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CaliberMengsk
Up and Coming
October 29, 2013

VR Gloves (my project)

Hey everyone,

I know I've had my vr glove project under my projects for a while, but recently I've been having more free time and actually got started working on it the last week or so. The idea is to use accelerometers, gyros, flex/bend sensors, potentiometers (volume knobs) and maybe a joystick, to make a highly accurate, non-laggy virtual reality glove. This first draft will be the proof of concept just to show what I mean. It uses and arduino leonardo (at least now it does), as well as the sensors mentioned above. At the moment, it's just writing all of the sensor data to a serial connection, then unity is reading that data (threaded so the game doesn't lag if it's to slow) and applying it in real time.

I wasn't sure if I should post it here yet, as I don't even have the elbow movement up and running quite yet. (Sensor is there, just I haven't built the elbow joint. This will be two plastic bars held together with a potentiometer to get how open the arm is.) but it's looking go so far, I think at least.

I still need to add the other two main fingers also, as well, the thumb has no input (first draft at least will be a joystick)

Let me know what you think! I'm hoping to get the elbow hooked up properly soon to be able to make a basic demo.

Here's the two videos I've made so far. Nothing spectacular, but still.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--cOVZdpkWM - First video. Arduino Duemilinove (6 analog inputs), only one accelerometer and two flex sensors
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=um3JUnARQQQ - Second video. Arudino Leonardo (12 analog inputs), two accelerometers, two flex sensors, and a potentiometer for elbow.

To Do List:
Craft elbow plastics and attach potentiometer and tilt sensor to it.
Add in other two flex sensors.
Create mount for thumbstick.
Add in thumbstick.
Make full demo project including picking up stuff as well as detailed actions (opening doors, windows, flushing toilet, things like that.)

EDIT:
All video links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--cOVZdpkWM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=um3JUnARQQQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c18tycYrDak
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=282HJJANcio
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r15LuC7TD20
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzMh7GttqXY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmXeFKzs-HQ

    92 replies

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    CaliberMengskAuthor
    Up and Coming
    January 3, 2014
    Slight update:

    Removed the box, and am starting to apply everything to a really crappy arm/hand model I did a while back with really crappy bones... but hey, it works. Already hit my first problem. When you bend the elbow, the gyro for the hand spinning picks up, so as you rotate the elbow, the hand rotates with it exponentially. Needless to say, a hand bending all the way back to the forearm... looks..... painful. Will fix this. Should just have to offset the wrist rotation by the elbows rotation, and problem solved.

    I did hook up the second sensor for the shoulder, but it moves extremely fast, and it's late at night... sleep is calling and brain is shutting down in response, so I'll have to work with it more tomorrow.

    Beside that, still cool to see an arm move at the elbow and have the hand rotate and spin and such like you'd expect. :D

    This gives me quite a bit of hope to get something more impressive for this weekend. Hopefully I can get it pretty decent by Monday. I go to a local game dev meetup group, and would like to show it off some there.
    Current Project: Virtual Reality Glove project
    AndrewMedina
    Participant
    January 3, 2014
    A thought on haptics. AC current causes small rare earth magnets to vibrate. Check out what people with magnetic implants experience near AC fields. You would need larger ones than the current implants but you could possibly get the same sensation.
    CaliberMengskAuthor
    Up and Coming
    January 4, 2014
    I'm thinking of using some type of electromagnet on the back of each finger joint, and a piece of metal or magnet on the palm side, then just activate/deactivate the electromagnet to create the feeling of touching something. It'd be like a glove, where you can't feel texture, but you can feel pressure.

    The cool thing about this method is that you can create variable pressure, meaning the harder you grip something, the more pressure your fingers feel.

    Now, onto something different. I've got the elbow bending, the wrist moving, and the two fingers that I have actually wired working... and now... it's kind of creepy feeling... like... really disembodied feeling... O-o I wonder how much this little device could cause problems with that kind of thing. Full immersion is the goal... but maybe it's getting to far. XD Sounds like the start of a sci-fi novel.

    Anyway, I'm going to get to work on the other two fingers, and then upper arm rotation stuffs. I'll be showing it off on the hangout tonight.
    Current Project: Virtual Reality Glove project
    CaliberMengskAuthor
    Up and Coming
    January 5, 2014
    Video number 4!

    Got it all on the arm. I actually even have the second sensor working on the arm, but I didn't have it plugged in as I'm trying to downsize on the amount of wires. Making a circuit to run everything without 20,000 wires all over the place will make this a little easier to put on and show off. Right now it kind of goes everywhere and is really easy to accidentally pull things out.

    Anyway, here's the video. Hopefully I can get something up soon with the other fingers and using the rift with it. (I feel it will be a whole different experience when I do that.)


    Current Project: Virtual Reality Glove project
    drash
    Inspiring
    January 5, 2014
    Really, REALLY, cool to see the progress you've made, CaliberMengsk!
    Titans of Space PLUS for Quest is now available on DrashVR.com
    genetransfer
    Up and Coming
    January 5, 2014
    yeah, really cool. I hope to see where this goes, I mean someone has to get what we all want to work :). will be interesting to see how you go about object interaction when the time comes, dealing with realtime physics. have you done any tests or have plans with the actual interaction of virtual physical objects (with engines like PhysX, bullet etc...). As even if a glove exists, without the actual integration with a Physics engine (and how that handles things) will be the real decider if this is even viable, as if that fails hydras/stem and animation blending via triggers seems like the go too realistic substitute. curious and interested, has a lot of potential.
    CaliberMengskAuthor
    Up and Coming
    January 5, 2014
    I haven't done anything with physics or collision yet. I haven't even gotten it fully working and all together yet. I've tested each individual part separately, but I haven't gotten it all together quite yet. So next goal is to get all the fingers working (beside the thumb. that will probably be a joystick for a bit, until I can figure out a better way to do movement), and everything working together, on a more condensed circuit. Wires going everywhere like I currently have is getting very annoying as it's extremely easy for something to unplug. That shouldn't take too long to do, but I do still have to do it.

    I'd like to get it all up and running soon, but I do have the rest of life to contend with as well. I've been pushing really hard the last week or so to get it all working like it is. I do have stuff planned coming up, so I don't know how much I'll be able to work on it the next week or two.

    I want to get it to the stage of being able to push things around pretty soon though. Will be the first test after getting what I have done.
    Current Project: Virtual Reality Glove project
    Shigawire
    Up and Coming
    January 5, 2014
    Latest video was very impressive. Good job. Keep at it. VR Gloves are crucial for cockpit games where you want to toggle buttons and instruments. Are you going to look at some kind of haptic feedback? I actually think that a simple vibration "jolt" at each finger (as in touch phones) would be enough for a consumer vr glove.
    DK2 ordered on March 19, 2014 at 11:03 AM PDT status: RECEIVED
    CaliberMengskAuthor
    Up and Coming
    January 7, 2014
    Quick update. Got most of it put into the smaller circuit, all four fingers I planned on detecting are detecting, and the forearm now slightly spins with the wrist to make it less creepy.


    Current Project: Virtual Reality Glove project
    serrarens
    Up and Coming
    January 11, 2014
    I am currently working on hand grabbing objects functionality in Unity. It should be able to work with a VR glove and I would be pleased if you would try it out in combination with your glove.

    It is based on the fact that a object (rigidbody with collider) is grabbed by at least the thumb and one finger. Then the objects is attached to the hand like it was grabbed. When you loosen the thumb or finger more than the point at which the object is grabbed, you drop the object again.

    Would you be interested in this for testing purposes?
    Pascal. http://passervr.com
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