TactGlove - bHaptics reveals the first consumer-ready wireless haptic gloves at CES2022

[Lione]

Finally Consumer ready good looking Haptic Gloves arrive.

Pricing seems to be at 299 US $ per Pair.


External Information Link
https://uploadvr.com/tactsuit-vr-gloves-bhaptics-announced/

Developer Kits can be ordered here @meshedvr

Faqs, downloads, requests and etc

Faqs, downloads, requests and etc. Thus far, more than 50 SteamVR and Oculus Quest titles, including Phasmophobia, Onward and Pavlov, provides native support.

www.bhaptics.com

Press Kit Pictures

 

[Jiraiya]

I saw this but honestly, pretty poor showing. Only fingertip feedback, not whole finger or hand. So just 5 points per hand.
Also, no position sense or movement restriction!
There are DIY gloves now that monitor your hand/finger position for feedback into the VR system for hand tracking as well as allow for restricted movement in a way that would feel far more realistic than the 5 pads in these gloves.

Don't get me wrong, it's amazing to see progress and commercial hardware in this area but these gloves don't excite me yet. I am more likely to make a pair myself than buy these.

 

[TToby]

Hi Lione,
I think Jiraiya is right. I once have tried a prototype similar to this, and it was more or less a bit of frizzeling at the finger tips. If you close your fingers, you still will grap through the virtual item, which was completely destroying the immersion for me. It was fun to "feel at least something", but far away from a real haptical sensation.
Like Jiraiya said, I would at least wait (or DIY) for gloves that will restrict your movement. But that are still real monsters atm, and they don't restrict your arm or body movement, so you will still grap through things.
It's great and exciting to see the progress, but there still is a long way to go.

 

[Jiraiya]

 

[Lione]

Thx for your replies. Appreciate your opinions sure.
The Thread was not meant to hype exactly this product but they nail it with how beauty wearable the gloves looks.

@TToby , the Video announcement shows the Tree feeling scene and the scene where he catches / holds the apple.
So there must be a restriction / limitation , same with holding things.
You cannot hold things like an apple if you grab through.
At least my imagination denies that because its shown here to not be like that.

Sure it could just be a allover clickbait big commercial lie

I will wait for the real reviews at CES 2022.

I don't know how much senses you need with forwarding vibration to actually "feel" with the fingers here technology wise.
I just want to feel and who knows how they really work.
Perhaps they will also include some sort of vibration transportation or electric stimulation?

First dev Kits will be be out in Q2 2022 and public "planned" in Q4 .
Much time to even improve tech ( if even needed ) at least until summer.

I would never ever buy such claw like heavy solution although it's sure interesting trying such gloves out of course.
I want a easy usable, wearable, comfort and washable hygiene consumer product as long as its a glove.

Their other Products like the Suit are already supported in more and more games and i do not think they will release crap.
That would be too risky financial wise. If they will get bad reviews at CES 2022,
no one will buy this product and we can be sure the gloves will be all over previewed in action by Youtubers or press.

If they won't show them at CES we know they will hide them for reason from a release

Meta could be much interested in seeing this now and they can make everything happen with that horde of programmers, scientists and autistic genious brained employees, nice meant. Actually since the showcased content is already Meta Quest content i wouldn't wonder if Meta are not already behind that in some sort of way.

 

[Jiraiya]

I can assure you there is no motion restriction in that glove. Anything implied by the video is just clever bullshit marketing.
The gloves contain a single pressure device under each fingertip.
There isn't even any position sensing. If you read between the lines and analyse the text and video it's all quite clear.
They talk about it working with existing hand tracking tech, ie, it has no hand tracking tech of it's own
You can clearly see from the video there is no physical way it can restrict movement too.
It's literally just 5 finger pads per glove. I believe they used inflatables before but this looks like it might be some kind of "vibration" using piezo technology.
So imagine a "silent" buzzer vibrating your fingertip when you touch a virtual object. That is ALL they do.
I don't want to downplay the gloves, the tick a lot of boxes and are a "required" step, but the price is too high for me personally. I will wait a few more years for them to at least have the finger tracking etc all built in.

