Hands Free VR

 Note haptics (touch) enabled/

Physical Sensations in VR Go Hands-Free

IEEE Spectrum, Michelle Hampson, April 11, 2022

A new virtual reality (VR) haptics system developed by researchers at the Chofu, Japan-based University of Electro-Communications (UEC) eliminates hand-based hardware by manipulating the forearm instead of the hand to generate physical sensations. The lightweight system features an external sensor camera that tracks the user's finger movements, and applies haptics sensations to the top, bottom, or sides of the forearm to match those movements. "We were surprised that even with this new haptic presentation method, we were able to obtain a high comfort level without any training time," said UEC's Taha Moriyama. Users described the feeling of the new system as "symbolic" of moving a VR object, rather than feeling like they were truly grasping one.  ... '