SenseGlove's haptic gloves let you feel touch in VR experiences.
Crédits photos : SenseGlove
A Dutch company born out of a student project conducted by its two founders, SenseGlove has been working since 2018 to develop and provide high-performance haptic gloves. Their latest model, the Nova 2, capable of sending force feedback into the palm of the hand for the first time, will be on their booth at Laval Virtual 2024. Interview with Gijs den Butter, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer.
Can you introduce your company?
SenseGlove’s proprietary force feedback technology enables lifelike interactions in virtual reality, allowing users to feel size, density and resistance of virtual objects. Unlike controllers, the gloves allow you to hold, push, touch, connect and squeeze the virtual like it’s real. Every interaction using the SenseGlove makes virtual reality feel like a physical, real-world environment.
SenseGloves first haptic glove (the DK1) has been on the market since 2018. We have now made several advancements, and have developed the Nova 2, which is the first wireless haptic glove to include feedback in the palm.
What will your company show at Laval Virtual 2024?
We will be showing and giving demos of the Nova 2, which is our newest haptic glove. While the Nova 2 is a development of the Nova, its new technical features makes it a stand alone product. These gloves are currently available for pre-order, so showcasing them at Laval gives those interested a chance to see and try these haptic gloves.
What is your company’s current innovation?
The Nova 2 is equipped with Active Contact Feedback to simulate a feeling inside the user’s hand, making any virtual object that comes in contact with the whole palm feel more realistic-whether it’s a car wheel, a laboratory flask, or just an apple. Building off of the technology used in the Nova 1, Nova 2 will have vibrotactile feedback, force feedback and it is the first wireless compact glove on the market that features palm feedback. The Nova 2’s increased potential in making the virtual more realistic aims at improving XR experiences for users.
What innovation do you think has most transformed the world of VR/AR?
The introduction of standalone VR headsets, coupled with inside-out tracking technology, marked a significant leap forward for VR and spatial computing. Standalone VR eliminated the need for cumbersome external sensors and tethered connections, providing users with unparalleled freedom of movement. Inside-out tracking further enhanced this experience by enabling precise positional tracking without the need for external hardware, enhancing immersion and reducing setup complexities.
This combination democratized VR, making it more accessible to a broader audience and facilitating seamless integration into various environments, from gaming to enterprise applications. The result was a paradigm shift in VR adoption, ushering in a new era of immersive experiences and unlocking the full potential of spatial computing.
The baseline of our 26th edition is “Act For The Future”. In your opinion, how can immersive technologies impact the world of tomorrow?
Immersive technologies currently and will continue to impact the world. Key areas of impact that stand out is its ability to make tasks more efficient, such as education, robotics and overall work processes. Giving those learning the opportunity to most effectively master certain skills by having access to an incredibly large and realistic “platform”. Medical students can gain skills in surgery without the need of cadavers and engineers can build with little material waste.
A second impact is how immersive technologies break geographical boundaries, providing, for example, a more interactive form of remote work, as well as allowing people to experience from the comfort of their own home or office.