 

[TToby]

We all want to have our private Holo-Deck from StarTreck. Me too.
I know that many companies are doing a lot of research in the direction of haptic feedback for VR.
The very most simple form of haptic feedback is the vibrator in our VR controllers.
Those gloves comes IMHO right after this. As Jiraiya said, one single buzzer per fingertip is "only" a simple first step in the right direction. But it is a very long way to go: AFAIR there are at least 5-6 different kinds of sensors in the human skin for tactile sense. At the fingertips they are amazingly dense... we even can feel a texture not higher than 0,006mm!! I can't even imagine a current technology that could trigger this and other body sensors for real immersion.
Best candidate would maybe be an future brain-computer-brain interface for some kind of "full-dive VR".
But I don't want to discourage you! I am extremely fascinated by VR hardware of all kind, too! Atm VR is just a niche product, but I am optimistic that this will slowly change with time.

Happy new year!

 

[Lione]

This is all so interesting what you write and how experienced you are already with such Prototypes of using a glove / senses.

If its a new step into a future sure its still great that they do this and move that senses into the fingertips which will sure give another feeling than a vibro in a controller. But the Video is entire misleading then and me watching it with my expectations and you having the experience is great to have ;D

I will sure try them out if i can anyways.
But sad they pretend its the Solution everyone waited for if you are into such feedback solutions .
I haven't experienced that senses solutions ever you did so i currently can't say personal thats nothing close to what it should be to be itsy amazed.
But i sure trust you of course.

What wonders me is still the financial risk a company puts into this self hyped "Consumer Product " showcasing at CES 2022 which is worldwide broadcasted and ten ton press watched. Its gloves for 300 $ then and for that it must at least offer something people will like and be amazed with it.

Will be interesting to see the further previews but sure even such can be paid previews to push a sale as so often nowadays youtubers review products.

 

[TToby]

Greetings, I am the guy who can't stop doing an unsuccessful Google search for "Valve Deckard VR" every single day. LOL. Saying this... shit I forgot to do the search today.
I am a bit VR-Hardware crazy myself. Even more than looking for new games and stuff... I have VaM, who cares for games. In the time before Covid, I was traveling to every VR exhibition in a not-so-far distance, nowerdays you have to watch them in a video stream and can't touch anything.
If you want a non-payed Youtube review, I suggest MRTV and VoodooDE from Germany. I am following them for a long time and am somewhat sure they will tell what they really think.
We life in a existing time, may the new year be better than the old one!

 

[TToby]

I just stumbled upon this and I think it's really great:

 

[Jiraiya]

@TToby , yes, there are quite a few open source solutions for DIY gloves now.
Two main styles, "wires" like the one you posted and "claw" which uses a normally 3D printed literal claw that reaches over the back of your hand to the finger tips.
Both styles come with and without force feedback.
My main issue with the DIY ones is the bulk. The one in that video does not look as bad as some, but certainly not something I think I would feel comfy with in VaM.
If I was going to design one, I would use linear slider pots that could lay flat over the back of the hand with the servo at the end of them. This would make the whole thing a lot lower profile.
It might not be long before I lose to the random impulse to build one myself, at the moment I am more interested in the SlimeVR tracker DIY stuff.

 

[TToby]

I was fascinated by the fact that those guy has everything ready, 3d printing models, buying lists, software, ...even game mods, shared for free.
You are right, this ridiculous bulky appearance is driving me away from this, too.
I have a 3d printer and are somewhat good in re-using different Thingiverse parts in my own creations.
Linear actuators sounds good. I am definitely interested, but you will always need to mod your games somehow to make this work. This is a big downside. Do you know if there is allready a mod for VaM?

Artificial muscles are IMHO the way to go in the near future. That sounds like science fiction, but there are allready some reactive synthetic threads that will shrink if switching an electric voltage on/off.
Think of clothes with those threads woven in! No full exoskeleton needed.

 

[Jiraiya]

I found another project that used linear POTs but they are 60mm long (not sure if thats travel or total size) so they have their own issues for bulk on the back of your hand.
I know there is already a way to do this in VaM, somebody on this very forum has 3D printed a claw type hand and is working on a plugin that integrates it directly into VaM.

If I can get myself past the motivation hurdle I might just print somebody else's glove rather than wanting to remake it as my own. I just always think I can make it better and waste all my time instead of just copying somebody else's hard work I definitely want at least one of these though.

 

[TToby]

I just always think I can make it better and waste all my time instead of just copying

That sounds familiar.

