If you've ever thought that your body would be the best controller in virtual reality than a joystick or VR controller, you can see why the HoloSuit caught the attention of the public on Kickstarter.
Kaaya Tech's HoloSuit recently reached its fundraising goal on the aforementioned crowdfunding platform. The haptic body controller will come in several variations and use a variety of sensors to control VR applications. The developers promise to begin shipping in November of this year.
The most sophisticated version of HoloSuit, HoloSuit Pro, includes 36 sensors, nine haptics feedback and six buttons. These are distributed between the finger tracking gloves, pants and jacket.
A less complex version, called HoloSuit, reduces the number of sensors to 26 and comes with a jacket or T-shirt, retaining the haptics and buttons. Jackets, pants and gloves can also be purchased separately to track individual body parts.
The potential applications for a suit such as the HoloSuit are numerous. Kaaya Tech believes it has applications ranging from sports training to controlling robots, training emergency personnel, and even simulating conditions in military vehicles.
Wearing the HoloSuit means users can train the entire body and develop physical muscle memory during training, rather than just operating controllers and developing only mental memories.
Maybe, the best part HoloSuit is the absence of an external tracking camera. Kaaya Tech says the built-in sensors do all the necessary work to capture and track body movements and enable wireless data transfer via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth LE to the VR rig using Unity or the Wi-Fi SDK.
The suit supports HTC Vive, Oculus, Windows Mixed Reality and HoloLens headsets, as well as Samsung Gear VR, Android and iOS tablets and phones. All sensors are removable, so clothes can be washed in the washing machine.
The full HoloSuit costs a hefty $999, while the HoloSuit Pro costs $1,599. Even the gloves cost $249 each and are sold separately, not as a set.
However, Kaaya Tech is offering each of the items at a pre-order discount during its Kickstarter campaign, which runs until the end of July, despite having already reached its modest $50,000 funding goal.
Copied from the website website Subscribe to our TelegramVirtual Reality technologies no longer surprise anyone, because people are accustomed to the fact that they can immerse themselves in another space. However, do you know which of the senses that help a person fully understand reality is not transmitted through glasses and a controller? Read more about this and much more below!
One of the most popular trends this year is the virtual reality suit. It began in 1994 with Aura Interactor, which allowed the transmission of only audio atmosphere. More innovative models that already tracked movements and simulated sensations began to appear after 2012. These include ARAIG, Teslasuit, HAPTIKA. They are all designed differently, but can be used in the same way to create new gaming environments.
What it is?
The invention is a suit that abstracts a person from the outside world. It can be made in the form of a vest, bracers or overalls. Its operating principle is based on an electrotactile feedback system, allowing the player to fully feel his presence in VR.
Operating principle and internal structure
Before diving into explanations about how the product works, it’s worth mentioning a little about people’s feelings. Goggles and helmets allow the user to see and hear using simulated hearing and vision. But to ensure seamless immersion, the sense of touch is also necessary.
Feel everything that happens to the body in the game - blows from opponents, a light breeze, a collision with a wall or being hit by an arrow. This is the main purpose of universal clothing.
Using several dozen haptic channels for transmitting electrical impulses built into the device, the system affects the nerve endings of certain areas of the player’s body. ARAIG uses 16 sensors on the front and rear, and 8 on each side.
In Teslasuit, the system is more advanced; it covers 22 large areas on the body, not limited to points. This creates a simulated sense of touch. Tactile sensations are specifically limited to the computer to avoid damage.
The Motion Capture system is also involved here, allowing you to capture user movements and project them into the game. Teslasuit uses 11 gripping devices.
Production technology
Each company uses its own development methods, so appearance and model specifications may vary. Sensors operating at the tactile level remain unchanged. They can be integrated into a full suit, similar to a diving suit, or into a vest with several additional elements.
Haptic recoil in all models is induced by acting on nerve endings. The more such sensors are installed, the more areas of the body the system will be able to cover.
Advantages and disadvantages
- Feeling of complete immersion;
- Innovative gaming space for players;
- A new level of interaction with virtual reality;
- Breakthrough in the IT field.
- Limitations and health risks in the form of excessive stress on nerve endings;
- High production costs lead to a high cost of the product, which negatively affects its sale and feasibility.
approximate price
The issue of price is quite acute here. Developers use many expensive sensors, so the cost of the product increases in order for the production to pay off.
However, it's not all bad. For example, simple models that work on the Kinect principle, that is, acting as a contactless controller, can be purchased in the range of 35 to 40 thousand rubles. A glove that recognizes movements in virtual space can be bought for 40 thousand rubles. The cost of gadgets made of electronic fabric, as well as those with a wide range of functions, starts from 100 thousand rubles.
Which companies produce VR suits?
Such exoskeletons are still at the design stage, so not every company creates them:
- TeslaSuit;
- YEI Technology;
- Holosuit;
- Hardlight VR.
Conclusion
Such achievements are surprising and amazing. Just think that a person feels, hears and sees hand movements in the digital world. This equipment is worth trying on for anyone interested in virtual reality.
