Developed a glove that allows you to feel the shape of objects in virtual reality

Thanks to the efforts of companies such as HTC, Oculus and Sony, virtual reality is becoming increasingly widespread. However, in any, even super realistic VR-world, there is one problem: the brain can and can be deceived by showing him a beautiful picture, but it is extremely difficult to convey the tactile sensations of presence, because we control the character with very specific (albeit convenient) controllers. But everything can change thanks to the invention of the glove, which allows to feel physical contact in virtual reality.

Responsible for the development of engineers from the Federal Polytechnic School of Lausanne and the Swiss Higher Technical School of Zurich. The “frame” of the device is, surprisingly, an ordinary glove, except that special electrostatic brakes are placed on its backside fingers.

Each such brake represents 2 strips of metal located above each other. Both strips in a normal state do not constrain movements. However, when a voltage is applied to one of them, a force of attraction arises between the metal sheets, which prevents bending. In addition, sensors that allow you to monitor the position of the hand and relate it to movement in the virtual space are fixed on the glove.

Having developed such a technology, scientists could only calibrate the software and proceed to the tests. During the tests, volunteers were offered to interact with virtual objects of various shapes and move them.

In addition to the fact that the glove conveys the sensations of touching the objects and allows us to distinguish between shape and density, it turned out that its use also improves the accuracy of manipulation in comparison with standard controllers, and the load that can withstand electrostatic brakes is about 2 kilograms.

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