While virtual reality has been much in the news in recent years, immersion has often been limited to integrating the user’s hands and head into the machine-generated reality, and fooling sight and hearing. However, Microsoft has now filed a patent application in the USA to go a step further by integrating haptic feedback in the hands and around other joints.
Immersing a third sense in virtual reality
The user’s hands have been integrated into virtual reality by most of the manufacturers who have embarked on this adventure. However, the sense of touch, which is highly developed in humans, particularly in the fingers, has not yet been exploited in consumer technologies. The device described would comprise two methods for generating this haptic feedback: firstly, mechanisms could be triggered to generate a sensation of contact against the skin, but this would not be sufficient; indeed, exerting a force on an object generates an equivalent reaction in return, which makes it difficult, for example, to compress a tennis ball.
Microsoft is reportedly planning to have the user put on fabric (whether in the form of gloves or armbands) as well as a VR headset. Fabrics slipped around joints could, via static electricity, offer resistance to joint movements by varying the frictional force between 2 layers making up the fabric, thus simulating the resistance offered by an object.
The importance of virtual reality for Microsoft
Although Microsoft has not announced virtual reality for its games console, the Redmond firm has invested in virtual reality (or “Mixed Reality” as Microsoft calls it, i.e. a blend between reality and virtual reality). Indeed, developments on its HoloLens augmented reality headset and support for Mixed Reality in Windows 10 show that this new way of interacting with computing is one that the IT giant intends to explore.