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NullSpace VR / Kickstarter
American startup NullSpace VR has developed a haptic suit designed to convey to the user the sensation of touching objects in virtual reality. To finance the serial production of the gadget, a crowdfunding campaign has been launched on Kickstarter.
In its current form, VR content involves the use of only glasses and a controller, so the user only has vision and hearing as feedback, but he cannot physically feel contact with virtual objects. There are a number of additional gadgets for touching virtual objects, but most of them work only with a limited area - for example, gloves-controllers with feedback (,) only allow you to touch virtual objects with your hands. use only your hands.
The VR suit, developed by the Americans, called Hardlight, weighs one and a half kilograms and is designed for the upper body. Sensors and vibration motors are attached to the surface of the suit, which are responsible for different groups muscles. The user in Hardlight separately feels a touch or hit in the stomach, chest, arms, back and shoulders - a total of 16 vibration modules are responsible for the haptic feedback.
In addition to haptic feedback, the VR suit is used to track the user in virtual reality - using built-in sensors, the device tracks the position of the user’s hands relative to the VR headset. At the same time, data on the position of the arms is also used by the suit to correctly position the torso in virtual reality.
The suit works with HTC Vive VR headsets and Oculus Rift and connects to the computer via USB. To purchase the Hardlight, you must donate as part of the Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign starting at $399. Delivery of devices to the first customers is scheduled for September 2017.
In addition to the Hardlight, there are other suits with haptic feedback, but they cover less body area and also cannot track arm movements, so they are not well suited for virtual reality: the Kor-FX and Subpac vests. The development of VR-OBE was also reported, but the manufacturer plans to release a limited batch of devices for developers at the first stage and it is not known whether a user version will be released.
In addition to clothing with haptic modules, there are also more unusual devices that add believability in the VR world: which, using galvanic vestibular stimulation, convey to the user a feeling of movement in the virtual world, special
For years, virtual and augmented reality have been the stuff of fantasy from science fiction writers. Now these two technologies have become a very real phenomenon. Today, despite a mountain of skeptics, this technology is ready to be adopted by a mass audience, providing them with a “new environment” for impressions.
Back in 2014, VR pioneer Chris Milk explained the profound power that virtual reality holds:
“You read a book: your brain reads letters printed in ink on paper and moves them into this world. You are watching a movie: you are seeing images inside a rectangle while you are sitting in a room. And your brain translates them into your world. You connect to it even if you don't realize it's not real, all because you've made a habit of disbelief. With virtual reality, you are essentially hacking your brain's visual-audio system, giving it a set of conditions that are close to those that allow it to perceive environment as truth. Instead of being blocked by your mistrust, you begin to believe in what is happening around you.”
What does new technology mean for fashion?
In the last decade, the fashion industry has grown several times over and has embraced evolving technology. For some brands, virtual and augmented reality look like a powerful new channel for digital growth.
“When someone thinks about bringing VR into this industry, I always think that it will be an even bigger event than the invention of cell phones in the global scheme of things. However, it took 20 years of e-commerce adoption to reach the inflection point in this area. I imagine it will take the same amount of time for VR to truly become your everyday tool, just like our mobile phones.”
But the momentum for VR and AR technology is happening quickly. Late last year, HTC Vive announced the existence of a virtual reality venture fund that included 27 firms. The initiative was able to accumulate US$10 billion. Last October, digital distribution Steam platform reported that the number of VR users was increasing by 1,000 daily. At that time, it had more than 600 VR applications. New technology Giants such as Facebook and Spectacled are also interested.
At this early stage of development, it is difficult to predict the future size of the market. But according to Goldman Sachs, revenue from AR and VR-related hardware and software, is expected to grow from US$80 billion to US$182 billion by 2025.
Virtual and augmented reality will undoubtedly become a powerful channel for interaction between a brand and a consumer, just as they once became such a tool mobile devices And social media Today. But current pricing ($600 for Oculus Rift and $800 for HTC Vive) will slow down mass consumer adoption of the technology.
At the same time, there are many opportunities for using VR and AR in the design and fashion industry.
“Obviously, the first step in the fashion industry is creating a sketch and selecting materials. We work with a large number of brands and already have various scenarios for this technology. Not only will you gain a digital experience, but you will also save time and money,” says Ari Bloom, chief executive of Avametric in San Francisco.
Virtual simulation of a store premises can also be in demand in the field of retail trade.
“In VR you can work in two different areas at once, and that’s really impressive.”
It's worth noting that the ShopperMX platform, which InContext Solutions is working on, allows retailers to experiment with signage, product display and product layout without investing time or physical resources. Thus, virtual reality instantly replaces everything that would be necessary to test all experimental elements in the physical world.
Over the next decade, virtual reality will have a phenomenal impact on the fashion industry. She is starting to do this now. In October 2015, Tommy Hilfiger became the first major retail fashion house to offer virtual reality experiences to its store visitors using a VR headset. This year, American luxury brand Coach installed 10 VR headsets in 10 downtown stores across the US to provide users with full access for your show.
