Extending immersion through touch

For: Creators working in XR, entertainment and spatial experience

The problem

For haptic feedback in XR (VR and AR), devices that present kinesthetic feedback — generating real resistance against finger movement — have been widely researched and productised. This approach has structural limits.

  • The mechanism that generates resistance tends to cover the palm

    Generating physical resistance against finger movement requires anchoring a mechanism somewhere, and most existing force-feedback gloves place that mechanism on the palm or the back of the hand.

  • Keeping the palm free is difficult

    Research on force-feedback devices treats stimulation of the palm as an important factor in reproducing grasping faithfully, and reproducing force adequately while leaving the palm free is not straightforward.

Most existing force-feedback devices therefore struggle to be palm-free and to convey force at the same time.

Our approach

FeelFuse, our wearable haptic display, combines rotational shear and vibration stimulation of the skin to achieve a presence not previously available. Rather than reproducing physical resistance itself, it conveys force through skin sensation — which is how it works towards being palm-free at the same time.

  • Vibration stimulation

    Applied at the fingertips to convey the onset of contact clearly. Only part of the fingertip is covered; the palm is not.

  • Skin stretch (rotational shear)

    Applied away from the palm to present the direction and magnitude of force. It draws on the fine sensitivity of the skin to deformation, reproducing even small changes in force.

In XR this allows touch to be presented without impeding movement, and also to be superimposed while an actual tool is held — a haptic form of augmented reality.

What we expect

Presence, with the palm still free

Without covering the palm or impeding movement, the combination of rotational shear and vibration achieves a presence not previously available.

Small changes in force reproduced

Drawing on the skin’s fine sensitivity to deformation makes it possible to reproduce small changes in force.

Haptic augmented reality, layered onto real tools

Because touch can be superimposed while an actual tool is held, XR-derived haptic information can be added to the manipulation of real objects — an application that spans the virtual and the real.

Products used

  • FeelFuse SDK

    A development kit for Unity and ROS 2 that speeds up the implementation of haptic feedback in XR and robotics.

  • FeelFuse®

    A wearable haptic device that returns the sensation of force to the hands in real time. Haptic teleoperation improves both the precision of an operation and the quality of the demonstration data used for imitation learning, and extends the experience in immersive content.

Projects