So are you experiencing everything with your Oculus Rift? Imagine if your hand can get involved. CEO of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg demonstrated an interactive way to use Oculus Rift, the new Oculus glove. Zuckerberg recently posted photos of him using the new VR glove prototype when he went on a tour of the Oculus Research facility, which is also owned by Facebook, in Redmond, Washington.
Oculus has already developed Touch controllers that can interact with the Oculus Rift. These controllers can be used to pick and use virtual items that you can see in the Oculus Rift. However, with a team led by Michael Abrash, Oculus is now developing VR gloves for the users to type on a virtual keyboard, do finger painting, or shoot web from your hand as if you are SpiderMan.
More details about the Oculus VR gloves are yet to be released. However, it seems that the gloves are in a slim form. In Mark Zuckerberg’s demonstration, the VR gloves are paired with the Oculus Rift. In operating the gloves, OptiTrack Prime 17W cameras are being used as motion sensors as oppose to using sensor system developed by Oculus. With this, the company can already test the glove immediately and with a lower cost rather than developing their own cameras as the motion sensor.
Previously, Oculus already acquired Pebbles Interfaces, a hand-tracking startup company that was developing a technology that can contribute to building VR gloves. Moreover, some VR hardware companies have already ventured in developing VR gloves.
First, Dexmo, built by Dexta Robotics, are contraptions that look like exoskeleton designed to fit over the hands. Manus, on the other hand, is developing a more minimalistic design gloves. They resemble biker gloves that you wear on your hands. However, to operate these gloves, the user is required to strap HTV Vive Controllers to the arms. Two other VR gloves in the work are Neurodigital’s Gloveone and Noitom’s Hi5.
The rise of the development of VR hardware gives the digital world whole new possibilities. Using VR gloves instead of controllers can provide more detailed movements and gestures in the virtual world. These technological advances do not just contribute to gaming but also for entertainment, social media, engineering, and business.
Wouldn’t you save so much space when using VR goggles than having multiple monitors while you are typing on a virtual keyboard at home instead of an office? Imagine the gaming experience of having detailed movements like picking digital items in a virtual environment rather than just arm gestures.
With the continuous development and competition in the VR scene, the possibility of experiencing anything is not too far ahead. Different tech companies are in a tight race trying to develop the most advanced yet user-friendly VR devices. As Mark Zuckerberg puts it, Oculus Rift is the best VR experience available. With this, it is fair enough to expect much from the new Oculus VR gloves, and now consumers can’t do anything but wait for it to be released. So, would you get one of these?
