VR gloves.
We know about its existence.
We know it’s going to come.
But when?
And what does it feel like?
Oculus predicted that it'd probably take ten years before we’ll have useful haptic hands
in some form.
But I think we might be closer than they think.
In today’s Dive into VR episode, we are introducing the Manus VR gloves which are
compatible with SteamVR games & applications, since they use the VIVE trackers and the VIVE
base stations.
Let’s dive straight in.
But first, subscribe if you haven’t yet to stay up to with all of our videos like
this one.
And now, join me beyond reality.
This is what Michael Abrash, Oculus’ chief scientist, predicted during the Oculus Connect
5 keynote.
Only thing that I thought that could fully displace Touch style controllers was the ability
to use your hands directly complete with haptics
To interact with objects in the virtual world and that I didn't think it would happen in
the next 5 years that in fact it wouldn't happen in the distant horizon.
I still don't think it will happen in the next 4 years.
But something interesting may in fact be in the distant horizon.
This is definitely a deep research problem right now but here's a video of one experiment.
[Music]
I predict the first time you get to use your hands with haptics in VR will be as much of
a revelation as the first time that you put on a VR headset.
Because that feedback loop from head motion to proper parallax is what creates strong
presence in VR today and I believe that that feedback loop from motor control to haptics
can be equally powerful.
So I don't have a four year prediction for haptic hands but I'll make the farthest out
prediction I've ever made and say that I believe that we will have useful haptic hands in some
form within ten years.
So, he believes in haptic VR gloves, but he says an useful implementation could take a
while.
Let me know what your predictions will be after watching this video.
So a couple of days ago, Chary and I visited VR Days, which is a VR event in The Netherlands,
and over there Manus VR showcased their latest VR gloves: The Manus Prime Haptic.
Last year, we also went to VR Days and tried out a developer kit of their gloves.
The ones we tried now are the finalized version and is compatible with the VIVE Trackers,
and so, you could use these with your HTC VIVE or VALVE INDEX setup at home.
Heck, during the demo, I was even wearing the Valve Index.
But first, you might want to know what VR gloves are and why would you want it?
VR gloves are just what you think it is.
They are gloves, but by wearing them, they can track your fingers and hand movements
inside the VR game or experience.
It allows for very intuitive interaction.
With this there is no more need for an explanation on what buttons to press to grab an item;
you would just do whatever you would do in real life.
Now, you might be thinking, ha, the Oculus Quest is getting hand tracking.
Why would I still need gloves?
Well, with the Oculus Quest hand tracking, you don’t get any feedback when you interact
with objects in a game.
So, for example, when you try to poke a friend’s avatar inside a game, you’re only poking
air in real life, and so you won’t actually feel anything, and that is less immersive
than with these gloves.
Because with these gloves, you can get haptic feedback, so you’ll feel vibrations on your
hand and fingers, making it feel like you are touching something or picking something
up.
So, what do the Manus VR gloves look like & how does it work?
There are a couple of different VR gloves that you can find online, but these Manus
VR gloves I tried are different because they are wireless and are one of the few that are
compatible with SteamVR headsets since they use VIVE trackers.
Here are the gloves that I tried.
The Manus Prime Haptic.
They are gloves made of polyester so they feel comfortable, like gloves you would use
to work out in.
A VIVE tracker sits on the back of your hand, which allows for the positional tracking.
So the VIVE trackers tell where your hands are.
The glove itself has flex sensors inside that measures the amount of deflection or bending.
So the gloves can tell what your hands are doing.
Little programmable vibration motors are attached to each finger that connects to a module below
the tracker with some cables.
The vibrational motors are what give the haptic feedback.
There is an extra sensor for the thumbs that the other fingers do not have.
This sensor is an Inertial Measurement Unit (in sort IMU), which is a sensor that can
measure more than the flex sensors, like rotational tracking.
Lastly, the gloves are tightened on your wrist using a Velcro hook and loop.
While you are watching this video, please leave a like if you found it interesting so
far.
Now, let me tell you what I tried during the demo and what it feels like.