Gap is also experimenting with virtual reality. Last month, the retail chain introduced an augmented reality dressing room. It allowed consumers to try on items digitally. The experience was created by Bloom and Avametric in collaboration with Google, but it has its drawbacks. For starters, it only works with smartphones that support Google Tango technology, which are not yet widely available on the market. After this, the popularity and number of AR applications that allow you to try on clothes increased sharply.
It is not surprising that cosmetic brands have also armed themselves with virtual reality to promote their products. Last year, Sephora, Charlotte Tilbury and Rimmel have already released AR applications that allow you to virtually “try on” this or that makeup on your face using a mobile phone.
But are such AR applications really useful for business? Yes. This is proven by research conducted by Metail. According to the research company, the release of an AR application can increase sales of brand products by 22 percent.
At the moment, there are many opinions that virtual and augmented reality are in their infancy. Once upon a time, e-commerce went through the same thing even 10 years ago. The fashion industry simply did not accept it, and luxury brands refused to sell their products online.
If the consumer finally accepts virtual and augmented reality, then brands will simply have no choice but to follow their customers, adapting to them.
Well, to keep abreast of all the latest news from the world of virtual reality, subscribe to our Telegram!
Modern virtual reality technology can transport our eyes and ears into the virtual world, but what about the rest of the body? Consciousness seems to be still in the additional world, but arms and legs are missing, as well as tactile sensations.
Project AxonVR has developed a virtual reality prototype that combines both a virtual reality suit and a platform that supports the player in the air. A kind of hybrid exoskeleton allows you to forget about the worries of the space around the user, which only contributes to complete immersion in the virtual world. But the suit is also responsible for the tactile part, offering the player a more sensitive feel for “that” world.
The core of the system is the lightweight AxonSuit, which consists of a jacket, pants, gloves and boots that transmit tactile sensations and even thermal feedback to different parts of your body. The inside of the suit is lined with a material containing thousands of "dots" that can individually apply different amounts of pressure and heat to simulate different textures and temperatures.
The user will be able to feel whether the virtual object is rough or smooth, hot or cold. Or even just the environment itself becomes tangible. You can, for example, wander through a simulated desert and feel your body heat up. Or freeze in the northern wastes. Haptic feedback on the soles of your feet can even mimic the natural feeling of walking, even though the design leaves the user suspended in the air.
But the most interesting thing, of course, is connected with the gloves. They are what make your fingers believe they feel pressure, touch something cold or hot, and allow you to feel texture. Balls with gel are responsible for this, which is heated or cooled according to the necessary parameters. These gloves contain all the most advanced technologies developed for virtual world. This includes motion sensors with sensitive sensors that not only allow you to move and feel each finger, but will also replace the player’s mouse and keyboard thanks to a special interface that allows you to change weapons in games, fill slots, change clothes, view information and do many usual things. gamer things.
Returning to the base station itself, which will hold the player, we also find many interesting innovations.
Firstly, the base station (which is easier to call just a “stand”) fully interacts with the suit in transmitting information, powering and influencing sensors.
Secondly, the lightweight exoskeleton senses changes in the position of your entire body and individual limbs and translates this into movement in the virtual environment, and the stand applies varying degrees of force to give virtual objects realistic weight and resistance when moving or lifting them. Of course, you won't hurt your back if you try to lift a large rock in the game, but you can easily understand that this object is heavy.
Thirdly, the stand prevents the user from falling by holding him by just one part of his body. The softest one. The second fulcrum serves more as an addition and allows the player to bend, stretch, and turn. It is located in the area of the shoulder blades and interacts with the shoulder girdle and arms. The third point of contact extends to the legs. However, they all extend from the first main point of support.
Fourthly, the stand occupies a very small space - approximately 2 by 2 by 2 meters, so it can be installed in any room. And in the hall you can line up several devices in dozens of rows. So, in fact, the company plans to provide a new type of gaming halls. Moreover, only one operator-coordinator monitors dozens of devices. And this does not in any way exclude the possibility that the user can manage the system himself without any control.
Since the HTC Vive headset was the first to hit the market, the developers included it in the kit. On its own, it allows you to “walk” around a room-sized space or use treadmills like the Virtuix Omni, but when interacted with an exoskeleton suit and stand, the headset simply works wonders. For example, the headset shows approaching movement, determines the depth of feedback, and helps the AxonSuit determine the positioning of various body parts. They complement each other perfectly and cut off the very possibility of seeing slow movements or bugs, such as arms above your head. Only natural movements are displayed and with unprecedented precision.
No one excludes the possibility that AxonVR will offer its device at a high price. The company primarily focuses on theme parks and entertainment venues rather than personal use. In addition to games and entertainment, the AxonVR installation can also find application in rehabilitation after injuries, as well as military sports training. So this device found its niche in the market even before its release. However, there is one catch - the size of the suits. The company does not address this issue, but there is a suspicion that each costume will have to be sewn individually for the user, or the same amusement parks will have to rent them out, like skates. And the cost of each is at least a third of the installation itself. There are no such problems with the headset and stand - they will suit everyone, adjustable to size.
The AxonVR team explains their technology in the following video.
