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Digital Bodies » Virtual Reality » Plexus VR Gloves – we may soon feel our way around in VR

Plexus VR Gloves – we may soon feel our way around in VR

February 7, 2020July 4, 2018 by Emory Craig
Plexus VR Gloves

The Plexus VR Gloves took a step closer to release this week with an announcement of developer reservations. You can’t get your hands on them (or in them) just yet, but the San Francisco startup is making progress.

As haptic gloves for virtual reality, these are remarkably thin and light – exactly what we’ve hoped for all along. They’ll provide feedback and interface with the major tracking standards in the Oculus Rift, Steam VR, and Microsoft’s “Mixed Reality” HMD’s. If you’re eager to get in the queue, you can reserve a pair at Plexus.

And at $249, these sound like a bargain. At least compared to everything else you have to buy for a high-end VR setup.

Light and thin Plexus VR Gloves

There are other options out there including the Haptx VR Gloves which were a hit at the Sundance Film Festival. With embedded microfluidic air channels, Haptx offers the potential for heat and cold and feedback that deeply mimics real-world experiences. But it is a significantly bulkier solution. Of the two, Plexus probably has a better shot a market share due to its small size and ease of use.

Minimalism always wins in the end.

No matter what solution we ultimately get, we need gloves, not hand controllers for VR to take off. Immersive experiences need to be as realistic as our real-life experiences. When I want to pick something up, I don’t tap something in IRL, but squeeze my fingers around it. It’s one of virtual reality’s weakest points.

There is also the issue of accessibility – which is a moral imperative. VR gloves will help the visually impaired access immersive environments and broaden the range of virtual experiences all of us can have.

Pexus VR Gloves Specs

Here’s their promo video and what we know of the technical details from the Plexus site:

  • Measurement System: 21 Degrees of freedom per hand
  • Tactile Feedback: 5 (one per finger) tactile actuators
  • Wireless: 2.4GHz Custom Low Latency Protocol
  • Compatibility: Unity, Unreal Engine, C++, C#, Python
  • SDK: Unity and Unreal Engine haptic rapid application development toolkit, including drop in haptic hand rigs and interactive objects ready to use with developer artwork assets
  • Compatibility: VR Integration / tracking options: Vive, Oculus Rift, Windows Mixed Reality. Can be used with any Windows, Linux or Mac environment through the C++ and Python API
  • Battery life: 2 to 3 hours depending on feedback usage
  • Refresh rate: 180hz, engine synchronized for VR

If you’re looking for more details, there’s a good (and frank) discussion with the company on Reddit.

There’s no real date for the release but we should see the Plexus VR Gloves sometime in 2019. Thankfully, they’re not going the Kickstarter route, but getting them straight to developers.

Now just imagine something as simple as shaking hands or a high-five in social VR. That could be a game changer.

 

Emory Craig

Emory Craig is a writer, speaker, and consultant specializing in virtual reality (VR) and artificial intelligence (AI) with a rich background in art, new media, and higher education. A sought-after speaker at international conferences, he shares his unique insights on innovation and collaborates with universities, nonprofits, businesses, and international organizations to develop transformative initiatives in XR, AI, and digital ethics. Passionate about harnessing the potential of cutting-edge technologies, he explores the ethical ramifications of blending the real with the virtual, sparking meaningful conversations about the future of human experience in an increasingly interconnected world.

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Join us at EDUCAUSE 2023 for our session on The New Ethical Frontier: AI in Higher Education and Society

Join us at EDUCAUSE 2023 for our session on The New Ethical Frontier: AI in Higher Education and Society.

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  • We are speaking at EDUCAUSE on Thursday, October 12 | 9:45AM–10:05AM CT on The New Ethical Frontier: AI in Higher Education and Society.

  • Maya Georgieva will be speaking at SXSWedu on Tuesday, March 7th, 3:30 PM, on the The Future of Learning in the Metaverse.

  • Maya Georgieva in EdTech Magazine What Is a Metaversity, and Should You Create One on Your Campus?

  • The Metaverse Revolution with Maya Georgieva and others at Skylight Modern Gallery, in New York City.

  • Emory Craig will be speaking at the GESS Education Global Leadership Summit, Tuesday, March 23rd at 10:30 AM (EDT) on "Learning in Virtual Worlds: How Augmented and Virtual Reality is Transforming Education in a Global Pandemic."

  • Join us at the ShapingEDU Winter Games this week! Lunch Session: Wednesday January 6, 12:30-1:00pm MST for the latest on the Hummersive Learning Project and a breakout session on Thursday, 10:45am MST on "Learning with Embodied Avatars in the Future."

  • Join us at the iLRN Conference where we'll present as co-authors the Executive Summary of the State of XR Report at 1:00pm (EST), June 23rd - immersively in VirBELA.

The EDUCAUSE-ELI Series, “VR/AR: Stepping into the New Frontier of Learning”

Article Series: Stepping into the New Frontier of Learning

Articles from our New Frontier of Learning series for the EDUCAUSE Review (and summaries of the articles):

  • From VR and AR to Our XR Future: Transforming Higher Education
  • VR and AR: The Ethical Challenges Ahead
  • VR and AR: The Art of Immersive Storytelling and Journalism
  • VR and AR: Learners as Creators and World Builders of Our Immersive Future
  • VR and AR: Designing Spaces for Immersive Learning
  • VR and AR: Transforming Learning and Scholarship in the Humanities and Social Sciences
  • VR and AR: Driving a Revolution in Medical Education & Patient Care
  • AR and VR in STEM: The New Frontiers in Science
  • A New World: VR and AR Tech Developments
  • Introducing the VR and AR Series: Stepping Into the New Frontier of Learning Series

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