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Hands-on: Tactical Haptics’ New Controllers Let You Switch Your Grip on the Fly

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This week at CES 2018, Tactical Haptics debuted a new prototype of their haptic VR controller which allows the devices to attach and detach on the fly in several different poses for different types of gameplay. The controllers are being piloted in IMAX’s VR arcade.

Reactive Grip

For the last several years Tactical Haptics has been developing VR controllers with a unique form of haptic feedback which they call reactive grip. It works by sliding sections along the grip of the controller to simulate torque forces in your hand (the pressure you’d feel while swaying a baseball bat back and forth in your hands). It’s a compelling sensation that goes far beyond mere rumble haptics.

Tactical Haptics is taking the controllers in a bold new direction which allows the them to be reconfigured on the fly to mimic hand poses that are commonly found in VR games, like a steering wheel or gun.

DIY Inspiration

Tactical Haptics founder Will Provancher says the idea was partly inspired by hardcore VR users who were making DIY controller mounts which would hold their Rift or Vive controllers in orientations mimicking the grips of a two-handed weapon for enhanced immersion for VR games that use two-handed guns.

Some hardcore VR users have been building DIY controller mounts to make the controllers feel more like a two-handed gun peripheral, like this one by Reddit user ‘are_you_sure_’

Rather than simply allowing you to change from one pose to another between games, the new Reactive Grip prototype, which connects in several different poses using magnets and guides, actually makes switching from one configuration to another part of the moment-to-moment gameplay.

Modal Gameplay

‘Asymmetric’ pose (two-handed weapons, etc.) | Photo by Road to VR

At CES 2018 the company was showing a demo where players would use the controllers in what I’m calling ‘Independent’, ‘Symmetric’, and ‘Asymmetric’ configurations, and switch between them on the fly. In the demo, when holding the controllers apart from one another (Independent), you see a pistol in one hand and a wand-like tool in the other. When you bring the two controllers together into the Symmetric pose, you see those items turn into a brand new tool: a gravity gun which has grips that match the physical orientation of the controller grips. And when you bring the controllers together into their Asymmetric configuration (a two-handed weapon pose), you see a gun appear in front of you in the game. Switching between these various poses to suit what tool or weapon you need in the moment actually becomes a fun piece of the gameplay.

Easy Switching

Though the magnets help guide the controllers together, it would be challenging to do so while blinded by the headset, if not for the smart addition of green indicators that appear in VR as you move the controllers close to each other. These indicators offer a virtual representation of the controllers’ various connecting points, and make it effortless to connect and reconfigure them as you play. After practicing just a few tries I was easily able to disconnect and reconnect in different poses.

‘Symmetric’ pose (steering wheels, flight yolks, etc) | Photo by Road to VR

Of course, as you’re using the controllers in their different poses, the Reactive Grip haptics adapt their behavior to uniquely suit whatever you might be holding in VR. When I was using the gravity gun tool in the demo (Symmetric pose), I could feel the grips causing a feeling of torque in my hands depending upon the direction I was swinging an object in the game. When I connected the controllers into the Asymmetric pose and fired the two-handed gun, I could feel the controllers kick backwards as if the gun’s recoil was pushing the grips against my hand.

Continued on Page 2: Pose Potential »

The post Hands-on: Tactical Haptics’ New Controllers Let You Switch Your Grip on the Fly appeared first on Road to VR.


HTC: Vive Pro to Launch With Updated Wand Controller, Not Valve’s ‘Knuckles’

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HTC says that the new Vive Pro controllers, due out later this year, will be an updated version of the current Vive wands, rather than Valve’s anticipated ‘Knuckles’ controllers.

Upon unveiling the Vive Pro earlier this week, HTC demonstrated the new headset with the original Vive wand controllers but said that new controllers, compatible with SteamVR Tracking 2.0, would be introduced and sold alongside the Vive Pro later this year. Many hoped the forthcoming Vive Pro controllers would take the form of Valve’s anticipated ‘Knuckles’ design, but the company has confirmed to Road to VR that’s not the case.

The original Vive wand controller | Photo by Road to VR

Instead of the Knuckles controllers, HTC plans to ship the Vive Pro with a pair of updated wand controllers which will include the SteamVR Tracking 2.0 sensors. The company says the wands will see a refreshed design, but it won’t be Knuckles.

The Vive community has been excited for the Knuckles controllers since their introduction last year. The controllers have a unique design that’s a stark departure from the Vive wands: they’re more compact and feature a ‘cinch’ that allows the controller to be worn around the palm so that the user can let go of the controller’s body entirely to facilitate more natural gripping gestures. The Knuckles controllers also include capacitive sensors capable of analog finger tracking. Reports indicate they are a good answer to Oculus’ Touch controllers, which are preferred by many over the Vive wands.

Image courtesy Shawn Whiting

Valve has been iterating on the Knuckles design, and shipped dev kits to developers back in June, 2017. Since then, anticipation has only grown, and the Vive community has been eagerly waiting the controller’s public availability.

As for why HTC made this choice, it sounds like it may not have been up to them.

“Knuckles release date and introduction is a Valve question,” an HTC spokesperson told Road to VR, suggesting that the company would be shipping with Knuckles, if the option was available.

SEE ALSO
Valve Sends 'Knuckles' Controller Dev Kit to Revive Developer

Since HTC and Valve worked closely together on the development of the Vive, it has long felt like a natural conclusion that Knuckles would eventually become part of the Vive system.

Image courtesy Cloudhead Games

But with HTC just about ready to roll out a new headset, and still no Knuckles in sight, it’s possible that Valve is taking a different approach with the controllers—perhaps they plan to sell them direct to customers? It’s not implausible, given that Valve makes and sells the Steam Controller direct to PC gamers. Valve might want Knuckles to become a common VR input device across all SteamVR headsets so that developers have a consistent target for developing their input interactions. Or maybe Valve just hasn’t finished designing them.

With no recent update from Valve, it’s hard to say. We’ve reached out to ask the company for a status update on the development and release roadmap for Knuckles, and you’ll hear from us if we hear from them.

The post HTC: Vive Pro to Launch With Updated Wand Controller, Not Valve’s ‘Knuckles’ appeared first on Road to VR.

VirZOOM Closes $5.5M Seed Funding to Develop Second Generation of VR Bike Kit

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VirZOOM, makers of VR arcade exercise games and the VirZOOM Bike Controller, announced the successful closure of a $5.5 million seed funding round which the company says will help expand its commercial business worldwide with a second generation of its VZ Module and VZ Sensor, a retrofitting kit for stationary bikes that turns them into VR controllers.

Investors include Skywood Capital, with personal investments from partners at Eastham Capital, Fairhaven Capital, and Equity Resource Investments. Co-Founder and CEO Eric Janszen is the largest single investor. New investors include Greycroft partner Jon Goldman through his GC VR Gaming Tracker Fund. The Tracker fund is focused on VR, AR, eSports, and game start-ups.

in-home VirZoom bike (2017), image courtesy VirZoom

VirZOOM (pronounced ver-ZOOM) started selling its VZ Arcade fitness games in June 2016. After expanding into China with the help of Chinese VR headset manufacturer 3Glasses, VirZOOM later announced in summer 2017 an expansion into the commercial gym market worldwide in a partnership with Life Fitness, the fitness equipment company.

“VirZOOM is skipping past the early adopters to bring VR to mass market customers through cardio exercise motivation. The company is making actual sales, shipping products commercially for a year and a half and forming commercial partnerships with major fitness equipment companies like Life Fitness, who can help VirZOOM scale,” said Jon Goldman, investor and founder of the GC VR Gaming Tracker Fund.

VirZOOM’s game suite supports Gear VR, Rift, Vive, PSVR and Windows VR headsets. Games include bespoke multiplayer games like traditional cycling, horse racing, F1 racing, tank battles, and even flying on the back of a pegasus. Competitive and cooperative matches can be played by up to 8 players, including head-to-head challenges and time attacks.

The post VirZOOM Closes $5.5M Seed Funding to Develop Second Generation of VR Bike Kit appeared first on Road to VR.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 VRDK to Offer Ultrasonic 6DOF Controller Tracking

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Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 845 VRDK, a VR headset reference design for hardware and software developers, is now offering 6DOF controller input with ultrasonic tracking.

Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 845 VDRK is essentially a starting point for companies who want to build their own standalone VR headsets to offer to customers; the reference headset offers a number of options which can be customized to taste. Options like hand-tracking and eye-tracking have made their way into the offering, and now ultrasonic tracking for 6DOF controller input is available, as noted in a press release by Goertek, the manufurating partner of the Snapdragon 845 VRDK.

