While the best VR headsets of the past were built for gaming, companies are turning to augmented reality for virtual computing. Devices like Apple’s Vision Pro promise spatial computing, and Meta has been teasing its vision of augmented reality (AR) for years. A lot of attention has been paid to the headset you strap on, but not to the interface with which you interact with the virtual world.
Eference, a team made up of a neural engineer, neural interface expert, and perceptual scientist based in Boulder, Colorado, is looking to change that, and it’s developing a new tool that will forever change the way you interact with your PC. Can change.
ghost feelings
The problem Eference set out to solve with its Phantom Glove is simple: how can we create tactile sensations synchronized with what the user sees? Anyone who has experienced VR beyond simple visual experiences understands this problem. When we interact with an object, or even something as simple as pressing a button, our brain anticipates a forceful response. When what we are doing is not in line with what our sensory organs expect, and this is where cybersickness can occur. The technology behind Phantom is intended to give our brain feedback to complete the loop.
While talking to the team in the Boulder office, I was given the chance to test a prototype of the device. In these early stages, the entire glove isn’t functional yet, so I settled on a finger ring instead of a final product that would work with the entire hand. Rings are the key component of the device. In simple terms, whatever sensation the ring receives, such as the force of pressing a button or even the intensity of fire, converts it into electrical impulses that interact directly with the wearer’s nerves. In other words, it stimulates your nerves to tell your brain that you are feeling something.
Calibrating the device allowed me to experience the sensation the ring would be giving at different intensities. This work was done through sounds. The first, and perhaps most important, aspect that the team wanted to implement was to automatically translate sounds into these electrical inputs sent to the device. Apart from the hardware, Eference is essentially attempting to create a platform for developers rather than custom software. By creating a system to translate sounds into sensations, developers do not need an expert to design the device.
This stage took me through a series of sounds, starting with a simple laser hitting my finger with a loud echo. This first impression was not that impressive. I was hoping the ring would give me some more tactile or unique sensation, but it mostly felt like a mild electrical current was being sent down my finger. The sounds that followed – a sword unsheathing, a light switch clicking, raindrops – all felt more or less the same but in different patterns. The most impressive car in this batch was its starting and turning speed. On this test, I was able to begin to get a better idea of the device with the kick of the engine starting and the uneven rumble of the engine idling by hand.
touching cyberspace
The technology finally caught up with me when we moved on to the AR demo. Unlike earlier tests, where I was only hearing sounds without any interaction or visual cues, the combination of the two in AR did the trick. My first set of tests involved a virtual fire over which I could place my hand and, as I moved it closer and further to the source, get a stronger or weaker response from the ring. Because the device can’t actually simulate temperature — which the team wasn’t sure yet whether that was possible when I asked — the illusion wasn’t perfect. The following trials occurred when I truly began to become a believer.
First there were the buttons. One was that funny big red button you see in cartoons or games usually labeled “Do not press” or something like that. When my hand made contact with it, I got a baseline of feedback in the ring and, as I pressed the button, the strength of that feedback increased. That rising sensation and the sight of the button sliding down resulted in a surprisingly solid feeling of resistance that I would expect from pressing a larger button.
Of course, there was no real resistance, but the signal I was getting from my hand, combined with what I was seeing, managed to trick me enough that I naturally slowed down when the button was fully pressed. Went and stopped, instead of moving my hand. , The second demo was an empty keypad. These had a different feel than the larger buttons, having a longer depression time, feeling more immediate and “clicky” as you would expect from a keyboard-like device. Despite only being able to use one finger with them, I can imagine working on some kind of virtual keypad in the future, though I don’t think they’ll translate to the cramped keyboard designs we’re familiar with now.
As a hardcore gamer, I was particularly excited by the next demo. VR games incorporate some form of telekinetic abilities to make it feasible to capture objects in spaces with limited motion. This is simply a necessary concession that developers have to take into account since most people don’t have massive open space to dedicate to VR rooms. This demo included a small yellow object on the far side of the room. As I raised my hand a line appeared between it and the object, along with a slight jiggle in my finger, letting me know I had hit the object. Closing my hand brought the object into my hand through space with a satisfying thud. It was the closest to being a Jedi and forcibly dragging an object that I had ever felt, and I couldn’t get enough of it. This is even with the use of a prototype that offers a fraction of what the full glove device offers.
walk quickly
As mentioned, Eference has only been fully funded for a year as of this October, and the entire Phantom device is not fully developed. If you want to adopt this new technology, it may take a little time, and it probably won’t feel like the first iteration. The current road map is to complete the Phantom Glove and make it available primarily for enterprise use.
As the market grows, and Eference improves its technologies, it plans to redesign the device in a bracelet form factor, and possibly a ring, for consumer use. Those iterations will still be years away, but for enthusiasts who want to stay on the cutting edge of immersive technology, this is a company you’ll want to keep your eye on.
