The future is extremely bright for the technology known as virtual reality. Oculus was recently purchased by social media behemoth Friendster Myspace Facebook. Sony is making their own similar eyewear device which currently goes by the code name Morpheus. All kinds of other companies are following suit in a variety of interesting ways. All of this VR tech, however, is hampered in some similar ways. For one, these headsets track head movement, sure, but what about movement of the rest of the body? Eventually we’ll have elegant solutions for this but what about in the here and now? One company has answered with some nifty looking gloves that throw gesture controls into the mix.
Control VR, which happens to be the name of these gloves, was actually inspired by some revolutionary research done by none other than DARPA and the U.S. military. What do soldiers want with fighting fake dragons in a fake mystical land? Well, probably nothing, but that doesn’t change the usefulness of said gloves. Each arm features a number of sensors that measures each and every aspect of your arms, hands and fingers movements. It’s pretty cool. Â The results? Everything you do while wearing these gloves is translated to actions by an avatar in whatever application you are using.
The creators see this system as being useful in many applications, the least of which is gaming. They hope the gloves will begin popping up in animation, robot control and a host of other ways. You can pre-order your very own Control VR glove for around $350, which isn’t so bad when you consider all of those fake dragons you’ll be slaying.