Consumer headsets like the Oculus Go, Lenovo Mirage Solo, and HTC Vive Focus are all based on earlier versions of the Snapdragon VRDK, but none of them offer 6DOF controller tracking. 6DOF controller tracking means that the controller can be tracked through 3D space (just like high-end tethered VR headsets), which leads to a significantly more immersive VR experience. The aforementioned headsets only support 3DOF controller tracking, which means only the rotation of the controller is sensed, limiting the feeling of truly having your hands in VR.

6DOF controllers on standalone headsets have been a tough nut to crack because of the difficulties of achieving a large sensing volume without external sensors, and because of the power and compute constraints of mobile hardware compared to PC hardware.

While Oculus has been working on an optical 6DOF controller tracking approach on their Santa Cruz prototype, Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon VRDK hopes to solve the problem with ultrasonic tracking, which uses inaudible sound waves to triangulate the position of an object in space. The latest images of the reference headset show what appear to be six ultrasonic emitters (and/or receivers) on the headset, three on each side. These would be used to either send or receive ultrasonic signals to corresponding controllers, while differences in timing from each of the signals is used to calculate position, which would likely be fused with rotational data from an onboard IMU.

Image courtesy Qualcomm

Ultrasonic tracking is not new by any means; we’ve seen VR trackers based on the technology in recent years, and the tech was employed for similar purposes long before the modern era of VR. Pico Neo was one of the first modern standalone headsets we’ve seen using ultrasonic tracking for 6DOF input, though our hands-on with the headset earlier this year didn’t inspire much confidence in the controller tracking.

Generally speaking, the capabilities of ultrasonic tracking have been considered insufficient as a head-tracking solution for high-end VR headsets, though hand-tracking is less sensitive to latency and accuracy, and could prove effective with the right implementation. The Pico Neo solution was developed by Chirp Microsystems, and while the headset is based on an earlier version of the Snapdragon VRDK, it isn’t clear if the latest reference headset is using the same system (we’ve reached out for confirmation from Goertek). The Pico Neo appears to be using three front-facing emitters/receivers on the headset compared to six on the 845 VRDK, which are placed on the front and sides of the device; it remains to be seen what impact this could have on the controller tracking quality.

New standalone headsets based on the Snapdragon 845 VRDK are expected to start popping up in the second half of 2018, though it’ll be up to each company to decide if they want to include ultrasonic 6DOF controller tracking with their headset.

The post Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 VRDK to Offer Ultrasonic 6DOF Controller Tracking appeared first on Road to VR.

Vive Focus to Get 6DOF Controller Mode, Optical Hand-tracking for Gesture Input

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While it’s exciting to start seeing 6DOF standalone VR headsets like the Vive Focus and Mirage Solo, both unfortunately include a 3DOF controller which in many cases functions as an immersion barrier compared to a fully 6DOF VR system. Today at its Vive Ecosystem Conference 2018 in China, HTC said that the 3DOF Vive Focus controller will see a 6DOF mode, and further said that the headset will soon include controller-less hand-tracking for gesture input.

3DOF to 6DOF Controller Upgrade

Following interesting research from Google on the topic of 3DOF controllers being used for 6DOF input with the aid of on-board cameras and some computer-vision processing, HTC today teased that the Vive Focus controller could be used as a 6DOF controller by leveraging the headset’s on-board cameras and the company’s “proprietary AI computer vision technology.”

The Windows VR headsets also use their on-board cameras to track their controllers, but have the advantage of the controllers being covered in LEDs to give the cameras a much easier target to track. When it comes to the Vive Focus’ simple 3DOF controller, it seems more complex computer vision processing would need to be employed considering that the device lacks and explicit tracking markers. Presumably HTC also has the option of launching a new Focus controller with markers for enhanced accuracy, though the company says that being able to roll out a 6DOF mode for the controller without additional cost to end-users is a key benefit of their approach—though it isn’t clear strategically why the company waited until after the headset’s launch to add such a game changing (literally) feature.

SEE ALSO
After Management Shuffle, HTC Says VR/AR More Important Than Ever to Its Future

Similar to the Windows VR headsets, tracking of the controller can only be done when the controller is inside the field of view of the cameras, so the 6DOF tracking area will largely depend on the area which the Focus’ cameras can see. Outside of that area, the position of the controllers can be inferred from the IMU, but this becomes inaccurate quickly, making games where players hands aren’t always in front of them potentially problematic for such tracking. Key to making this kind of controller tracking feel decent will be how quickly the system can relocate an accurate controller position once it comes back into view.

HTC has also confirmed to Road to VR that the Vive Focus’ new PC VR streaming functionality will eventually also support the 6DOF controller tracking mode.

Hand-tracking for Gesture Input

In addition to the 6DOF mode for the Vive Focus controller, HTC has announced that developers will soon be able to use gesture recognition in their applications thanks to hand-tracking through the Vive Focus’ cameras. HTC tells Road to VR that this function is specifically for coarse gesture recognition, not finger-level tracking like you might expect from something like Leap Motion. The company says it will launch the gesture recognition SDK to Viveport developers in the coming weeks.

The post Vive Focus to Get 6DOF Controller Mode, Optical Hand-tracking for Gesture Input appeared first on Road to VR.

Valve Reveals Latest Knuckles Dev Kit & New ‘Moondust’ Tech Demo

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Since announcing the ‘Knuckles’ controller prototype all the way back in 2016, Valve has been relatively quiet about its progress outside of a select group of developers who have been experimenting with early development kits. That changed this week as Valve offered up a major information dump, showcasing the latest Knuckles dev kit with a significant design overhaul, alongside a new tech demo designed to demonstrate what the controllers are capable of.

If you haven’t been following closely, let’s recap up to this point. While the HTC Vive shipped with its wand controllers back in 2016, Valve revealed later that year that it was developing a brand new VR controller, dubbed ‘Knuckles’, which aimed to make VR interactions more intuitive and immersive by rethinking how users should hold and interact with their input device. Though early indications suggested Valve was on a smart path with this new VR controller approach, it was apparently quite early in the development of the device, as its been a solid year and eight months since that initial reveal, with still no indication of when the controllers might come to market.

However, this week Valve made a major info dump on Knuckles, revealing the very latest dev kit, dubbed ‘EV2’, which brings big changes to prior prototypes while looking all around much closer to being a finished product. The company says “hundreds of developers” will soon have their hands on EV2 to begin experimenting with input and offering feedback for further improvements.

EV2’s most immediately apparent change is to its visible inputs. Earlier versions of Knuckles were built around the large trackpad paradigm that was central to the design of the original Vive controllers. EV2 on the other hand introduces a thumbstick and more centralized buttons, and significantly shrinks the trackpad down into what Valve is calling a ‘track button’: a smaller trackpad surface which rests between the stick and the buttons. From Valve’s latest posts on the new controllers, the decision to add a thumbstick appears to have been driven in a large part by feedback from developers—Oculus heard something similar when they made a large trackpad the primary input mechanism on early versions of the Santa Cruz controllers.

SEE ALSO
Valve's New Site Affirms Role of VR in Company's Future, Teases "Top secret" Games

But there’s more to EV2, both on the outside and under the hood. The outward appearance looks much more polished and closer to consumer-ready than previous versions of Knuckles, now with SteamVR Tracking sensors hidden completely under the controller’s housing. An ergonomic overhaul aims to fit a wider variety of hands (Valve says they’re targeting hand sizes between the 5th and 95th percentiles); along with a ‘tracking fin’ which offers more room, the strap which holds the controller to the hand has seen adjustments to its shape and now has an adjustment which lets users change the position of the top mounting point for a customized fit.

Image courtesy Valve

Beneath its exterior, EV2 still has plenty of newness. While previous versions of Knuckles used capacitive sensing to track the position of the user’s fingers along the grip of the controller, a new force sensor, which detects actual grip force, further enhances the controller’s ability to understand what a user’s hand is doing, and its ability to bring that information into the virtual world.

The track button also has a force sensor which, combined with haptics, can simulate the click of a button (whereas the original Vive controllers have a trackpad with an actual button click). The thumbstick and face buttons also have capacitive sensing, making it easy for the controller to know where the user’s fingers are at all times, and represent that information in the virtual world.

