Credit to: Manus
Founded in July 2014, Manus gloves, a Netherlands-based VR tech startup, embarked on a journey in creating an intuitive data glove. The Manus team wanted to create a glove that would track your hands and arms completely and smoothly with a motion tracking bracelet and finger sensors. Manus Gloves has provided VR gamers and trainers with a truly immersive experience to look forward to by getting rid of handheld controllers and replacing them with your own hands.
VR gloves for use in space
Manus Gloves worked with NASA to support mixed reality experiments and simulations that will help astronauts learn how to use tools and maneuver around the International Space Station in a weightless environment. This helps train and prepare astronauts and their helpers in the control room, or otherwise better understand how to use on-board equipment, what to do when tools are floating, or what to do when disorientation or space sickness occurs.
All hands on deck
Having your hands free while exercising is important for safety, balance, and getting the most out of any activity. Having your hands free can help you stabilize and feel more in control as you move around in a changing virtual environment. Using your hands instead of a controller allows you to reach for more objects and grab more collectibles in the game (to gain more XP and burn more calories). The glove’s low latency enhances and helps to be more fully immersed in a VR world and reduces image clutter that is known to cause nausea.
Credit to: Manus
Having a controller in hand while sword fighting or pulling the trigger on an automatic VR weapon can feel realistic, but can get in the way of an immersive experience as you still have to use buttons to control movements and interactions. The special motion Xsens tracking helps you travel smoothly in a virtual world, and the haptic feedback in the gloves gives you a sense of real interaction while holding, pressing or hitting in a virtual game or experience.
Comfortable glove design
The gloves are made of a stretchy material that fits comfortably around your hands and fingers, but leaves the fingertips free. Don’t worry, it doesn’t look like Robocop or like you have a power glove, its design looks clean, comfortable and does a good job of avoiding bulk.
Your design is one size fits all that may hit or miss depending on the size or shape of your hands. After you use them, they’ll get sweaty or dirty. You can easily remove the outer case from the finger and wrist sensors and can be easily hand washed.
Are the sensors helpful?
Each glove finger has two sensors and the thumb has 3, making a total of 22 finger sensors. How much, if any, weight these sensors can hold is the subject of speculation. This speculation makes it difficult to estimate the range of exercise options it can withstand, but you can safely assume that they can be used for combat and action games that don’t involve putting your entire body weight on the VR gloves.
Manus gloves can use up to 6 to 3 hours of battery life and are simply charged via a micro USB cable. So you have more than enough time to wear these haptic gloves Play games like Into the Rhythm and feel the beat on your hands or the burning of your arms as you pound on a virtual drum kit. Or, on leg day, use the gloves in place of the handheld controller when exercising your hamstrings, calves, and glutes while you exercise Play VR games like Holopoint or Hot Squat.
compatibility
Manus gloves can be used with VR devices that have motion capture platforms such as HTC Vive, Xsens, PhaseSpace, OptiTrack and Vicon. They indicate their compatibility with Windows, Unreal Engine, Unity and Motion Builder. They also have a future integration with Android, iOS, OSVR, and Matlab in the works.
Where to get one
Credit to: Manus
The Manus glove is a welcome virtual reality equipment accessory that offers VR gamers and coaches a promising interactive tool that could make playing a VR game or exercising in a virtual gym more motivating and immersive.
The only problem is that you only currently Order one as a development kit, which you can find here. The obvious downside is that you have to wait to buy. Unless you’re a developer who can start making VR games that the rest of us can enjoy once a public product hits the market.
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