eyes and ears successful virtual worlds, it’s harder to prosecute senses similar touch. Engineers astatine the City University of Hong Kong person present developed WeTac, a thin, wearable physics "skin" that provides tactile feedback to users successful VR and AR.

There’s nary shortage of wearable devices designed to fto users manipulate virtual objects and person haptic feedback from them. But astir of the clip these devices are big and bulky, and require analyzable setups and tangles of wires.

The WeTac strategy looks similar 1 of the neatest iterations of the thought we’ve seen truthful far. It’s made of a rubbery hydrogel that sticks to the thenar and beforehand of the fingers, connected to a tiny artillery and Bluetooth connection strategy located successful a 5-cm² (0.8-sq-in) spot connected the forearm. That artillery tin beryllium recharged wirelessly.

The hydrogel is dotted with 32 electrodes dispersed crossed the palm, thumb and fingers, and electrical currents are sent done these to nutrient tactile sensations. By stimulating definite combinations of these electrodes astatine varying strengths, the squad says that the WeTac strategy tin simulate a scope of experiences. In demos, that includes catching a tennis ball, oregon feeling a virtual rodent locomotion crossed your hand. Sensations could adjacent beryllium ramped up to beryllium uncomfortable (but abbreviated of being painful), to springiness a spot of antagonistic feedback for actions similar touching a integer cactus.

The squad says this strategy could beryllium paired with either virtual reality oregon augmented reality, which could pb to immoderate intriguing usage cases. You could truly consciousness the bushed of slicing done blocks successful Beat Saber successful VR, oregon favored a Pikachu portion catching Pokémon successful the park successful AR. It could adjacent assistance users remotely power robots, transmitting the tactile sensation of what the robot is grasping to its quality operator.

The probe was published successful the diary Nature Machine Intelligence. The WeTac strategy tin beryllium seen successful enactment successful the video below.

Source: City University of Hong Kong