Haptics are very important to VR, and Manus knows that. Manus VR gloves first made their debut to developers just over three years ago this month. When they were tested, everyone knew they were well before their time. The technology was not where it needed to be, albeit the idea was fantastic. Since then we have seen plenty of companies make alternatives that are highly sought after. Tactical Haptics, HatpX, and Contact CI have been the leaders for haptic gloves and suits for the last little bit in the virtual reality industry. Manus is looking to change that narrative.
Manus has recently come out with three different versions of their gloves, as they are all a part of the Manus Prime Series. These are known by the Prime One, Haptic Prime, and the Xsens Prime. Each of these haptic gloves will feature something original and new to the user experience.
The Prime One is the core of the Manus line of products, and the go-to product for people just getting into haptics with virtual reality. You will be able to track your fingers with two-joint tracking. This will be able to stream perfectly into the gaming engine that you are using on your headset. The official statement made to UploadVR states that “The Prime One is the core of our product line, an all-round wireless data glove that tracks individual fingers on two joints, and that can stream the data directly into Unity, Unreal, Motionbuilder or one of the large enterprise software platforms such as IC.IDO or Vizard.”
The Haptic Prime is the second of the Prime Series that Manus is offering. This set of gloves will be able to track how much force is being applied to the fabric of the glove. This will make picking up, setting down, and throwing inside of virtual reality a whole new ball game. Along with all of the futuristic features that this set of gloves will offer, the gloves haptic feedlck will be 100% adjustable within the software which you are running inside and outside of tour headset. This is what Manus went on to say regarding the Haptic Prime.
“The Haptic Prime is a Prime One with linear resonant actuators. It provides unique haptic signals depending on the type of material and how much virtual force is applied. Haptic feedback is fully customizable in the user interface, with an integrated material editor and adjustable signal strength, frequency and resonance.”
Lastly, you will be given the option of the Xsens Prime. The gloves hear are panned to go onto their full motion capture suit. These are simply just rounding out the edges of the suit with complete finger tracing on the suit. The company did not have much to say about the Xsens Prime, but they did respond with this. “Finally, the Xsens Prime is a glove designed for integration into a Xsens motion capture suit, to complete the hand with finger data on their IMU suits.”
We don’t have any experiences with these new gloves that Manus is planning on releasing, but we will get our hands in them shortly. When that happens we will be able to make official comments on the functionality, quality, and tracking capabilities.
This is not the firs time have heard of haptics and tracking together through a glove, but Manus is making a compelling case to be the best on the market. There is no price point for the products going to be released, but we are hoping that the Prime One is good enough, yet reasonable in price enough, to be a top-of-the line consumer haptic tracking system.
