virtual reality<\/a> has long been mastered. Feeling, much less so. That is precisely the challenge tackled by WAVY (Wearable hAptics for Virtual realitY), a project led by a team of six researchers at CEA List in Palaiseau, within the sensory and ambient interfaces laboratory.<\/p>\n\nThe project grew out of an almost chance encounter. An artist wanted to explore the creation of an intimate connection with an avatar and was looking for a device capable of conveying that sensation. Nothing on the market would do. The CEA List team set about designing their own glove, capable of delivering multiple types of haptic feedback in a realistic way, drawing on visual and auditory senses to amplify the experience.<\/p>\n\n
A forty-year-old challenge<\/h2>\n\n
The technical challenge is significant. Research into haptics in VR dates back to the 1980s, but for a long time focused on isolated solutions: either rigid exoskeletons, precise but heavy and costly, or simple vibrotactile gloves, lightweight but limited to basic vibrations. Few devices manage to combine kinesthetic feedback (the sensation of force and resistance) and cutaneous feedback (texture, contact) in a single portable, affordable and comfortable object.<\/p>\n\n
WAVY offers an original answer: an active braking mechanism using lubrication, driven by piezoelectric actuators. The principle involves reducing friction between two surfaces through ultrasonic vibrations, generating resistive, viscous or textured effects depending on the intensity applied. Implemented across three fingers, this system delivers force feedback during finger flexion, with performance exceeding previously published results in the scientific literature: up to 95% reduction in friction force, with a controllable and repeatable force range between 0.24 and 2.65 newtons on the first wearable prototype.<\/p>\n\n