Novel VR glove levels up user experience in the metaverse with a more realistic sense of touch - India Education Diary

What if you could consciousness raindrops oregon a beating heart, oregon bid successful competitory archery, each from the comfortableness of your home? That game-changing immersiveness could bring a caller magnitude to virtual environments, allowing users to acquisition the satellite of imaginativeness with a precocious grade of realism.

A caller invention by a squad of researchers from NUS promises to substantially heighten a user’s consciousness of interaction successful virtual world (VR), with the purpose of delivering a much authentic and immersive acquisition wrong the metaverse. Their caller invention – called HaptGlove – is an untethered and lightweight haptic mitt that provides users with some skin-like and question sensations erstwhile interacting with a virtual object.

While the conception of haptic gloves is not new, existent technologies are not capable to springiness users a realistic consciousness of touch. For example, emblematic haptic mitt designs successful the marketplace usage vibration motors, which could not accurately replicate the real-world consciousness of interaction specified arsenic simulating the hardness and signifier of a VR object. Other haptic gloves usage pneumatic actuators, which are devices that make a consciousness of pressure, but their bulky designs greatly bounds the user’s movement.

“My acquisition with VR and the metaverse has ever been unsatisfactory. VR should not beryllium conscionable astir a ocular and auditory experience; it should contiguous the quality to interact with VR objects. However, existent methods of pressing connected a virtual sheet oregon interacting with different avatar deficiency the sensation of interaction that we acquisition successful the existent world. This prompted maine to enactment with my squad to make a haptic mitt to alteration ‘physical’ interaction successful the virtual world,” said Professor Lim Chwee Teck, who is the Director for the Institute for Health Innovation & Technology (iHealthtech) and person of the probe team.

Prof Lim and his squad went connected to make HaptGlove, a portable and highly flexible haptic mitt that enables users to person immersive interaction and consciousness of VR objects with unparalleled realism successful VR experience. HaptGlove incorporates lightweight pneumatic power with the team’s latest developed microfluidic sensing exertion to trim its size and value significantly, and does not necessitate bulky accessories.

“The HaptGlove’s unsocial plan allows users to interact with the virtual satellite much people and realistically, which would springiness users unobtrusive recreational oregon competitory sensation successful VR,” added Prof Lim, who is besides from the Department of Biomedical Engineering under the NUS College of Design and Engineering.

Achieving realism done precise and speedy feedback control

HaptGlove contains 5 pairs of haptic feedback modules, 1 for each finger. The modules are controlled wirelessly to consciousness the VR entity successful presumption of shape, size and stiffness.

When a idiosyncratic puts connected HaptGlove, helium tin consciousness interaction erstwhile the avatar’s manus touches, grasps and manipulates a VR object. This is achieved by utilizing a microfluidic pneumatic indenter to present real-time unit to the user’s fingertips. The mitt tin besides simulate the signifier and stiffness (soft oregon hard) of the entity that the avatar is touching, by restricting the user’s digit positions. This adds realism to the virtual interaction.

Using proprietary bundle developed by the NUS probe team, HaptGlove achieves a visual-haptic hold of little than 20 milliseconds – this is faster than accepted haptic gloves, delivering a near-real-time idiosyncratic experience.

The NUS team’s latest prototype is besides much comfy for users to deterioration astatine lone 250 grams, overmuch lighter than commercially-available haptic gloves which measurement implicit 450 grams.

Adding a carnal interaction to the metaverse

Prof Lim and his squad started moving connected the HaptGlove successful 2019 and took 2 years to make a prototype. To trial the show of the HaptGlove, the squad recruited 20 users who wore the mitt to benignant 4 balls of antithetic stiffnesses successful the virtual world. Besides achieving implicit 90% accuracy successful completing the tasks, the users noted that the HaptGlove had importantly enhanced realism successful VR and improved their wide experience, compared to devices utilizing vibration motors.

Besides gaming, the HaptGlove has utile applications successful the fields of medicine and education, specified arsenic assisting surgeons to amended hole for an cognition by simulating a hyper-realistic environment, oregon giving students a hands-on learning acquisition by simulating palpation connected antithetic assemblage parts.

The aboriginal of award-winning HaptGlove

For their invention, the NUS squad has clinched the IES Prestigious Engineering Achievement Awards 2022 awarded by The Institution of Engineers, Singapore. They person besides filed a patent for their plan and anticipation to commercialise the merchandise wrong 2 years done NUS spin-off Microtube Technologies, which develops sensing technologies for applications successful gaming and the metaverse. The squad is aiming for HaptGlove to retail for fractional the terms of commercially-available haptic gloves, which presently outgo betwixt S$5,000 to S$20,000.