Forum Discussion
New Haptic controller on Kickstarter - The Frebble
"Frebble is a wireless accessory that lets you hold your loved one’s hand from anywhere in the world."
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/396691740/frebble-hold-hands-online
Okay, this device is genius.
A lot of focus has been on gaming, but there's another huge market that's not getting as much attention yet - social VR.
According to Facebook's 2014 demographics, more than 46% of its 180,000,000 users in the US are over the age of 35 (56 million between 35-54 years, another 28 million over 55 years). As the proportion of older people who are tech savvy increases, we can expect to see these numbers go up again.
A lot of people are using Facebook to stay in touch with friends and family who live far away. I'm in the UK, and my mother has to travel from here to Australia to see my sister. My girlfriend meanwhile is in the US. Each journey is very costly - in time, money and fossil fuels.
I think VR is going to become a global phenomenon, and it will be taken up by families and couples wanting to see more of each other. That's a big market, and whoever makes an app that best simulates a family holiday/romantic break is going to be very successful.
How do we do that? Obviously Facebook has made a great move by acquiring Oculus, as you need a quality HMD. That gives you immersion. The Virtuix Omni gives us presence, by letting us move around in any direction without getting motion sick. For social VR though you also want to establish a physical connection. Being able to squeeze your child's/partner's hand across huge distances, while you're walking through a VR Disneyland or along a virtual beach, is going to be very appealing. My girlfriend and I would certainly like a pair of these!
The great thing is it doesn't require much additional work. It comes with an app that users can have running in the background. While I'm sure an SDK will allow developers to make use of the pressure sensors in innovative ways (picking up objects, manipluating levers etc), really all you need to do is frame the experience visually to enhance immersion - maybe a button causes two avatars in proximity to hold hands. If you've already programmed hand tracking via STEM or other method you can offer people an even more realistic simulation.
I really hope people will back their kickstarter (the inventor seems like a really nice guy btw); having this commercially available is going to attract more people to VR, people who aren't hard-core gamers.
Also, for Uncharted VR it's going to be essential ;)
tl;dr: great new haptic controller, lets you hold & squeeze hands - please back it!
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/396691740/frebble-hold-hands-online
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/396691740/frebble-hold-hands-online
Okay, this device is genius.
A lot of focus has been on gaming, but there's another huge market that's not getting as much attention yet - social VR.
According to Facebook's 2014 demographics, more than 46% of its 180,000,000 users in the US are over the age of 35 (56 million between 35-54 years, another 28 million over 55 years). As the proportion of older people who are tech savvy increases, we can expect to see these numbers go up again.
A lot of people are using Facebook to stay in touch with friends and family who live far away. I'm in the UK, and my mother has to travel from here to Australia to see my sister. My girlfriend meanwhile is in the US. Each journey is very costly - in time, money and fossil fuels.
I think VR is going to become a global phenomenon, and it will be taken up by families and couples wanting to see more of each other. That's a big market, and whoever makes an app that best simulates a family holiday/romantic break is going to be very successful.
How do we do that? Obviously Facebook has made a great move by acquiring Oculus, as you need a quality HMD. That gives you immersion. The Virtuix Omni gives us presence, by letting us move around in any direction without getting motion sick. For social VR though you also want to establish a physical connection. Being able to squeeze your child's/partner's hand across huge distances, while you're walking through a VR Disneyland or along a virtual beach, is going to be very appealing. My girlfriend and I would certainly like a pair of these!
The great thing is it doesn't require much additional work. It comes with an app that users can have running in the background. While I'm sure an SDK will allow developers to make use of the pressure sensors in innovative ways (picking up objects, manipluating levers etc), really all you need to do is frame the experience visually to enhance immersion - maybe a button causes two avatars in proximity to hold hands. If you've already programmed hand tracking via STEM or other method you can offer people an even more realistic simulation.
I really hope people will back their kickstarter (the inventor seems like a really nice guy btw); having this commercially available is going to attract more people to VR, people who aren't hard-core gamers.
Also, for Uncharted VR it's going to be essential ;)
tl;dr: great new haptic controller, lets you hold & squeeze hands - please back it!
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/396691740/frebble-hold-hands-online
15 Replies
- Can I buy it for $5? If not I think this is just way too limited in its functionality to be worth having around. Maybe there are more novel uses for it that aren't coming to me, but I really don't see the wide appeal. Hopefully it gets funded so that those that want it can get one, but I'm gonna pass for now.
- Ah, well thanks for taking a look Twitchmonkey. Anyone else here in a long-distance relationship?
