A Haptic GLOVE Prototype That Uses Air Pockets to Let You Feel Objects in VR

• Meta, the company behind the future of VR, has released a prototype of a tactile glove that uses airbags to allow users to feel objects in virtual reality as part of their transformation into the "metaverse"

• The prototype glove contains a small, ridged, bulging pad called an actuator

• They move as if they are touching a virtual object

• Consumers wear the gloves in the "metaverse" and feel the virtual object

Reality Labs is developing clothing to help people sense stuff in the metaverse world.

Meta's prototype tactile glove uses the principles of soft robotics to quickly inflate small air pockets in the fingers and palm of the glove using pneumatic and electrical actuators. These actuators are essentially small motors that create a sense of pressure, or tactile sensation. 

The idea here is that if Meta can put thousands of actuators in a tactile glove and combine that sensation with visual input from a VR headset or augmented reality glasses to project a digital image into the real world, the wearer can touch and feel virtual objects. 

The wearer can touch and feel virtual objects. With such gloves, we may one day be able to shake hands with someone's avatar in the metaverse and feel the pressure.