Hands-in with the gloves that virtual reality needs
The gloves are still in development and they've only been in the works since 2014, but already they're satisfyingly responsive.
At the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, I played an adorable platforming demo called Pillow's Willow with an engineering prototype of the Manus VR gloves, running on the HTC Vive headset. I slipped on a pair of black-and-red gloves, complete with a plastic charging bump and some wires dangling across the top. A developer strapped the Vive's motion controllers around my wrists for positional tracking and I settled the Vive headset over my glasses.
It sounds like a lot. But, once the game got going, the hardware attached to my arms and face melted away. I hardly noticed it -- the goal of any virtual experience.
I reached forward to pluck lighting bugs out of the air and place them in street lamps, illuminating her path. I swiveled in my chair -- the game existed around me in 360 degrees -- and pushed down the sides of a bridge for her to cross. I grabbed pieces of a broken staircase and rotated them until they fit back together again; I squashed a series of monsters popping out of the floor of a bedroom. I played a few notes on a piano in a quick game of Simon Says.
Each motion was intuitive -- I didn't have to memorize any buttons or input commands. I did what came naturally, grabbing, turning and prodding objects with my fingers.
The Manus VR developer kit goes on sale in Q2 for $250 and it's expected to ship in Q3.
See the full story here: http://www.engadget.com/2016/03/16/hands-in-with-the-gloves-that-virtual-reality-needs/