In terms of functionality, I think just being able to grip things and exert analogue pressure could make for some interesting game mechanics. For instance (and this is very un-social VR!) you could re-enact this famous scene: - Is it wrong that I think it would be a better idea to take the same core technology, but make it so you can have sex with someone over the internet? :I
This thing just seems like a gimmick, but I reckon sex over the internet would be really quite a good thing. Might make long-distance relationships just a little bit less awful, would maybe lower STDs a little since you can't get herpes from a dildo/fleshlight, even if it's a fancy internet-connected, VR dildo/fleshlight. - Brilliant... I recognize the shape/engineering.
There is a very similar remote control product available at a store across the street from the Santa Cruz Coffee Roaster on the Pacific Garden Mall. Those are about $200... but totally waterproof, rechargeable lithium, and constructed from the highest quality materials.
Street View:
https://www.google.com/maps/@36.973934,-122.026121,3a,75y,298.28h,82.97t/data=!3m5!1e1!3m3!1sLTE7Y-vK4FyBn_zrmCyAJQ!2e0!5s2011-05
While an employee was demonstrating the product (and reporting on personal experience) we were impressed. My partner in crime seemed quite keen on the idea of procuring one... but we run on a tight budget.
Perhaps soon.... after I secure my dream fiat production role.
-methods - Was that a dildo joke?
- Who is joking?
I went back by the store a few days ago and looked at the product again. Different person there this time - they told me that they tested the range of the remote... and it can reach all the way across the street.
Point being (from a hack perspective) any device that is already battery powered and remote control is a snap to adapt to. Probably take 20 minutes to route control away from the remote and up to an interface (like an Arduino).
When I get my kit -> I am going to start adapting my own accessories. ;)
-methods - Hi everyone,
I am the founder of Holland Haptics. We created the Frebble. I would like to thank sutekiB for making the post.
We sold about 400 Frebbles. Unfortunately, this was not sufficient to start production with a factory. Or to get the funds. The crowdfunding money would have just about covered the costs of the molds. Someone mentioned the price of $5. I wish we could sell it for that. I'm afraid that the solenoid alone is over $15, not to mention all other components.
In order to progress, and get at least some Frebbles into the wild, we decided to make 50 ourselves, without a factory. With the help of another start-up here at the YES!Delft incubator, we will make our own silicon molds and cast the embodiments with them. We will source, assemble, test and ship everything ourselves.
During previous tests, some children said they could "feel their parent's hand" with the Frebble. I say that makes it worth pursuing the path we are on. Even if it takes a certain amount of perseverance. ;)
Cheers,
Frederic - Hi Frederic, good to see you here on the forum!
You have a wonderful product and I'm sure it could be very successful. Don't be deterred, you're just ahead of the curve.
With none of the major players in VR having released their consumer devices yet, we don't yet know how big this revolution's going to be. Nor do we know how big social VR could become. 'Casual' or social VR users could outnumber hardcore VR gamers.
I think one advantage the Frebble has, is that it doesn't need to be supported by as many titles initially for it to potentially sell in large volumes. By that I mean, if a social app like Second Life supported it your user base could grow enormously, and since this genre is typically a 'persistent world' with no ending, customers will continue to benefit from it.
Once in the hands of so many people, it wouldn't be surprising if it became a popular device for game developers to support. If tracking has already been added for a VR glove (which needn't impede the use of Frebble) or a STEM module worn with a wrist strap, then interactions that would be improved by the Frebble will be abundant. For instance, opening a door handle; surely worthwhile to experiment with using your device's pressure sensor to allow us to grip and open the door, with some vibration feedback to increase presence. I could see this being my preferred method of transitioning between rooms in a creepy mansion!
I'm pleased to hear you're making small production runs. This appears to be the route Trinity VR are taking after their Kickstarter missed its goal. Here's their update regarding this: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/316228545/trinity-magnum-precision-motion-control-for-vr/posts/957128
While priority is best given to Social VR app developers, know that I would gladly purchase a set, as it would be a pleasure to demonstrate them in action in one of my videos!
Good luck, and I hope to see the Frebble on store shelves in the not-too-distant future.
After all, I'm going to want to play ICO VR with it :)
(ICO VR not confirmed btw, but wouldn't it be cool?) - sutekiB, we think alike.. ;) Walking over a bridge hand in hand with a game character (and not falling) was one of the things I had in mind for the Frebble. Would be nice to implement at some point!
We're forging ahead with the social apps. Google has recently moved the bluetooth and bluetoothLowEnergy Chrome API's to Stable. This means we can finish our web app, hopefully without the use of a dongle. As for Android and iOS, we hope to get these done by November, work undertaken by programmers who started their internships today.
We're moving the Kickstarter data to the Selfstarter.us template, so we can re-run the campagne without a deadline. I am still receiving messages from people asking where they can buy the Frebble. I think if we put the target at $25K, we will make it within a few months. I'll need someone to invest in the molds, but we have one or two candidates for that now, thankfully. - Hi everyone,
We're re-launching the Frebble on Kickstarter on Monday Sep 22nd (coming Monday).
Cheers,
Frederic
