Tech News
By: Andrew Tropeano
While Virtual Reality has come a long way in the last 5 years it still seems something’s missing; something that bridges the gap between real and fake.
Though new devices like the Oculus Rift and Samsung Gear VR allow us to see and hear in VR, they don’t allow us to feel, tactilely that is.
Well it seems the company, Dexta Robotics, may have found the answer with the Dexmo exoskeleton glove.
This is the first glove that will allow you to receive tactile sensation from whatever you interact with in the VR world. By tracking 11 degrees of motion and providing force feedback to each finger you can feel what it’s like to squeeze a rubber duck or grab hold of a stone.
For instance, when grabbing the rubber duck the glove physically pulls back your fingers to the position you would hold the duck in. It then changes the force it’s applying according to the stiffness of the duck. In other words, it’s friggin’ nuts!
These gloves combined with the awesome VR content currently available would finally put you right there in the virtual world. You can now open doors and it feels like you’re actually opening a door. You can pick up a baseball bat and swing it and it actually feels like you’re swinging for the outfield.
Outside of the obviously innovative technology that goes into creating an awesome addition to VR like this, it’s also said to be lightweight and wireless. Both are extreme musts for anything like this to actually catch on. For now it only works wirelessly for four hours under normal use and about an hour under intensive use. That’ll definitely need to be increased.
Dexmo is being promoted as a great tool for not just gaming but training, education and even medical procedures. One can see how each could have almost unlimited possibilities.
So far there’s no information yet on when the Dexmo will be released and how much it’ll cost. In the meantime, we’ll have to make do with our controllers with the hope that they’ll release it in the not too distant future.
What do you think of gloves that allow you to feel and touch in virtual reality? Let us know in the comments below. Tweet us your thoughts and follow us on Instagram.
