The virtual reality industry has had innovation upon innovation in recent years with all the advancements in technology. One of the latest addition, however, comes from Sony with its research on a prototype VR controller that will track the entire human hand.
The endeavour was done in response to the limits set forth by current gesture control systems and machines that only track specific movements.
The new system is designed to overcome this obstacle by allowing users to use their whole hand and fingers in manipulating the virtual world.
A new contender in the VR field
The machine that Sony Playstation has developed is based on machine learning and uses capacitive sensors to get ahead of the competition. While the device is still using a handheld tool, it's taken things to a whole new level by making it feel like a part of your hand.
The use of computer vision, as suggested in the research papers, will go hand-in-hand with well-established processes and means of interacting with virtual elements.
The paper also stated the introduction of 2.5D representation to utilize convolutional neural network methods on a capacitive image of the curved space, along with two other types of network interfaces that the team considered as they were evaluated for the project.
The new controller made use of a prototype of 62 individual electrodes. The training datasets were then recorded using an optical tracking system to observe the different ways that a human hand moves in general in games.
The two systems together allowed the development of the innovative method of hand tracking and virtual hand representations.
The researchers also shared their implementation of real-time interactive applications with the use of the prototype and have demonstrated the possibility if immersive and realistic interactions using one's fingers in the virtual world.
A demonstration by the authors of the research paper can be seen in the video below.
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A brief history of virtual reality
Virtual reality currently implemented and used in both computer applications and gaming interactions. There are plenty of gadgets that are compatible with virtual reality applications, such as headsets, treadmills, and special gloves.
All these devices are used to incorporate our reality with the virtual scene that we are trying to interact with, may it be applications or games.
The earliest version of a VR headgear is from the 1960s with Morton Heilig's Telesphere Mask which paved the way to upgrades and innovations.
In 1961, two engineers developed a device called the Headsight. This gadget incorporated a video screen for each one of the wearer's eyes along with a motion tracking system that was linked to a closed-circuit camera.
This invention was designed for military purposes instead of virtual reality reasons. The movements of the head would be tied to a remote camera that allows the user to look around.
Further advancements in technology lead to the artificial reality that was developed by Myron Krueger in 1969. The machine used computer-generated environments that reacted to the movement of people in it.
Recent developments of virtual reality have brought several new devices and machines that are capable of even more immersive interactions and conditions.