Valve says they’ve spent significant effort to fuse all of the sensing information from the controllers together to make it easier for developers to understand user intent, especially with regard to actions like picking up, dropping, and throwing objects. The company has devised a system which dynamically interprets sensor input to understand the difference, for example, between a user wanting to drop an object vs. simply relaxing their grip on it. Thanks to the strap design, Knuckles is made to allow users to fully release the controller for a natural throwing motion. Valve seems very proud of what they’ve been able to achieve with regard to intuitive input, calling EV2 “a new step in natural and precise VR interaction.”

To demonstrate what the controller can do, Valve created a new tech demo called Moondust. Set in the ‘Portal’ universe, Moondust is a playground for EV2, where users can experience the force sensor by grabbing and crushing moon rocks, use the new thumbstick by driving a remote controlled moon buggy, precisely assemble a space station, and get a feel for natural throwing by tossing grenades in the throwing range.

Moondust won’t work without Knuckles controllers, which makes sense considering it’s designed to help developers understand the capabilities of Knuckles EV2 as they begin to experiment with how the controllers could enhance their own content.

– – — – –

While there’s still no word on when Knuckles will launch to consumers, nor any indication of price, these latest details from Valve show a rapidly maturing device both in functionality and production readiness. And while we’d love to see them sooner rather than later, there’s a good argument to be made that they won’t debut until Valve is ready to launch one of their upcoming VR games, which may not happen for some time yet.

The post Valve Reveals Latest Knuckles Dev Kit & New ‘Moondust’ Tech Demo appeared first on Road to VR.

Valve Shipping Knuckles to “Hundreds” of Developers, Mass Production Could Be Next

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Alongside the reveal of the revamped Knuckles controllers that Valve shared last week, third party developers have confirmed they’ve begun receiving the new EV2 version of the controller. Valve says that “soon, hundreds of developers will get their hands on developer kits and begin experimenting,” and the company is inviting more developers to join the Knuckles dev kit program. Along with the clearly matured design shown off in Knuckles EV2, the quantity of controllers being shipped out to developers suggests that Valve has begun manufacturing small batches, possibly in preparation for a broader rollout.

Knuckles EV2 is the latest iteration of Valve’s in-development VR controller. The company first revealed the hardware project all the way back in 2016, and since then the device has come a long way. The EV2’s design is sleeker and more functional than its predecessors. Visually speaking, it looks much closer to a finished product, especially now that the SteamVR Tracking sensors have been hidden under the plastic. The input module, which contains the thumbstick, track button, and buttons, looks to be a singular unit which could drop directly into the circular opening in the housing of the controller—very similar to the consumer version of the Touch controllers—suggesting a more manufacturing-ready design than previous iterations. The hand strap is even said to be made from an “easy-to-clean anti-microbial material,” and has a fashionable heathered look to boot.

Image courtesy Valve

Speaking to Ars Technica, Valve’s Doug Lombardi suggested that the current version of Knuckles could even be the final design.

“Iteration is a big deal at Valve. So, we will definitely be making updates based on feedback. Whether that happens in the software or the physical hardware may vary depending on what we hear from the dev community.” When asked about consumer availability of the controllers, he told Ars, “more information will be made available soon.”

Image courtesy @AntonHand

Valve says that Knuckles EV2 is shipping to hundreds of developers, and is welcoming more to request dev kits of their own by signing up on the Steam Partner page—”Log in and look for ‘VR Developer Kit Request’ along the right side of the page,” the company writes. Following the EV2 reveal, Alden Kroll, who is involved in developer outreach at Valve, said today that the company is “trying to meet more VR game developers in the Seattle and Puget Sound area.”

Putting Knuckles in the hands of “hundreds” of developers means two individual controllers for each, so at a minimum the company is manufacturing 200+ devices, which means it’s quite unlikely that they’re relying on much hand-building at this point. Valve has shown its affinity for automated hardware manufacturing, and while it seems unlikely that they’ve gone that far just yet, the production of hundreds of dev kits suggests that they’ve moved to small batch manufacturing as they tune the process for larger production runs, especially considering the need to support an influx of developers who will need additional controllers when hardware issues arise.

SEE ALSO
Valve's New Site Affirms Role of VR in Company's Future, Teases "Top secret" Games

Taken together, the latest info on Knuckles suggests that the controllers could be ready for mass production as early as this year, but that may not be the only factor in when they come to market. Valve has heavily hinted that the three VR games the company is building have been developed in conjunction with the development of Knuckles, and it’s quite possible that the release of their first major VR title will be tied to the release of Knuckles. Valve tends to follow a ‘done when it’s done’ approach, so we’ll have to wait to see what factor Valve Time plays in the project.

The post Valve Shipping Knuckles to “Hundreds” of Developers, Mass Production Could Be Next appeared first on Road to VR.

Exclusive: Cloudhead Games Goes In-depth with Knuckles EV2 & Predecessors

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It’s hard to believe that it’s been almost two years since the SteamVR Knuckles controllers were first revealed using a demo of our game, Call of the Starseed (2016), at Steam Devs Days 2016. Now, at the reveal of Knuckles EV2 this summer, we’ve got a whole bunch more to talk about.

Guest Article by Denny Unger

Denny is the CEO and Creative Director of Cloudhead Games. As a VR Pioneer he has spearheaded two critically acclaimed and award-winning VR experiences with The Gallery – EP1: Call of the Starseed and EP2: Heart of the Emberstone. Working closely with VR hardware leaders in the space, including Valve, HTC, and Oculus, Cloudhead Games continues to innovate, inform, and entertain.

If you’re just getting into VR, or you haven’t heard of the term ‘Knuckles’ outside of VRChat (2017), the SteamVR Knuckles is the first modern non-glove VR controller to support five-finger tracking. While Oculus Touch is known to have capacitive sensors (capsense) for the thumb and index fingers, Knuckles controllers give users tracking of all five fingers using capsense on the triggers, face buttons, and the bases of controllers. These new inputs create a more natural representation of a user’s hands in VR, and they open the door to new gameplay possibilities.

While finger tracking has many exciting implications on its own, one of the most important innovations with Knuckles is its ‘open-handed hold.’ You can fasten the controller to your hand and then let go of your grip without dropping it—you can ‘hold’ it without actually holding it.

Image courtesy Cloudhead Games

The first Knuckles prototype we received was diminutive in size compared to the EV2 we have today. The strapping mechanism was a crazy velcro wrap that you would slip into like a fingerless glove and then tighten around the palm. The controller itself was about the size of a desktop mouse with a deeply scalloped trackpad. That first prototype was an early kit for evaluation and feedback, and we wouldn’t see changes to Knuckles for nearly nine months.

The second pair of Knuckles we received (called Knuckles 1.3) focused mostly on ergonomics. We saw the velcro strap replaced by a pull-cord brace that tightened against the back of the hand instead of around the the palm; you could now slip the controller on and tighten it within a few seconds. Both the base and the sensor bar were longer for variable hand sizes and improved tracking.

But some of the biggest changes since the controller’s initial reveal came last week with Knuckles EV2.

The first thing to notice on EV2 is a completely redesigned controller face. The scalloped trackpad has gone wayward in favour of a touchstrip. The base of the controller now has grip/pressure sensitivity in addition to capsense. The redesign of the face buttons and introduction of thumbsticks align more closely with the control layout on Touch, which will make it easier to create common control schemes across platforms.

I think part of the rationale for moving from the trackpad to the thumbstick / touchstrip combo is that most trackpad interactions in VR were swiping motions rather than utilization of the full area of the pad. The new touchstrip offers the same functionality as the trackpad (lateral x-axis movement is there in a smaller footprint), plus pressure sensitivity for the thumb.

Image courtesy Cloudhead Games

As well as some major changes to input, there are also some important ergonomic changes going on in EV2. The new strap in particular is really smart; it has a push-pivot point along the top circumference so you can move it forward and back to help get ideal hand placement for the capsense. It also features a rotational pivot to seat the strap comfortably on the back of your hand; and a material change from flat-padding to a nice gripped fabric that’s much more comfortable over long periods of use—and it makes perspiration a lot less noticeable during your Beat Saber (2018) sessions.

Image courtesy Cloudhead Games

One of the more subtle changes to the hardware over time is the way in which the trigger buttons now interface with the handle of the controllers at a very slight curve. With previous iterations that curve was more dramatic, and in VR your brain had a tough time rectifying the gap between your trigger finger and the rest of your fingers. That gap has since been massaged to the point that your perception of finger separation in VR feels normalized.

Knuckles EV2 is a pretty radical shift for users coming from the Vive wands or even Oculus Touch. Vive users will find that teleportation and free locomotion is a much more comfortable experience with thumbsticks than with the old trackpad.

