Haptic Actuators Can Be Used to Add a Sense of Touch in The Virtual World, Increase Illusion of Immersion

The virtual world is getting close to reality with the addition of the sense of touch. According to a report, feelies will soon arrive in the metaverse.

Feelies Will Be Introduced in the Metaverse Through Haptic Device

The virtual world has connected people from different parts of the world. However, it doesn't completely take away the absence of the person because one can't feel the other individual due to the lack of physical touch.

Good news, feelies are coming to the virtual world. Feelie is a proposed future entertainment, akin to a movie, where audience can physically feel what happens to the characters.

In video games, it is an extra package to immerse the player into the game world and offers a hint to solve the game.

In the virtual world, if you reach out to a ball, your hand will no longer just pass through the item. You will be able to feel and grasp it, increasing the illusion of immersion.

If you dribble the ball, you can feel it in your hands. However, you can't bring it to the real world. If it's food, you can't eat it.

A haptic device can be used to make it possible. One has to wear haptic clothing to feel what needs to be felt, according to The Economist.

There are talks about whole-body haptic suits, but what one needs probably depends on what one does in the virtual world. As for the example above with the ball, haptic gloves will suffice.

Moving gloved hands will create the corresponding movement of a user's virtual hand with sensations appropriate to objects "touched" being fed back via devices called haptic actuators incorporated into the glove. As a result, the user will feel the texture and weight of the object they touch in the virtual world.

What Are Haptic Devices?

Haptics is the science of touch. It is the recent enhancement to virtual reality allowing users to "touch" and feel the stimulated objects they interact with, according to Mimic Technologies Inc.

Haptic devices or haptic interfaces are mechanical devices used between the user and the computer to mediate communication. Through haptic devices, users can touch, feel and manipulate three-dimensional objects in the virtual world.

Haptic devices can be considered input-output devices because they track the user's movement and provide realistic touch sensations that coordinate with the events onscreen. Examples of haptic devices are peripheral devices with special motors and sensors like joysticks and steering wheels.

Meanwile, haptic actuators come in a variety of form. The most used are erms (eccentric rotating masses) and lras (linear resonant actuators).

Spanish firm, owo Game, is set to release a haptic vest. The vest will be worn next to the skin as it relies on electrical stimulation rather than vibrating actuators.

It will deliver tuneable levels of current to different parts of the torso. Aside from producing tingling sensations, it can cause muscles to contract. The effects can be replicated to include being shot, stabbed and blown up, which gamers will surely appreciate.

In Washington, Haptx has designed gloves G1 that offer realistic touch for the enterprise metaverse. The gloves are air pumped through a network of tubes that inflate or deflate 135 tiny balloons incorporated into each glove. The compressor and electronics powering the system are held in a backpack, allowing the users to move freely.

Haptic technology bridges the gap between the virtual and real world, because it allows one to perceive the unreal world as tangible, according to xtb. It is now widely used in gaming, robotics, aerospace, automotive, medical and space sectors.

Thanks to this technology, it's possible to stimulate touch and experience pleasure in virtual interactions.

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