So far Virtual Reality has enabled us to see and hear different worlds, but what about touching them?
HaptX Inc. has delivered haptic technology to VR through its first Gloves Development Kit. HaptX VR Gloves are a next step towards total immersion for professional VR workplace training and VR designers.
Reality technologies are overtaking the professional training space. Like Mercedes-Benz, many other industrially inclined companies are turning to virtual training to a universally attested positive outcome. It is against this backdrop of increased VR applications that we take HaptX’s new discovery into account. HaptX Gloves provide advanced simulation activities by effectively adding a whole new sense into the virtual training realm. They provide realistic sensation of touch to training simulations, mainly in automotive industry.
‘With HaptX Gloves, leading automotive and aerospace companies can touch and interact with their vehicles before they are built’. HaptX Founder and CEO also added that the technology his company is unveiling will drastically reduce time, money, and risks to deliver greater industrial and government training results. With HaptX VR Gloves trainees can ‘build real muscle memory’ and move the training process up a few notches. It helps that trainees can see the virtual rendition of their hands in real-time.
We ought to be very careful to dub something as ‘revolutionary’. Qualifying or not, HaptX’s new VR tool adds a significant new layer to our existing notion of different realities. For HaptX, the precision of interaction is paramount. By featuring 260 tactile actuators across a pair, HaptX VR Gloves distribute tactile sensation across hands and fingertips. Force-feedback exoskeleton is there to fix fingers on an object clutched in VR. Combined with stellar motion tracking technology, these two deliver the top-notch precision much needed for, quote unquote, building the muscle memory through virtual training.
HaptX VR Gloves are not a standalone piece of equipment. Rather, they are combined with a VR headset, not necessarily prescribed in terms of models. The Development Kit works on both Unity and Unreal Engine 4 making it an easy tool to implement into an existing VR setup. Users can also create their own content designed specially with VR Gloves in mind. Highly versatile here, It is only a matter of time when other industries will pick up the cue and start implementing VR gloves into their efforts.
If the VR tactile technology has been on the horizon, HaptX has always been the one to deliver it. The company’s signature microfluidic patent technology enables VR touch sensation that feels natural just as it is innovative. After eyes and ears, HaptX gave us hands to use in a Virtual Reality space.
It is clear that the HaptX VR gloves will prove useful in industrial and government virtual training routine. ‘Realistic touch is the missing link for many enterprise VR applications’ Jason Welsh from Accenture’s Extended Reality practice is quoted saying. Enterprise-focused for sure, we wouldn’t be too amiss if we stepped above for a second and pondered the tool’s potential across the board. No, we sure wouldn’t.
