Advanced VR glove brings immersive details to the digital world

Electrical and computer engineering assistant professor Craig Shultz unveiled a cutting-edge haptic glove at the User Interface Software and Technology (UIST) Conference in San Francisco. Haptic technology uses force, vibration and motion to add another dimension to the virtual reality experience: the ability to “touch” virtual objects. 

In a new paper, “Fluid Reality: High-Resolution, Untethered Haptic Gloves using Electroosmotic Pump Arrays”, Shultz and co-authors from Carnegie Mellon lay out how they overcame long-standing challenges in haptic actuation and integration to demonstrate a game-changing form factor for advanced, high-resolution, wireless and wearable haptic gloves. 

“There are existing systems that have shown off high-resolution virtual touch before,” Shultz said, “but they cost tens of thousands of dollars and require heavy, backpack-sized infrastructure to operate. We’ve prototyped a new system with 160 actuators per hand for around $200, and it fits entirely on the wrist.” 

The high-resolution Fluid Reality gloves enable users to feel the individual strings of a virtual violin across haptic arrays in their fingertips. The haptic arrays can also mimic different textures and play haptic “animations,” simulating fan wind, water droplets and electrical sparks.

Virtual and augmented reality headsets have entered the mainstream, but our sense of touch is still underutilized in computing. Recently hailed as groundbreaking by Fast Company, and featured in Popular Science, Shultz’s tech aims to change this. As well as providing a more immersive experience, haptic feedback can improve accessibility, enabling people to use their devices without relying solely on eyesight or hearing. Shultz’s main research goal is to bring haptic displays to the same level of understanding and sophistication as their graphic and audio display counterparts (screens and speakers).

This VR glove focuses on haptic technology in the fingertips. Shultz’s team looks to expand haptic feedback to other parts of the hand, such as the palm, using high-density haptic pad arrays, and potentially explore other haptic effects with this design, including localized thermal effects and weight, grip and softness simulations. 

Shultz joined the ECE department at The Grainger College of Engineering in January 2024, with affiliations in Computer Science and the Coordinated Science Laboratory. He brings more than a decade of experience in embedded tactile computing, sensing and actuation. 

Examples of his work include “surface haptic” displays, which can modulate their surface friction properties at near instantaneous speeds, “non-contact” haptic actuators, which couple tactile energy to the body through midair, acoustic transmission, and “flat panel” haptic interfaces, which are capable of popping up buttons and shapes from perfectly flat surfaces. This research reaches into the domains of computer science, mechanical engineering and materials science.

Shultz is recruiting MS and PhD students to join his Interactive Haptic Display Group starting Fall 2024. Interested candidates can find more information on his website.