SEE ALSO
Cloudhead Games – Lessons Learned From Five Years of VR Locomotion Experiments

One question we get a lot is whether we prefer Touch or Knuckles, and the simple answer is that it’s not fair to compare them.

Touch comes from an Xbox origin with a goal to emulate the traditional mapping of a gamepad, while also introducing the concept of basic finger tracking. Knuckles is a next-gen solution with the goal of removing the abstractions of holding a gamepad or thinking about hand poses. These controllers are two different approaches built at two different times, and both companies have the right idea—using fingers and hands in a more intuitive way is the future of VR.

Which leads to another question: is Knuckles truly next-gen VR?

My answer is “absolutely.” I can interact in an open-handed manner with my environment; all of my fingers are unobstructed; and I don’t have to think about any hand poses, my hands just do what comes naturally. And when I need something in my hand, a controller is still there. If I grip an object or a gun, or do any other gross interaction in the environment, there is always something to meet my hand with haptics and pressure and tactility.

Obviously Knuckles is not the final step for VR input. Looking further into the future at the next four to five years, a lot of work is being done to provide exoskeleton inputs and per-finger haptics. But to get there with any success, we need to start here with hardware and software that enables developers to create new interactions with the entire hand considered.

Knuckles EV2 is a next-generation step toward whatever that future may be, and we’re so excited to be building our next VR experience toward that future too.

The post Exclusive: Cloudhead Games Goes In-depth with Knuckles EV2 & Predecessors appeared first on Road to VR.


Valve Reveals Knuckles EV3 Dev Kit, Planning Production of “Much greater quantities”

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Having revealed the ‘Knuckles’ EV2 controller development kit just a few months ago, Valve has rapidly incorporated improvements based on feedback from developers and today revealed the updated EV3. The company says will be “produced in much greater quantities than EV2,” of which Valve said “hundreds” were shipped. Improvements from EV2 to EV3 are less significant compared to the big changes from the previous update, but suggest the company is very near to a finished product.

Revealing the Knuckles EV3 controllers today, Valve shared a brief rundown of changes from EV2:

  • Strap
    • Strap adjustment markings have been added to the top plate
    • Strap rivet is thinner and no longer interferes with the wing
    • Drawstring is now shorter
  • Trigger
    • Trigger spring is now stronger
    • Improved Trigger assembly and reliability
  • System Button
    • The System button has been recessed slightly to avoid accidental presses
  • Grip FSR
    • Grip FSRs (force sensors) more consistent from unit to unit
  • Battery Life
    • Higher efficiency sensors increase battery life by 2 hours
    • Players can now expect 7-8 hours of playtime per charge
  • Other
    • LED light mixing improved
    • USB port has been recessed, making it easier to connect the charge / data cable
    • Improved fit and finish
    • Improved reliability

Valve says it shipped out “hundreds” of EV2 dev kits, and is planning to produce “much greater quantities” of EV3. This trend follows a similar approach that Valve and HTC took with the debut of the Vive where Valve sent out rough prototypes to a handful of developers and then expanded that pool with the HTC ‘Vive Pre’ which was a nearly complete version of the final Vive consumer headset which shipped a few months later.

Knuckles EV3 | Image courtesy Valve

For developers looking to get their hands on Knuckles EV3, Valve says they’ll be reaching out to existing EV2 recipients and those who requested an EV2 through the Steamworks partner page to begin shipping units. Soon they’ll open a new request form for EV3 for those who haven’t already received or signed up for EV2. They recommend checking the Steamworks partner page or the Knuckles EV3 announcement post for updates on that front.

For developers who plan to design games with Knuckles in mind, the company updated their Moondust tech demo to work with EV3 and revealed the source files for developers to pick apart. The basis for Knuckles integration is the new SteamVR Interaction System; Valve has updated the Unity plugin to support Knuckles, the SteamVR Input System, and SteamVR Skeletal Input. Developers are directed here to learn about it the Interaction System.

Want to know more about Knuckles? Our prior Knuckles writeup details the big changes that came with EV2 and further explores the Moondust demo. We’ve also got an in-depth look at Knuckles EV2 compared to a slew of earlier prototypes thanks to our friends at Cloudhead Games.

The post Valve Reveals Knuckles EV3 Dev Kit, Planning Production of “Much greater quantities” appeared first on Road to VR.

Sixense to Refund STEM Kickstarter Backers After More Than 4 Years of Delays

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In what might be the longest Kickstarter campaign conclusion to date, more than four years following estimated deliveries of the STEM VR controller, Sixense says they will fully refund all backers and pre-orders.

Sixense was once a name central to the early VR community. The company built the technology behind the magnetically tracked Razer Hydra controller which was one of the only consumer-available 6DOF controllers available when the first Oculus Rift development kit (DK1) started shipping.

gdc 2013 oculus rift tuscany razer hydra demoEarly adopters of the DK1 gravitated toward the Hydra for an early glimpse of 6DOF input for VR, back when the headset itself only tracked rotation. I recall years ago strapping a Hydra controller to the headstrap of a DK1 and using the controller in my hand for crude (but at the time revelatory) positionally tracked VR experience.Well before the announcement of the Vive, with its 6DOF wand controllers, or the Rift’s 6DOF Touch controllers, Sixense planned to build its own 6DOF controller system for VR. The ‘STEM’ (based on magnetic tracking, like the Hyrda), would include two controllers and several additional trackers which could be clipped to the head and feet for full body tracking. The company rallied the young VR community around a Kickstarter campaign, successfully raising over $600,000 back in October of 2013, well exceeding the project’s $250,000 goal.

At the time of the Kickstarter, Sixense had estimated that the earliest deliveries of STEM would reach backers by July 2014. As that date slipped past, backers were still hopeful—after all, many successful hardware Kickstarter projects end up seeing some delays. But few could have known that a years-long string of delays would follow, eventually culminating in backers throwing around the word “scam” and repeated calls for refunds and legal action against the company.

It’s been four years and three months since the first STEM deliveries were expected. And in a twist we definitely didn’t see coming, Sixense has announced plans to fully refund all backers (of all tiers) and pre-orders placed through the company’s website, including fees. The company says they’ll use a PayPal-facilitated process to issue refunds, as Kickstarter doesn’t provide a refund service. More details on the exact refund process should come shortly in an update to the STEM Kickstarter.

– – — – –

It’s a bittersweet conclusion for backers—and the right thing for Sixense to do—but may not do much to mend Sixense’s broken relationship with supporters who put their faith in the company only to have it tested to the point of breaking.

From 2014 to as near back as March, 2018, Sixense’s updates to Kickstarter backers made it sound as if the completion of the STEM system was just around the corner. “We are getting close to be able to start production, so please stay with us through this final phase,” read the most recent backer update.

But as early as October 2017 the company began seriously questioning the viability of manufacturing and delivering STEM to its backers.

Speaking to Sixense CEO Amir Rubin this week, he told me that by the time that Valve/HTC and Oculus began shipping their own VR controllers—some two years after the initial STEM systems were estimated to be delivered—it became clear to Sixense that STEM would be fighting an uphill battle in the PC VR space, though the company held out hope that it would be a great match for mobile VR headsets, and refocused their efforts on the project for that use-case.

Image courtesy Oculus

But then, unable to get STEM out the door for another year later and a half, Oculus revealed VR controllers as part of its Santa Cruz II prototype (which would go on to become Oculus Quest) in October 2017, causing Sixense to reconsider whether bringing STEM to consumers made sense, Rubin told me. The final nail in the coffin was when, just last month, Oculus announced that Quest would ship next year with VR controllers at a $400 price point.

– – — – –

Rubin told me that Sixense had spent all of the $600,000 Kickstarter budget by the end of 2014, but says the company continued to fund R&D to try to bring STEM to market (before deciding to kill it). I wondered then, if the company couldn’t pay to get STEM’s myriad of manufacturing issues fixed, how could it afford to refund all of its backers?

After coming to grips with STEM not being viable for the consumer VR market, Sixense has begun to focus on enterprise VR solutions. The company has been sending out hand-produced STEM development kits to potential partners with the hopes that the tech will be adopted and licensed as a component piece among non-consumer VR systems.

To that end, Sixense formed a joint venture back in early 2018 with Penumbra, a healthcare company, “for the purpose of exploring healthcare applications of virtual reality technology with Sixense Enterprises, Inc.”

