Blurring the line between the real and the virtual: The power of VR haptic gloves 

While playing on your favourite gaming console, you must have wondered how amazing it would be if you could touch and feel the elements and playmates of the virtual world. Turns out, you will be able to do so very soon, thanks to haptic gloves by Meta, a tech giant co-founded by American entrepreneur Mark Zuckerberg that builds technologies to help people connect and is involved in augmented and virtual reality among others.  With these virtual reality gloves, you can feel the sensation of virtual objects pressing into your skin.   

Meta’s haptic gloves at a glance 
As already mentioned, these gloves allow you to feel virtual objects as if they were physically present in front of you. In 2015, the research division at Meta’s Reality Labs released the prototype of a haptic glove which is fitted with 15 plastic pads called ‘actuators’. This is a befitting name, wouldn’t you agree? These actuators fit directly under the users’ fingers, palms and fingertips. When you grip a virtual item, they stiffen, giving you the life-like sensation of grip! A small white marker on the back of the glove allows cameras to track the movement of the fingers. It also has internal sensors that detect how the users’ fingers bend. Combined with high-quality visuals and audio, these sensations will blur the line between the real and the virtual. 

What can haptic gloves do? 
In addition to improving the gaming experience, these haptic gloves have several other applications. They can be used to train surgeons for orthopaedic surgery too! In fact, students can also learn about surgical tasks by using haptic gloves without endangering themselves or the patient. Training in manufacturing processes can also be enhanced by these virtual reality gloves. They can train workers in complex warehouse tasks such as attaching labels and packaging boxes in an easy, fun and safe way.  Wait, this is not all. Haptic gloves are used in flight simulators to give students the sensation of sitting in an actual cockpit! With the gloves on, they can grasp or steer the plane’s yoke, operate the throttle lever and even feel switches and buttons within the cockpit. Humanity and technology have really come a long way, haven’t they? 

Haptic gloves of India 
In India, it might take a while to get our hands on Meta’s haptic gloves because they’re still in the prototype stage. However, large Indian corporations have begun to use virtual reality to train employees and test automobiles. TATA Motors, a well-known name in the automobile industry, also employs haptic gloves for driving and other simulators. The Hindustan Zinc Company has begun using haptic gloves to train miners in mining environments. These environments are created using 12 different types of gears to perfectly replicate the actual mining rig! Simulanis is a virtual reality company that provides gloves to Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited and Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. They use it to repair and operate pipelines and refineries.