Meta reveals Haptic Glove prototype, will enable users to feel objects in metaverse

Formerly known as Facebook, Meta is the new name of Mark Zuckerberg's metaverse-first company. While changing the name, the founder and CEO clearly mentioned that the company will focus on the development of metaverse. Other brands and products that were previously owned by Facebook would remain the same, along with minor branding elements to reflect the change in name.

Meta is advancing towards its goal of creating an interactive, immersive and digital environment. Most recently, the company has revealed the prototype of new haptic gloves that will provide people with haptic feedback as and when they touch or interact with an object in the digital world. The research and development of the product are being looked after by Reality Labs as a part of Meta's push towards the integration of AR and VR to form the metaverse. 

Meta prototype haptic glove will be the first of its kind

As mentioned by Meta in an official blog post dated November 16, 2021 "(to) bring touch to the metaverse, the team is developing haptic gloves: comfortable and customizable gloves that can reproduce a range of sensations in virtual worlds, including texture, pressure and vibration. While we’re still in the early stages of this research, the goal is to one day pair the gloves with your VR headset for an immersive experience like playing in a concert or poker game in the metaverse, and eventually, they’d work with your AR glasses."

To successfully develop a haptic glove that provides a real-world sense of touch, Meta is simultaneously developing a lot of technologies. Meta is looking forward to combining the auditory, visual and haptic feedback to generate the physical impact of touch. The company is developing new soft actuators (tiny, soft motors) which will move in synchronization to deliver a sensation to the wearer.

Additionally, Meta is creating the world's first high-speed microfluidic processor, advanced hand-tracking technologies and haptic rendering technology. To make the haptic glove work and generate a physical sense of touch for the wearer, all the components will have to work together. The Haptic Glove by Meta has the potential of being a revolutionary product if the developers are successfully able to recreate the sense of touch and integrate it within the metaverse. 

Image: META