It was a 50/50 partnership, Rubin told me, and just last month Penumbra bought out most of Sixense’s interest in the company for $20 million. He said there was “no question” once the deal was closed that the money should be used to refund backers before being used for other company interests, though he also said the decision to return the money was difficult considering other ventures they could use it for.

– – — – –

It won’t come without a laugh from STEM backers, but Rubin says this is just another delay; STEM will eventually come to the consumer market, in some form or another.

“The fact is, that we are delaying our consumer market release plan until there is a large enough VR systems install base with some ‘killer apps’. I believe that the current optical 6DOF controller solutions represent the early days of the ‘Mechanical Mouse’. I hope that when we release our STEM technology to the consumer market it will have a similar impact as ‘Multi-Touch’ did,” he said.

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HTC Announces 6DOF Controller Tracking Dev Kit for Vive Focus

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HTC today announced a 6DOF controller tracking add-on for Vive Focus. The add-on, which includes a pair of new controllers, is being released as a development kit.

Vive Focus, HTC’s standalone VR headset, had a full blown launch in China at the beginning of 2018, and was released as a development kit in the West in May. One of the headset’s defining features was inside-out 6DOF headtracking, but the single controller that the headset ships with offers only basic 3DOF input.

Vive China President Alvin Wang Graylin announces the Vive Focus 6DOF controller dev kit on stage at WCVRI in Nanchang, the captiral of China’s Jiangxi province. | Image courtesy HTC

Seemingly in response to both Oculus Quest and the experimental 6DOF controller add-on for the Mirage Solo, HTC today announced that the Vive Focus will get its own 6DOF controller tracking add-on as a dev kit, which adapts existing Focus headsets for tracking a pair of new 6DOF controllers. Developers can submit their interest in receiving the Vive Focus 6DOF controller dev kit add-on starting today.

While Vive Focus was among the first standalone VR headset to include inside-out 6DOF headtracking, being paired with a 3DOF controller puts it in a very awkward design space where developers have to design for a system which can fully track the user’s head but can only partly track the user’s hand, which ultimately limits the kinds of games and experiences that can be built for the device. Adding good 6DOF controller tracking to the headset stands to increase immersion and enable more compelling content.

HTC previously announced that the Vive Focus 3DOF controller would get a 6DOF mode, but the controllers we’re seeing from the 6DOF controller dev-kit are different controllers all together.

Few details have emerged about how the tracking system works, but HTC says that the 6DOF controller dev kit for Vive Focus includes two new controllers and a “tracking attachment” for the headset itself. Other headsets like Quest use on-board cameras to locate and track IR LEDs on the controllers. Vive Focus already includes on-board cameras for managing its own headtracking, but the add-on suggests some other tech is being employed to track the new 6DOF controllers. From the images we have, the Vive Focus 6DOF controllers appear to have a looped top which likely contains hardware to support the tracking tech.

When asked what HTC’s plans are for bringing 6DOF controller tracking to consumers, the company told Road to VR that it has plans to release new headsets based on Vive Wave (HTC’s mobile VR OS which also powers other non-HTC headsets) which will include 6DOF positional tracking. The dev kit, HTC said, will enable developers to build for those forthcoming devices.

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HTC Plans to Bring Hand & Finger Tracking to Vive Pro

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Today at the the World Conference on VR Industry in China, HTC announced plans to bring hand & finger tracking to Vive Pro via the headset’s front-facing cameras.

Back in April HTC launched new tools to help developers take advantage of the Vive Pro’s largely unused front-facing cameras. Now it seems the company plans to double down on that by adding hand and finger tracking that works “natively” on the headset.

On the Vive Pro today, the system can understand the position of a user’s hands thanks to a pair of controllers which are tracked with external beacons. This new capability, which HTC demonstrated today at the WCVRI conference, enables hand-tracking without the need of the need of externally tracked controllers. HTC also indicates that the capability can track individual finger movements too.

Other companies like Leap Motion have developed similar technologies, employing computer vision processing to understand the position and movement of a user’s hands without any special gloves or attachments.

Vive China President Alvin Wang Graylin on stage today at WCVRI 2018 in Nanchang, the capital of China’s Jiangxi province. | Image courtesy HTC

While highly interactive VR content benefits from the binary input capabilities and haptic feedback of controllers, hand tracking can sometimes be more immersive and intuitive, and may work well for certain situations where nothing more than ‘casual’ input is necessary.

HTC says that developer tools for the new feature will be made available soon to registered Viveport developers.

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Hands-on: HaptX’s VR Glove is the Closest I’ve Come to Touching the Virtual World

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HaptX, a company building a VR glove offering impressively detailed haptic feedback as well as force feedback, is steadily improving. My hands-on with their latest device—which is smaller, lighter, and more comfortable than prior iterations—offered me moments of magic where it felt like my hand was actually interacting with real objects.

Let’s get this out of the way up front: there’s still much room for improvement to HaptX’s haptic force feedback glove. Before technology like this could make its way to consumers, it needs to be much smaller, easier to use, and less expensive. But for now the company is focusing on getting everything right first, and is targeting the less price sensitive enterprise segment to get there. They announced recently that they now leasing dev kits of their VR glove to enterprises who want to experiment with it.

Photo by Road to VR

If nothing else, HaptX is a great proof of the importance of taking haptics beyond the simple rumbling mechanisms available in most of today’s VR equipment. The glove can create brief moments where you really feel like you’re touching something that isn’t actually there.

For me this was clearest when doing something seemingly mundane: using my fingers to rotate a cube. I probably did so for a good five or ten minutes, using cubes of various sizes, because I wanted to understand why it felt convincing.

The answer is feedback. It seems obvious, but it’s quite fascinating when you break it down.

I wrote in greater detail about how the HaptX glove works in my first hands-on with the device—but there’s two major pieces that make it capable of those brief moments of magical immersion:

First is haptic feedback, which aims to create subtle sensations of objects touching the user. For this, the HaptX glove uses arrays of micro-pneumatic actuators—effectively grids of little inflatable bladders which can be inflated and deflated quickly and precisely. By using the arrays to press against the palm and fingertips as needed, the glove can create a sense that an object is touching the user.

A look at the micro-pneumatic actuator arrays which are inflated and deflated to create sensations of touch against your skin. | Photo by Road to VR

The second is force feedback, which is about pushing back or inhibiting the user’s movement in the same way that a corresponding physical object would. To this end, the HaptX glove has a mechanical brake on each finger which can prevent the finger from bending any further. For instance, when gripping a baseball, your fingers come in contact with the sides of the ball and are physically stopped by it. The HaptX glove simulates this by stopping your fingers from moving past where the point that they would stop if you were really holding a physical object.

Image courtesy HaptX

I’ve attempted the same cube spinning interaction with various VR hand-tracking tech (which tracked my hands but offered no haptics or force feedback), and it’s never felt very good. The HaptX glove succeeds here because it provides additional information (feedback) which hand-tracking without haptics cannot provide.

For one, I know when my virtual hand is coming in contact with the virtual object beyond simple visual verification because I can feel it pushing against my finger tips. This means it’s clear to me that the object is responding to me and able to be gripped.

Photo by Road to VR

But it’s the force feedback which ultimately seals the deal, because by stopping my fingers at roughly the correct points in space means I can then rely on entirely natural physical manipulations, like subtly rotating the cube with two fingers (the way that you might twist a knob). Without the force feedback, I’d need to make a mock grabbing gesture in order to keep my fingers in the right place (which feels very unnatural), or rely on an unnatural abstracted gesture to make the system understand that I wanted to grip, but then I’d need to figure out new means of manipulating the object with that gesture instead of interacting with the object as if was truly there.

Continued on Page 2 »

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Vive Focus 6DOF Controller Dev Kit Uses Ultrasonic Tracking

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HTC earlier this month revealed a 6DOF controller dev kit for the Vive Focus standalone headset. New details have emerged about the device this week.

When HTC revealed the Vive Focus 6DOF controller dev kit earlier this month, the company wasn’t ready to share details. This week at XRDC in San Francisco, the company spoke more about the dev kit and noted that between the Vive Focus and other Vive Wave powered headsets, consumers are likely to see a number of different 6DOF controller tracking technologies accompanying different headsets.

HTC’s Viveport President, Rikard Steiber, said during a presentation today that the Vive Focus 6DOF controller dev kit uses a combination of ultrasonic tracking and IMUs to track the user’s hands. Ultrasonic tracking systems use soundwaves at frequencies above the audible human range for triangulation, typically using a series of receivers to identify differences in timing between ultrasonic sounds emitted by the tracked object.

