New Tactical Haptics website & new Reactive Grip™ controller

That is beautiful! This brings a bunch of questions to mind that I hope to see answered either here or when you post your Kickstarter:

1) Very interesting how you were able to integrate a trigger in there. Is that an on/off clicky trigger or an analog trigger?

2) Is this thing wired? If so, how long will the cable be?

3) How big is this thing? Hard to tell the scale from the teaser picture.

4) Does the STEM tracker fit into the bottom of it?


Good luck!

"drash" wrote:
That is beautiful! This brings a bunch of questions to mind that I hope to see answered either here or when you post your Kickstarter:

1) Very interesting how you were able to integrate a trigger in there. Is that an on/off clicky trigger or an analog trigger?

2) Is this thing wired? If so, how long will the cable be?

3) How big is this thing? Hard to tell the scale from the teaser picture.

4) Does the STEM tracker fit into the bottom of it?


Good luck!

Hi Drash,
1) the device will have an analog trigger.
2) it is wired, but the final cable length hasn't been determined yet.
3) The device is about 7.25" tall (~19 cm) tall
4) STEM goes in the side like on the Sixense controllers. Follow this link: http://tacticalhaptics.com/new-reactive-grip-motion-controller/
(also attached here now)

ReactiveGrip-wSTEM-400.jpg

1) Is that a second button on the front of the trigger guard?

2) Is the black button up top an actual button, or the usual mini joystick?

"Felix12g" wrote:

1) Is that a second button on the front of the trigger guard?

2) Is the black button up top an actual button, or the usual mini joystick?

Hi Felix,
Yes, it's an experimental "bumper" button on the front of the trigger guard area.
The round black item on top is an analog thumbstick"

Thats awesome.

I would really like to try it, mostly for FPS weapon kickback.

I really like the idea here, a real novel way to provide haptic feed back, we really need to move beyond rumbler packs as feed back. Having owned and used a hydra set up the cables are a huge PITA so while I understand the Power supply issues it seems a real pity to go with the stem system and then have to tether it. IS there any way you can do a cordless form using induction charging with out blowing the price out dramatically ?

I really like the improvements, however I have a few questions as well:

1) Aren't the sliding contactors too big for the currently slimmer handle? My impression had been that the contactors should be a minor influence on your grip, however this new design seems to show them as pretty much the entire grip on the handle. Up/downsides to the increased contact with the contactors?

2) It looks like the trigger is rather far from the handle in order to have room for a full finger under it in case of straight handle usage; isn't this too far from the hand? When you look at a gun, the trigger is right off the handle, however here it needs the space for a finger to fit behind it.

3) Wouldn't it be better to include a longer handle to incorporate different possibilities, like: two handed grip, gun handle (simply a trigger attached to the handle on top)? Ideally, you would have to change the settings so that the contactors move to the position of the setting (two handed, gun, etc.), or is this too much in one and better to develop different handles for different uses?

4) Around when can we expect the Kickstarter? Would like to know estimated price point as well; don't know if you have already received min/max price estimates from possible buyers.

"ncwolf" wrote:
I really like the improvements, however I have a few questions as well:

1) Aren't the sliding contactors too big for the currently slimmer handle? My impression had been that the contactors should be a minor influence on your grip, however this new design seems to show them as pretty much the entire grip on the handle. Up/downsides to the increased contact with the contactors?

2) It looks like the trigger is rather far from the handle in order to have room for a full finger under it in case of straight handle usage; isn't this too far from the hand? When you look at a gun, the trigger is right off the handle, however here it needs the space for a finger to fit behind it.

3) Wouldn't it be better to include a longer handle to incorporate different possibilities, like: two handed grip, gun handle (simply a trigger attached to the handle on top)? Ideally, you would have to change the settings so that the contactors move to the position of the setting (two handed, gun, etc.), or is this too much in one and better to develop different handles for different uses?

4) Around when can we expect the Kickstarter? Would like to know estimated price point as well; don't know if you have already received min/max price estimates from possible buyers.

Hi ncwolf,

Answers to your questions can be found below.

1) Nope, the sliding contactors are perfect, and we got great feedback when we demo'd our devices at the Silicon Valley VR meetup last Friday.

2) The trigger ergonomics are a bit of a compromise and while kids might have a hard time reaching the trigger, most other people who have tried our device seemed to not have a major issue reaching the trigger. Nonetheless, we will continue to refine this design and make improvements.

3) Most of our feedback to-date has been to make our device as small as possible, so that has been our goal. There are other approaches to address your suggestions, which we're working on an hope to reveal during our kickstarter campaign.

4) Our goal is to be on kickstarter by the end of October and we're working diligently to make this happen. We're still finalizing our pricing, but its clear that we won't make any profit, or cover any salary support (its very expensive to produce hardware at kickstarter quantities), in order to offer the controllers at a price that people are willing to back (based on our surveys). But to give you some very rough high-low number, it won't be below $100 per controller and we've been told not to go above $200 per controller. I wish I could tell you more, but I don't want to go on record with a more refined estimate and regret it when we start our kickstarter.

"TacticalHaptics" wrote:

2) it is wired, but the final cable length hasn't been determined yet.

As someone else asked above, is there any chance of making it wireless? It sounds like a great controller, but wires are a nightmare in virtual reality. Getting a wireless STEM system, and hopefully a wireless consumer Rift, i wouldn't want to buy anything that re-introduces a wire.

"ziphnor" wrote:

"TacticalHaptics" wrote:

2) it is wired, but the final cable length hasn't been determined yet.

As someone else asked above, is there any chance of making it wireless? It sounds like a great controller, but wires are a nightmare in virtual reality. Getting a wireless STEM system, and hopefully a wireless consumer Rift, i wouldn't want to buy anything that re-introduces a wire.

Same, I REALLY and I mean REALLY want to back Tactical Haptics when they'll start their kickstarter campaign but at the same time I can't buy a wired controller, especially since I'm an Omni backer... If you have a wireless stretch goal and pass it, I'll back you guys up right away!