OK, here I come, motivation hurdle! If somebody does the VaM integration part for one of those open-source gloves,
then I will definitelyprint it! (sooner or later... )

 

[svanir]

I was actually looking a the Lucid VR gloves too (the 60 dollar haptic DIY ones you shared in the vid above), currently I'm trying to figure out either A) how to code and then make a plugin for VAM for them or B) find someone who knows how to. I don't even think it would be hard to do really, as it seems like a lot of the work is already done...that is...VAM wouldn't be controlling the haptics of the glove at all as that is already coded via their software called "Open Glove" for free on Steam. What is needed from VAM as far as a plugin would be basically providing the data/communicating WITH Open Glove in order to tell it where the hand was in relation to objects and how rigid/soft objects are that are being gripped as well as the general shape of those objects in order to control the little servo motors that control how much tension to use to hold back each finger. I think it's totally doable it's just a matter of knowing what the heck we are reading in the code line and luckily that LUCID VR TECH community is pretty active on discord, etc. But we should try to garner support on the VAM discord to get other people to call attention to this effort. I KNOW for a fact that there are many more people who would be interested in this but it just feels like too much work to start on our own. We could easily find a creator who already makes stuff on VAM who, if we all chip in and fund them a little bit, would probably be willing to make a good plugin to allow the haptics to work on any gloves using LUCID VR's Open Glove program/app on Steam.

 

[svanir]

^And for what it's worth, it's also a long term good idea if we're all into haptic VR gloves because LUCID VR's next goal is working on making the design FAR more compact which means....there is a good chance certain parts of the glove will be able to be used in the newer version but that also, whatever Plugin we create NOW for VAM that syncs up with Open Glove, would still be able to be used with any future version of their gloves (including modified personal versions). So I'd say we should go for it and try to ask around the VAM discord to see who else is interested

 

[svanir]

I saw this but honestly, pretty poor showing. Only fingertip feedback, not whole finger or hand. So just 5 points per hand.
Also, no position sense or movement restriction!
There are DIY gloves now that monitor your hand/finger position for feedback into the VR system for hand tracking as well as allow for restricted movement in a way that would feel far more realistic than the 5 pads in these gloves.

Don't get me wrong, it's amazing to see progress and commercial hardware in this area but these gloves don't excite me yet. I am more likely to make a pair myself than buy these.

In addition though...you could literally add on the LUCID VR kit on top of these gloves bhaptics/ Tactgloves and then you'd have both finger position haptics as well as fingertip sensation/haptics. Yeah it's not ideal I guess, but it would certainly be a cool way DIY way to achieve more comprehensive haptic feedback

 

[bumslap]

Tactglove. Personally i think it's a big step forward. Mainly because it's compatible with Ultraleap's leap motion controller, which is also affordable.

Yes, it only has fingertip feedback, but your own brain is capable of many things now that it has the sense of "touch" thanks to this glove. Movement restriction would be nice, but not necessary in a games like WaM.

But, does the Tactglove actually work with the WaM ? Would you get the feedback on fingertips ? This i want to know.

Sorry for my bad english.

 

[RiftWind]

Just leaping in with a question - is there currently any purchasable gloves like this for the consumer? Or are they mostly prototype, self built or hireable hardware? Ive been looking myself to expand my gear and havent found anything to buy anywhere thats supported or affordable.

 

[Jiraiya]

your best bet is to find somebody 3d printing the open source ones and throw cash at them. They probably wouldn't mind printing a second set of parts to offset some of their cost.
I am still tuning my printer and waiting for him to stop radically changing the design before printing anything.

 

[hungmane]

Does the Tactglove works with VAM ? (Occulus 2 + Virtualdesktop)

 

[Jiraiya]

I don't think VaM has built in finger control.
Like the full body tracking in VaM it would require some extra work/plugins to have the hands follow the movement. Certainly not a problem, but I don't think it's built in.
I very much would like to see the Quest 2 hand tracking mapped correctly into VaM if anybody has any idea how to do that! If the data is available via OSC then some standard OSC plugins for VaM are the way to go I think.

 

[RiftWind]

Thats a shame, the one thing VR stuffs seem to be missing is the ability to tell if you have hold of an object or not. I read the tech news alot and its always being talked about like its freely available, but it appears it is not XD

 

[Jiraiya]

The open source glove is in theory EASY to integrate into VaM.
Both position sense and tactile feedback should be possible via a plugin you attach to the person atom and then posses.
It's not that it isn't freely available, it's just that "some assembly is required".

 

[RiftWind]

On a related note, if you could send the tactile rumble feedback from the VR controllers to bhaptic devices, that would semi-work for some situations. They do arm bands and vests, if you attach a track to the vest and somehow get the feedback to the vest on touch that could be neat.