Steiber noted that the system’s tracking field of view is 180 degrees horizontally and 140 degrees vertically, and that it’s capable of “high accuracy” up to one meter from the headset.

While the Vive Focus ships with a 3DOF controller, the 6DOF controller dev kit includes two new controllers and a large module which is mounted to the headset. US developers can sign up to receive one here.

We haven’t had a chance to try the controller tracking system yet, but aren’t entirely surprised to find that it’s based on ultrasonic tracking considering that it’s among the options offered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon VRDK, which we understand Vive Focus to be based on.

Ultrasonic tracking is not new by any means; we’ve seen VR trackers based on the technology in recent years, and the tech was employed for similar purposes long before the modern era of VR. Pico Neo was one of the first modern standalone headsets we’ve seen using ultrasonic tracking for 6DOF input, though our hands-on with the headset earlier this year didn’t inspire much confidence in the controller tracking.

SEE ALSO
Google Reveals Experimental 6DOF Controllers for Lenovo Mirage Solo

Generally speaking, the capabilities of ultrasonic tracking have been considered insufficient as a head-tracking solution for high-end VR headsets, though hand-tracking is less sensitive to latency and inaccuracy, and could prove effective with the right implementation.

Steiber made a point to say that among headsets running Vive Wave (like Vive Focus), there will likely be several different 6DOF hand tracking solutions employed, but from a developer standpoint the platform aims to work seamlessly with all of them.

While the Vive Focus is available in China as a consumer ready product, in the US and elsewhere it’s still a developer kit only. With hand input still in flux, it seems it may remain that way for some time still.

The post Vive Focus 6DOF Controller Dev Kit Uses Ultrasonic Tracking appeared first on Road to VR.

Valve Promotes Latest Knuckles Controller from Prototype to Dev Kit

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Valve this week revealed the newest version of their upcoming ‘Knuckles’ VR controllers which have graduated from the ‘EV’ prototype distinction to ‘DV’ dev kits. While Valve has yet to offer any indication of launch timing, the latest refinements suggest the final version is near at hand.

Knuckles is Valve’s next-gen VR controller which is loaded with sensors that the company hopes will make VR more immersive by bringing more of user’s natural hand dexterity into the virtual world. In addition to being able to sense which buttons or sticks are being touched—similar to Oculus’ Touch controllers—the handle of Knuckles has capacitive and force sensors inside which allow the controller to detect full finger movement and even grip strength.

Having publicly shown off the Knuckles VR controllers for the first time all the way back in 2016, development of the device has seemed in the intervening time. That is until 2018 when the company became a little less secret and began showing off more significant progress with the EV, EV2, and EV3 Knuckles prototypes.

SEE ALSO
Exclusive: Cloudhead Games Goes In-depth with Knuckles EV2 & Predecessors

This week Valve revealed the latest version, Knuckles ‘DV’, which company is now referring to as a “dev kit” while calling the EV-series “prototypes.” Changes from EV3 to DV are largely refinements to the feel of the controller, along with tweaks which seem focused on bringing the fit and finish up to consumer-ready levels. Here’s the breakdown:

  • Cap Sense
    • Capacitive sensors have been rearranged to accommodate more hand sizes
    • Firmware has been updated to take advantage of the new sensors
  • Trigger
    • Trigger spring strength increased
    • Trigger click feel improved
  • Strap
    • Increased durability of strap adjustment connector
    • Strap adjust feel improved
  • Firmware
    • Fast charging improved
    • Fixed pairing bugs
    • Improved stability
  • Other
    • Thumbstick feel improved
    • Force sensor variation reduced
    • LED light leakage minimized
    • Improved fit and finish
    • Improved reliability

Developers can request one of the dev kits through the Steamworks Partner Site via the ‘request Beta Hardware’ link. Valve says it’s making Knuckles DV “available in quantity,” though still expects that developer demand will outstrip supply.

Image courtesy Valve

Valve previously said that it was sending out “hundreds” of EV2 prototypes, and it sounds like DV will be available even more widely. At this point we expect that the company is already doing small manufacturing runs of the controllers and refining their manufacturing process in tandem with the controller in anticipation of wider production.

With the latest improvements to the controller, 2019 is looking like an increasingly good bet for a release, though the company has been extremely tight-lipped about a release date. Whenever the release date does come, many are expecting that the controllers will launch alongside one of three VR games that Valve has confirmed are in development.

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Tactical Haptics to Bring ‘Production-Ready’ Haptic VR Controllers to GDC 2019

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Tactical Haptics has been working on a unique haptic controller design since its founding in 2013. While we’ve seen a number of prototypes over the years, the company is getting ready to show what it calls a “production-ready” version of its Reactive Grip VR controller, set to debut later this month at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco, California.

Reactive Grip is a haptic controller that relies on third-party positional tracking standards such as Oculus Touch, SteamVR tracking, and OptiTrak. To wit, Tactical Haptics recently pivoted from the consumer space to focus on VR location-based entertainment (LBE) and training, so instead of appearing at their normal South Hall booth this year, the company will be taking appointments in a meeting room (N2408) in the North Hall.

What’s special about Reactive Grip though is it provides a sort of touch feedback that doesn’t solely rely on buzzing haptic motors like you find in conventional VR motion controllers. Instead it applies in-hand shear forces to provide some pretty compelling physical feedback to the user, letting you experience things like the stretch of a bow and arrow, the inertia of a swinging ball & chain, or the impact of a sword.

The gif below demonstrates a bit of this using an early prototype, although it really does have to be felt to be believed.

 

Tactical Haptics’ Reactive Grip has been in a constant state of iteration since the company’s founding six years ago. Having already built what the company calls the minimum viable product (MVP) prototype of its haptic controller, as well as a shape-shifting prototype that can reconfigure into several positions using magnetic sockets, the company is now moving one step forward towards full production with its ‘production-ready’ model.

Image courtesy Tactical Haptics

The new controller design is said to also offer similar reconfigurable magnetic sockets to the prototype we saw at last year’s CES, although this will come as a modular add-on in addition to modular third-party tracking attachments for Oculus Touch, Windows VR controllers, Vive Tracker, and OptiTrak.

“The production design is also simpler and more modular, allowing users to configure the controllers with or without magnet sockets (used to form new peripherals on the fly) and to use the controllers in the PC VR ecosystem of their choice.  Add-on brackets enable this modularity,” the company says in a Kickstarter update.

SEE ALSO
Hands-on: Tactical Haptics' New Controllers Let You Switch Your Grip on the Fly

So while our hopes for a consumer version of Reactive Grip have been basically dashed in the near-term with the company’s new business focus, it’s good to see these VR pioneers carrying on to find a home in LBE as the hype around the consumer VR market has cooled off since the initial consumer headset launch in 2016.


We’ll have feet on the ground at GDC 2019 this month, so check back for previews, breaking news, and all things AR/VR to come from the show.

The post Tactical Haptics to Bring ‘Production-Ready’ Haptic VR Controllers to GDC 2019 appeared first on Road to VR.

Tactical Haptics to Open Pre-orders for ‘Reactive Grip’ Dev Kits on May 29th

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Tactical Haptics, creators of the ‘Reactive Grip’ controller are due to begin taking dev kit pre-orders on May 29th. Targeting the enterprise and LBE sectors, the company expects pricing to start at $650 per controller, with a release date due in Q4. Since the initial introduction of the controllers years ago, the company has steadily improved performance and introduced a smart redesign that makes them highly modular.

Tactical Haptics has been part of the modern VR scene since day zero. We first saw the Reactive Grip tech—which uses sliding bars to provide unique ‘shear’ feedback—way back in 2013. Riding the early VR hype, the company sought to bring the controllers to early adopters through a Kickstarter campaign which fell short of its goal way back when. Since then the company has steadily improved the controller’s performance and manufacturability, and managed to impress us pretty much any time we got our hands on it thanks to its truly unique haptics.

The company has pivoted their approach to bring the Reactive Grip controllers to VR enterprise and LBE markets, and is now set to open pre-orders for the controllers on May 29th, with shipping expected in Q4 2019. Later this month, Tactical Haptics says it will show off the controllers with an integration of the VR LBE game Sweet Escape.

The latest version of the Reactive Grip controller has a smart design which makes it modular in two distinct ways.

