The vest looks more like a shirt and you should wear it directly on the skin. It will allow you to feel sensations in 10 different parts of your upper body, including your arms. Some of these sensations include insect bites, being shot, feeling the bullet come out of the wound, being stabbed and hit. You may be surprised, but haptic suits have existed since 1994, when Aura Systems manufactured a haptic vest to improve the experience of television and video games.
The interactor vest was intended to be a portable force feedback device that converts bass sound waves into vibrations. In an email to Lifewire, VR enthusiast and YouTuber GingaSVR pointed to the bHaptics haptic vest that also allows users to feel a variety of sensations and, according to GingaSVR, is the most advanced consumer haptic feedback vest currently on the market. However, a new haptic vest from a Spanish company called OWO promises to offer a level of immersion that we didn't know we wanted. The vest integrates 20 patented vibrotactile voice coil motors, capable of generating a wide range of vibrations that covers 100% of human vibrotactile perception.
One drawback is that you have to wear the vest with nothing underneath, since there are “gel patches” that must make contact with your skin to provide the sensations. You've felt raindrops during a storm, but imagine feeling the air hitting your face as you parachute from the back of an airplane in virtual reality (VR). On the one hand, Crifar said that the bHaptics vest integrates eccentric rotating mass (ERM) motors for vibrations that only use one frequency and is the same technology used in older phones and game controllers. When asked, Crifar pointed out two essential differences between the Skinetic vest and the BHaptics vest.
On the other hand, the Skinetic vest integrates voice coil motors that use several frequencies, helping to cover the entire vibrotactile perception and reproduce a wide variety of sensations. This, according to Crifar, helps the vest avoid sensations that don't need to be tactically moved, such as an explosion at a distance. The wearable vest makes virtual reality feel more immersive by providing realistic sensations and tactile experiences to areas of the body, such as the chest, when combined with a compatible helmet. We will soon be able to learn more about the OWO Game vest, as the people running CES have already awarded it an innovation award and it is expected to premiere at the next trade show.
The second significant difference between the two, Crifar explained, is that the bHaptics vest works on the audio-to-haptic principle, transforming all sounds into vibrations. She says that this mapping has helped the Skinetic vest to optimize the perception and appreciation of users' sensations. Actronika has drawn on its years of experience in the field of haptics to create a wearable, vest-like device that allows players to experience real-life sensations in virtual worlds.
