Seeing is believing for some VR users, but to truly top off the virtual reality experience one needs to be able to touch imaginary worlds, which the Dexmo exosuit lets users do. Made by Dexta Robotics, this exoskeleton provides tactile feedback in response to what users are seeing and interacting with in virtual environments.

The system also enhances usability, its fingertip-level force working in both directions – users can feel feedback but the game or other environment can also respond more minutely and accurately to user inputs, completing the experience.

The trick behind the tech is to couple fast-acting sensors and a light-touch frame that provides flexibility but also translates inputs precisely. Bonus: the whole system is wireless. For now, the critical limitations are in the software, which is being worked on by the team prior to public market release.

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Using ultrasonic arrays to create pressure on users’ hands, this new approach to telehaptic holography allows people to touch and feel at a distance, sharing an enhanced holographic experience way beyond virtual reality.

Aerial imaging panels in the “Haptoclone” system create the visual portion of the shared illusion, which can be experienced simultaneously by different users around the world.

A Kinect sensor translates motions by both users in realtime responses, moving holographic objects in shared three-dimensional spaces and emitting pressure accordingly.

“It would be great to allow people in different locations to communicate with one another while experiencing a sense of touch. We could, for example, put a transparent glass here and divide the room,” explained researcher Yasutoshi Makino. “Imagine if you were in a zoo, and there was a lion on the other side of the glass that you could have the sensation of touching.”

For now, there remain significant limitations, particularly when it comes to the ultrasonic pressures applied – there are safety limits keeping those sensations from being as complete as they might be in reality. So while you can toss a ball back and forth, bear hugs may be a ways off yet.

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Virtual reality’s promise of an immersive environment is impressive, but generally incomplete without something like this newly-developed system to let users actually feel the effects of interacting in digitally-created cyberspaces through actual muscle stimulation, a big step beyond low-tech vibrations.

Simulating physical impact, as demonstrated above, combines tactile and muscle stimulation via a device called Impacto. The accessory is worn on arms, legs, hands or feet and tied into the virtual reality experience with specialized software, allowing people to touch and feel objects. Well on its way to being fully wireless (for now it is at least not cord-connected to an external device), it lets users move around in real (and virtual) space without feeling uncumbered or worrying about tripping over cords.

Examples include: feeling the impacts of soccer balls bounced on legs or of punches blocked in a boxing game. “Of note, Impacto isn’t a simple vibrate motor shoved into a plastic box. The device combines a haptic vibration engine with electrical muscle stimulation to actually create a sensation of pushing or pulling, therefore more closely mimicking the feeling of contact from actual physical objects.”

“The key idea that allows the small and light impacto device to simulate a strong hit is that it decomposes the stimulus: it renders the tactile aspect of being hit by tapping the skin using a solenoid; it adds impact to the hit by thrusting the user’s arm backwards using electrical muscle stimulation,” the team, led by Pedro Lopes, said in an abstract covering its research paper on Impacto.

The next step: creating additional add-ons for torsos and other areas of bodies, all toward the eventual goal of a full-body suit for maximum effect. Applications go beyond entertainment and gaming as well – eventually systems like this could allow for remote scientific or medical procedures with haptic feedback for delicate situations.

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In the beginning, virtual reality was all about the visual: being able to look around and see all of the virtual world you were immersed in. Then we wanted to be able to control our movements in that imaginary space, so inventors created motion machines that let us walk in real life to move around in VR. Now, the sense of touch is joining the party.

The UnlimitedHand from Japanese group H2L is a simple device that wraps around the forearm. It contains a haptic sensor and a bunch of electronic muscle stimulators. The tiny EMS cluster sends out little electric shocks into your arm, simulating certain sensations like encountering resistance when you touch virtual objects. A small vibration motor makes the feeling more robust and realistic.

The haptic sensor tracks your arm’s movement, letting you move that limb freely and in real time in your virtual world. Even your hand movements are tracked so you can grasp and interact with objects while feeling them as though they were actually in front of you.

According to the creators, the small electrical pulses from UnlimitedHand pose no danger to users’ health. They plan to offer the device on an open platform to allow developers to integrate their own applications. Of course, this kind of high-tech toy doesn’t come cheap: the price starts at $188. But once you invest in an immersive VR system like Oculus Rift, chances are you’ll want the most realistic experience possible. UnlimitedHand seems to be the perfect way to give you that awesome experience.

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Navigating your way through an unfamiliar city can be challenging and stressful, especially when you’re visually impaired. This little handheld device from Yale postdoctorate engineer associate Adam Spiers shifts it shape to point you in the right direction so even if you can’t see, you can get accurate directions to your destination.

The current version of Animotus is connected wirelessly to the location sensors on your clothing that work with other sensors mounted on the walls of your surroundings. In the future, it will connect to your smartphone for real-world guidance. It’s a haptic device unlike any other – rather than relying on vibrations like most, you simply hold it in your hand and feel as the top part pivots to lead you.

Other sight-impaired assistive devices rely on sound to help navigate, which can be a problem since cities are generally noisy already and hearing their surroundings is a big part of getting around for visually impaired people. Spiers recently supplied the device for an interactive play based on an 1884 book by Edwin A. Abbott called Flatland. Audience members became participants by holding onto an Animotus which led them, in complete darkness, around the “stage,” which was actually the inside of a church.

Infrared cameras showed the audience members making their way through the set at speeds nearly as fast as walking in a brightly lit space. At the end of the performance, participants liked the navigation devices so much they wanted to keep them. Spiers says the Animotus is a long way from being produced commercially, but he’s encouraged by the positive response so far. He envisions the device as someday being a simple way for both sighted and visually impaired people to navigate without having to constantly pay attention to a smartphone’s directions.

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