Tactical Haptics

Nice to see they have a website now.

Video from their website:



Here is the old thread about this device:
viewtopic.php?f=25&t=315&p=2750#p2750

A link to the GDC video from that thread:



Guess some famous dude who played with them:

Yep... I know its a prototype/testbed, but i cant see why they have the overly large orange guard area, it just seems super bulky, maybe its a balance or battery storage issue.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=D28U9A4GL8o#at=1752

this is quite an in-depth talk at a VR meet-up in the US 23:25, it looks like this will go to kickstarter soon.

"zerowaitstate" wrote:
Yep... I know its a prototype/testbed, but i cant see why they have the overly large orange guard area, it just seems super bulky, maybe its a balance or battery storage issue.

Looks like they gutted a Hydra? I'm guessing the orange is housing for boards and other mechanics to run the haptics.

How is a Flail tactical? :lol:

This is a message that I sent to tactical haptics, but I would like to share it here as well.

In short, my idea is that it could be attached to the wrist so that you do not have to hold on to it when you are not holding something in the game. There would be a long button on one side which would be held down when your fingers are around the controller, and that way it would know that you are holding it.

"It is understandable that you want to get the product out there and not spend all the money and time on adding things to it. Perhaps this could be something you could add in a future version, I hope you will consider it as I explain my idea further.

For one thing, it would make it harder to break the device. Not only would you not be able to accidentally drop the device, but you would also not be able to smash the controller. Let's say that you are playing a game with the Oculus Rift and you do not realize that you are standing in front of a wall and you do a fast forward motion with your hand. That could very likely result in breaking the hardware.

By having an attachment on the wrist, you could also put other parts of the device that is currently located in the front, on the wrist instead. So when you are punching the wall, it is your fist that takes it, rather than the device. Of course, that is not very pleasant either, but more so than breaking something that you have payed 100 dollars or more for.

Also, in general, having something that extends out from the hand that you are supposed to move around could make it easier to break other things as well. Perhaps it slips out of the hand and right in to the monitor in front of you.

That is just a few things that I thought about, but it is far from the reason why I suggested the idea of being able to attach the controller to the wrist. The main reason is because you will be able grab the controller when you are holding something, and let go of it when you are not.

It would be a bit pointless at the current state, since there is not a way for it to tell when you are holding on to the device. That would not be hard to solve though, all you would need is a long button on one side of the device that you press down when you put your fingers around it. Grabbing objects with your hands in a natural way would then be a way to control the game."

If you have not seen the slingshot demo with the tactical haptics, click here: http://youtu.be/D28U9A4GL8o and go to 1:02:00

"To give you an idea how it could improve the current way to interact, I would like to use the slingshot demo as an example. I have not tried it, but this is how it seems like it work, or similar to it. To load the slingshot, you bring your hands close and hold down the trigger. Then to shot, you bring back your hand and release the trigger.

With the ability of grabbing and letting go of the controller, this interaction could be made even more natural. Something like this, open your hand, bring it close the slingshot and close it. Then keep holding on to it and drag back the hand and release the controller when you want to shoot.

Another thing that could be made very natural would be a game where you throw knives or other objects. You could have a belt with knives in the game. To get a knife, you simply open your hand and bring it down to the hip, then you close it. This is where I think the effect would be strong, because when you close your hand, you would feel the handle of the controller which would be very similar to the handle of a knife. So it could make you feel like you are grabbing a knife, rather than the controller. And throwing it, would be so much more natural than pressing or releasing a button. Instead you would just let go of the handle, with the haptic feedback it could even give you the feeling that the handle is flying out of your hand.

You may not be throwing knives very often in games, but the same ideas that I just mentioned, could be applied to a lot of different objects. It would make picking up and holding on to things much more natural than pressing a button to do so.

It could even mean that less buttons are needed and would be replaced by motions. You could change weapon by bringing your hand over the shoulder, open and close it and then bring it back. Like if you swapped the gun that you had in your hand, to the one on your back. You could reload a gun by grabbing where the magazine would be, pull it down and let go of it. To put in a new one, you would bring down your hand to the hip, close it and put in to the gun. That means that there does not have to be a button for swapping weapons, or reloading.

Of course, similar interactions could be done without the ability to grab the controller, but I do not think it would be possible to make them as good without it.

It seems like it would be a fairly simple thing to add, that would be such an improvement. What is also good, is that it would not be a trade off as you could still use the controller in the same way as shown so far, it is really only an additional feature. Using the control stick to move around would still be possible as well, as long as it is close enough to the thumb.

I could write an endless list of things that this could be useful for, but I'm sure you got ideas yourself. Again, I hope this is something that you will consider to add in to a future version. But even without it, it looks very promising, and I will gladly pick a pair up when they are available."

Just wanted to address a few of the comments on this page:

1) We've always (at least as long as we have existed publicly) had a website (albeit simple) in addition to a Facebook page and Twitter Account.
http://www.tacticalhaptics.com/
https://www.facebook.com/TacticalHaptics
https://twitter.com/TacticalHaptics (@TacticalHaptics)

2) Yes our current device uses a Hydra's tracking board, trigger, buttons and thumbstick. The curved orange plastic portion that is forward of the grasped area holds the tracking board from a Hydra. This bulk has been removed in our latest prototypes.

3) Our handle design is now smaller and more ergonomic

4) We will be making the controller inputs (buttons, trigger...) more ergonomically packaged than currently shown publicly.

5) We now have Rift-enabled demos. See the video we recorded at the Silicon Valley VR Meetup with Cymatic Bruce trying our our dual-handed Reactive Grip demos (compared to what Palmer tried at GDC this year, these new demos ARE bad ass):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cH-AlBJi9Q

6) We're currently trying to refine our cost estimates to see if its feasible to go on kickstarter. Please take our survey to help us figure out what features you most want and what level you'd back us at:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/TacticalHaptics-Kickstarter1

Thanks,
Tactical Haptics

Are you guys going to be running a demo at QuakeCon this weekend?

Sorry, but no we won't be attending QuakeCon... it wasn't "on our radar." We've really just needed to focus on our device refinement and figure out if its feasible cost-wise to put our controller on kickstarter. We'd also like to have the next iteration of the device and some new demos before we do a big public event again.

Looks like QuakeCon is an interesting event though so we'll have to keep it in mind for next year.

Also, it's probably no consolation to you Felix, but we'll be at the Silicon Valley VR meetup again on this Thursday.