Manus VR has developed a dashboard and driver for the gloves, which is what you can see
on the screen right now.
Using that, the first thing they had to do was to calibrate the gloves with my hands.
The software measured how hard the vibration motors should vibrate to make the whole texture
of the gloves vibrate with it.
I then had to make a couple of hand gestures to finish calibration.
This all went very smoothly.
As you can see, the gloves were a bit big for me, so there was the possibility that
I could not feel the highest vibration level since my finger tops didn’t reach out of
the gloves.
They do have smaller gloves too, but unfortunately, they didn’t bring them.
The Manus VR software is what receives the tracking data and sends it to whatever game
or app you are in.
This software has to run next to SteamVR to make it work.
After calibration, they handed me a Valve Index, and I went into a haptic demo.
In the demo, there was an unassembled engine in front of me.
At the left side, I saw a floating component that I needed to grab and attach to the right
spot of the engine.
Of course, for testing purposes, the first thing I did was poking the stuff around me.
So I gave the component a couple of pokes, and I felt the vibration on the right fingertip.
It felt different per object, too.
The vibrations seem to kind of simulate the weight of different objects.
I could also grab the objects in different ways, like pinching my index finger and thumb
together.
And when I tried to shake an object in my hand, I felt realistic feedback too.
I also tried tapping the engine softly and then harder, and depending on how much force
I used, the vibration level changed as well.
The finger tracking was accurate.
But only bending the fingers was measured, and not gestures like this, because of the
missing IMU.
However, the thumbs did have an IMU sensor, so all movements with the thumb like this
was tracked.
I didn’t notice any latency, even though the developers say that there is a latency
of about 5 ms.
But that is almost nothing.
These gloves should last up to 3 to 5 hours of extensive use.
It was an interesting experience.
These VR haptic gloves made it all more realistic to me.
This is positively different than hand tracking without gloves.
Touching objects without haptic feedback at all just feels somewhat awkward to me.
The only thing that was missing from these VR gloves would be resistance force.
That is what would add even more realism since that could make you feel you are holding an
object or feel different materials.
I actually tried a VR glove with force resistance at VR Days, but that will be for a new video.
So stay tuned for that one 😉
All right. I think I just made an engine! :D
Oh wow! Ok what happens now?
Oh!!!!
What?! O_O
Did you just hit me?
How was it?
That was cool.
Yeah right?
Especially that last part. :')
Yeah but that was me hitting you
Ah, so that was you hitting me! I was like mm--okayy...
But now you might want to know what are the chances for you to try this out at home?
Manus VR started the company in 2014 to provide the consumer market with VR gloves.
However, in 2017, they decided to focus on businesses.
That’s unfortunate for us, because well, enterprise products are expensive.
The Manus Prime Haptic gloves go for about 5000 euros.
They have other versions of these gloves too that range from 3000 to 4000 euros.
That might not be expensive for businesses, but yes, that is way too expensive for us
consumers or gamers, but it’s very awesome to see the potential of these gloves.
Currently, these VR gloves are used worldwide for motion capture, prototyping, robotics,
and educational VR apps.
Manus VR has clients like NASA who use their gloves to give their employees virtual training,
which can significantly reduce costs for companies like them.
VR arcade owners might like to know that these gloves are also compatible with any tracking
solution that gives the location of the hand.
The gloves are tested with OptiTrack, Vicon, Xsens, PhaseSpace, and what you saw in this
video, SteamVR tracking.
So yes, we won’t be using this at home for gaming just yet, but by seeing this, I believe
that it won’t be 10 more years before we see useful consumer gloves.
And I cannot wait for that moment to come.
What are your predictions for VR gloves?
Let us know in the comments.
Thanks to VR Days for letting us film at their event and Manus VR for showing their product
and demo.
I will be posting more videos like this one on what we have seen at VR Days, and some
of these things are pretty intriguing, so don’t forget to subscribe to stay up to
date.
A special thanks goes to our Right-Hand Patrons.
Shout out to artArmin and his Patreon page.
Another shout out goes to BaxornVR and his VR YouTube channel!
Everyone, see you all in the next video.
And as always VR on!