First, the ‘Core Controller’ is a single design which can be adapted to various existing VR tracking systems using add-on brackets. For instance, the company offers brackets to attach a Vive Tracker or Oculus Touch, allowing the Reactive Grip controller to be tracked with the same system as whichever headset is in use (which cuts out a bunch of headaches that come with using two separate tracking systems). Tactical Haptics also plans to offer brackets for WMR and Rift S controllers.

(Left to right) Core Controller, Controller with Vive Tracker bracket, Controller with Oculus Touch bracket | Image courtesy Tactical Haptics

Second, ‘Multi-Pose’ magnets can be attached to the controllers as needed; these are special magnetic sockets which allow two controllers to be connected together on the fly to form various poses which can be dynamically incorporated into gameplay (for instance, changing from dual pistols to a two-handed weapon when connecting the controllers together).

Magnets can connect the controllers in novel ways for new functionality within games. | Image courtesy Tactical Haptics

Because of the modular design, developers planning to build for the controllers can configure them as needed for each individual experience, cutting down on weight and cost compared to if each controller came equipped with all possible options.

SEE ALSO
Foldaway Haptics is Making a Thumbstick for VR Controllers That Pushes Back

Tactical Haptics plans to ship the dev kit controllers with tech demos, an SDK, and plugins for Unity and Unreal, so that developers can integrate the controller’s unique haptics with their content.

The post Tactical Haptics to Open Pre-orders for ‘Reactive Grip’ Dev Kits on May 29th appeared first on Road to VR.

Hands-on: Logitech is Building the SteamVR Stylus That Needs to Exist

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Logitech today revealed the VR Ink ‘Pilot Edition’, a stylus built for art and design in VR. Built with SteamVR Tracking tech, the stylus works similarly to a typical SteamVR controller, but affords the natural precision that comes with precise finger control. While it works well for drawing in the air, a pressure-sensitive tip also makes it great for drawing (and potentially evening writing) against a physical surface.

Aimed toward enterprises using VR for digital design workflows, Logitech says that it plans to bring the VR Ink stylus to market in the near future. For the company, today’s announcement of the ‘Pilot Edition’ is about getting the word out and soliciting interest from companies who want to use or integrate apps with the VR Ink stylus.

I got a hands-on demo of the VR Ink Pilot Edition and came away suitably impressed with what Logitech has put together, both in performance and functionality.

Photo by Road to VR

Though it’s ‘just’ a stylus, the VR Ink has a surprising number of controls built right in. On the sides where you grip the stylus are two grip pads which can be squeezed as a form of input. On the top where your index finger rests is a pressure sensitive button at the front, an oval-shaped trackpad/button in the middle, and a smaller menu button in the back. There’s also on-board haptics, and the end of the stylus has a pressure-sensitive tip which allows for pressure-sensitive writing against physical surfaces.

It’s definitely bigger than a regular pen or pencil, but actually impressively compact when you consider all of the electronics that need to fit inside, and easy enough to grip just as you would a real writing implement.

Photo by Road to VR

The whole stylus uses SteamVR Tracking tech (supporting 1.0 and 2.0 base stations), and it can be easily used to draw lines in the air in art and design apps. For that purpose, it does feel more natural to use the pointy end of a stylus for tracing lines than using a big controller which restricts finer motions to wrist control, whereas a stylus benefits from fine finger control. Many readers on this site will be familiar with painting or drawing in 3D using VR, but the more exciting part of VR Ink is its ability to also draw precisely against a flat surface.

Photo by Road to VR

The stylus is a tool that’s been around for a millennia, and for good reason—the ‘free’ feedback of actually pushing a writing implement against a surface works perfectly in conjunction with the fine motor control that our fingers are capable of.

To make a stylus really work for surface drawing in VR, you need a lot of precision, and so far the VR Ink has impressed on that front. Largely driven by SteamVR Tracking, but undoubtedly assisted by the stylus’ pressure-sensitive tip, drawing against a table feels really natural. I’m by no means a digital artist who spends every day with a Wacom tablet, but I’ve used my fair share of tablet PCs with active digitizers (including the Surface Book as my primary laptop), and VR Ink’s drawing and pressure sensitivity felt very comparable.

I would go so far to say that the precision ought to be enough to comfortably allow for regular sized handwriting, but the apps that Logitech were showing off unfortunately weren’t tuned for this purpose. I did try anyway of course, and it worked reasonably well, but didn’t look quite right, and it was clear to me that the app (and its interpretation of the pressure input) was trying to infer drawing strokes rather than the small, quick, and sharp strokes that make up written characters. From my time with the stylus, it feels like an app designed with handwriting in mind could really work well.

This demo app (above) was designed for drawing and not handwriting, but with some software tweaks the VR Ink stylus seems like it really could be up to the task.

Granted, there was some occasional stuttering of the stylus, though for the most part it seemed occlusion related, which could be fixed with better base station placement. The demo room was using four 2.0 base stations mounted above head height (which is typically what you want), but mounting them just above table height might actually allow for better view of the stylus, especially when the user is leaning over the stylus as they draw or write.

If Logitech’s VR Ink can indeed deliver the precision needed for ‘real’ handwriting in VR, it could be the solution to one of VR’s fundamental problems: text input. Though drawing and designing in VR is undoubtedly useful and even fun, a huge portion (majority?) of productivity work requires text input.

But that’s so far an unsolved problem in VR. There have been attempts with voice input, virtual keyboards, and even real tracked keyboards (something Logitech itself explored), but none have proven to be effective solutions, typically due to slow input speeds (or a lack of sufficient hand tracking). A VR stylus that’s good enough for handwriting could be the key.

SEE ALSO
Tactical Haptics to Open Pre-orders for 'Reactive Grip' Dev Kits on May 29th

For Logitech’s part, they aren’t yet pushing hard on handwriting input specifically—they’re pitching the VR Ink stylus as a more intuitive and precise tool for drawing in VR, either in 3D or against a flat surface (and they aren’t wrong). If they succeed in getting VR Ink adopted in the enterprise VR space, hopefully a focus on handwriting in VR as text input will the next logical step for the device.

Beyond Logitech, the VR Ink stylus is also a win for Valve, as it shows not only how versatile their SteamVR Tracking tech can be, but also how their commitment to an open VR platform is enabling for others. VR Ink couldn’t work with Oculus headsets because the company doesn’t allow third-parties to make use of its tracking systems.

– – — – –

Logitech is only just revealing the VR Ink Pilot Edition, though they say this isn’t a prototype and that it’s absolutely coming to market. Exactly when and at what price point, though isn’t clear.

The company is of course using this opportunity to connect with more partners who are interested in using or integrating with the VR Ink stylus, though they’re already touting initial integrations with Tilt Brush and Vector Suite, and committing to an SDK for both Unity and Unreal Engine.

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Massless VR Stylus Now Open for Pre-order; Release Date & Price Revealed

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Massless is accepting applications for the first wave of its VR stylus which is aimed at making it easier and more precise for professionals to create and design in VR. The company expects to ship the Massless Pen starting in Q4.

We first got a look at a prototype of the Massless Pen VR stylus last year and found it promising as an input device that could bring greater and more natural precision to professionals using VR to create 3D artwork, models, and designs. Since then the company has refined the prototype and is readying an initial run for an ‘early access’ launch in Q4 2019.

Image courtesy Massless

Massless is accepting pre-order applications with a $50 deposit as part of a total $500 price which includes one year of the Massless Studio software. The box includes the stylus and a dedicated tracking camera with a stand.

Following the initial release, the company plans to charge $1,000 for the Massless Pen and $20 per month or $200 per year for Massless Studio.

Massless says that the stylus works Rift and Vive (presumably other SteamVR headsets too), and in addition to Massless Studio, the stylus supports Gravity Sketch, Medium, Quill, Tilt Brush, Maya & Blender (via plugin), and soon, Vector Suite. It isn’t entirely clear how Medium and Quill are supported considering Oculus doesn’t have a framework for using third-party controllers with its software; we’ve reached out to Massless for more information.

The company’s own VR software, Massless Studio, will likely offer the most seamless integration with the Massless Pen. It’s said to include real-time collaboration features so that multiple users can work together virtually.

Massless Studio is built for concept sketching, with editable 3D splines. Our simple mesh generation and intuitive 3D modelling tools are perfect for automotive concept design, virtual production and architectural pre-visualisation.

Generate fly through videos and images for presentation (MP4, PNG); mark up and annotate in our Design Review Mode. Export and import in industry standard file types. (FBX, OBJ, STL, STEP)

A ‘Massless Live’ feature also enables mixed reality views from within the software so that creatives can stream or share their work with a composited view that shows the user inside the software.

The pen also supports a non-VR ‘Tablet Mode’ which allows it to function like a graphics tablet and stylus for use with apps like Photoshop, Illustrator, Premier Pro, Solidworks, and Fusion 360. It isn’t clear how accurate it will be compared to typical non-VR tablets like those from Wacom, but it would surely make the stylus a greater value if it could double as both a VR input device and a traditional graphics tablet.

Image courtesy Massless

The Massless Pen now includes surface sensing so that the tip explicitly knows when it’s touching a surface. This can allow the stylus to be used against a desk or other hard surface as a physical drawing plane to work in 2D, but of course the stylus can be used in free-form in the air as well.

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The company says the stylus also includes a whopping 12 hours of battery life, USB-C for charging, a capacitive sensor near the index finger for application control, and haptic feedback. The Massless Pen is tracked with its own dedicated camera which is separate from the headset’s tracking; the company says the sensor offers a 90° × 70° tracking volume.

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Massless isn’t the only company working on a VR stylus for professionals. Earlier this year Logitech introduced its own prototype, the ‘VR Ink’ stylus, which is based on SteamVR Tracking. While Logitech has been soliciting interest from partners on a case-by-case basis, the company hasn’t yet announced plans for public sale of its stylus.

The post Massless VR Stylus Now Open for Pre-order; Release Date & Price Revealed appeared first on Road to VR.

Hands-on: Dexmo Haptic Force-feedback Gloves are Compact and Wireless

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With a development journey starting way back in 2014, Dexta’s Dexmo haptic force-feedback VR gloves have come a very long way. I recently went hands-on with the latest version of the company’s gloves, which are now production ready, and came away impressed with their compact size and freedom of mobility.

Dexta Robotics originally envisioned building a consumer force-feedback glove for VR but has in recent years pivoted the Dexmo gloves toward the enterprise market. While CEO Aler Gu says the company is still very intent on delivering a more refined and affordable consumer product in the future, for now it’s opened sales for enterprise customers. Dexta is selling the gloves on a case-by-case basis and hasn’t publicly disclosed the price.

HaptX gloves | Photo by Road to VR

The latest version of the gloves are production ready and surprisingly sleek and sharply designed compared to other force-feedback gloves I’ve tried. Dexta’s nearest competitor is very likely HaptX, which offers some really compelling haptic and force-feedback, though its latest prototypes are bulky and require a huge tether connected to each glove which largely limits HaptX to ‘stand in place’ use-cases.

The Dexmo gloves, on the other hand, are compact and battery powered, thereby supporting the same kind of room-scale VR experiences that most of today’s headsets are capable of.

Dexmo gloves (Vive Tracker not attached in this photo) | Photo by Road to VR

Quick primer on ‘haptic’ and ‘force-feedback’ for this article: ‘haptics’ here means some sensation that replicates a feeling of touching something, while ‘force-feedback’ means the ability to actually push back against your fingers to make it feel like you’re grabbing virtual objects that aren’t actually there.

Dexmo offers both. Haptics come in the form of vibrators (LRAs); there’s one in each finger and two in the palm section in the glove. Force-feedback comes from the glove’s ‘fingers’ which are connected to each of your own. Motors in each of the glove’s fingers can stop your fingers in place to give a sensation of grabbing objects of varying shapes.

Additionally, Dexmo’s force-feedback is ‘active’ which means the motors not only can stop your fingers in place, they can also push and pull against them, as well as offer variable force control to emulate squishy objects or add additional haptic sensations (like a button which has some initial resistance and then ‘clicks’ after enough force is applied).

Photo by Road to VR

Fitting the glove involves strapping a section of the glove around you palm and then sliding your fingertips into little sleeves. The right fit for the sleeves is important; you want them tight enough to stay in place and to transmit the vibrations from the haptics while not being too tight that they squeeze the blood out of your fingertips.

Comfort is a huge challenge for any kind of force-feedback gloves because your hands and fingers need to be secure enough that the glove can impart force against them, but if you go too tight on any of the adjustments then your hands will become uncomfortable quickly. Luckily Dexta provides various sizes of the fingertip sleeves and makes them easy to swap in and out, so I was able to find a size that hit that Goldilocks zone.

Once the gloves are on you can feel some added physical resistance from the motors. That is to say that even when they aren’t actively providing feedback, there’s enough friction in the system that you can feel some drag on the movements of your fingers, though not enough to impact normal hand use. The company told me that this could be fixed in the future but would require a more specialized motor design, something that would be more feasible to explore once they are doing larger scale production.

In addition to haptics and force-feedback, the Dexmo gloves also track your finger positions by reading sensors in the gloves. After a calibration step which had me hold my fingers in a few different poses, I could see my fingers in VR articulating mostly realistically, save for the thumb on both hands that didn’t seem to want to cooperate (when I did a ‘thumbs up’ it wouldn’t extend upward). Dexta indicated this was a bug of some sort. Otherwise my other fingers seemed to track fine; the glove uses the finger tracking information against an API to determine when and how it should engage force-feedback.

Considering how (relatively) small the gloves are, and how much leverage there is from each motor (at the knuckle) all the way to each finger, I was surprised to find that the gloves offered ample stopping power for my fingers. When I reached out to pick up virtual objects I got a convincing ‘grip’ sensation that relayed to my brain that I was holding something. Because each of the fingertips of the glove can pivot at their attachment point, there’s definitely a ‘best’ way to grab objects for the most realistic sensation (fingers curved in just a bit). Once I got the feel for this, I really enjoyed the grabbing sensation the gloves offered, and it definitely made interactions of grabbing and holding things feel more real, especially because I could tell I was still holding something even when it was outside of my field of view (without force-feedback you have only your eyes to tell you whether or not you’re holding a virtual object).

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Dexta also showed me how the ‘active’ nature of the force-feedback could be used by giving me a squishy object to play with—which pushed back against my fingers light at first and then harder as I squeezed more, until they stopped altogether—and also put a virtual beating heart in my hand which pushed my fingers back a bit with each pulse.

Photo by Road to VR

The haptics in the glove certainly seem like they have potential, but Dexta admits they are still at the very beginning of figuring out how to best use them. LRAs are capable of lots of interesting sensations which can convey things like clicks, rumble, and even complex surface texture, but doing so requires a lot of expertise in figuring out how to dynamically drive the frequencies to create these sensations. Indeed, in the demos I tried, the haptics felt coarsely implemented. The company plans to spend more time honing their library of haptic effects.

Between the Dexmo gloves and others that I’ve tried, I was really surprised how minimally they limited my natural finger dexterity. Outwardly, the design of the glove looks somewhat intrusive as it gives your hand an exoskeletal profile, but the way that all of the mechanical elements stay on the back of the hand means that the freedom of movement of my fingers was nearly untouched. Even the fingercaps are pretty unobtrusive; I was surprised to find that I could easily open a water bottle with a slim-profile cap while wearing the gloves with no problem. I was also able to put on and easily adjust my own headset, something which I needed help doing when I tried the bulky HaptX gloves.

I’m most impressed with Dexmo’s mechanical functionality and hardware design, but where the company now really needs to focus its efforts is on the software side. Any kind of gloves like these need a mature SDK that developers can use to make the gloves work with their applications; this is an area where HaptX is far ahead.

Running the simulations and determining the logic which drives the mechanics of the gloves for consistent and realistic feedback is no small feat. While Dexmo’s force-feedback worked well for what I would call ‘whole hand’ actions, more nuanced interactions with individual fingers seemed to confuse the system at times. As did passing objects between hands, which was an awkward affair that required very deliberate motions to get the system to understand what I was trying to do. In the demo I tried, the gloves also had very little idea what to do when I reached out to touch immovable objects like walls (the fingers would move spontaneously and unrealistically).

Photo by Road to VR

Force-feedback (and haptics) is all about conveying useful information to the user through the sense of touch. If the feedback being offered isn’t consistent and clear, it reduces the reliability and therefore usefulness of the information.

Making Dexmo’s force-feedback more consistent by better tuning the software is something the company needs to work on (and I relayed as much), but I left my demo otherwise very impressed with the hardware foundation that the company has built. There’s a lot of potential in the capabilities of the Dexmo glove that I would love to see shine once the software driving it is better tuned. Considering the company’s persistence in getting their hardware to this point over the last five years, I have reason to believe they’ll be up to the software challenge too.

The post Hands-on: Dexmo Haptic Force-feedback Gloves are Compact and Wireless appeared first on Road to VR.

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