Advanced Embodiment Design
Soft VR Glove for Training
SenseGlove Fino
With a group of 6 students from the same master program, we did an assignment for the start-up SenseGlove. This small company focuses on making virtual reality even more immersive by implementing the sense of touch with their haptic VR glove. This glove provides haptic and force feedback and allows for users to touch and interact with digital objects as if they were really there. The product they currently sell is an exoskeleton that is used for training purposes, but as they are too expensive, they wanted to explore the area of a step-in model in the shape of a soft glove. The goal was to design a glove with integrated electronics, that was comfortable and hygienic enough to be worn by various sized users for extended periods of time. Overall, it had to provide the users with an intuitive interaction, from donning ‘till doffing. SenseGlove provided us with a first concept/prototype and our job was to do the embodiment design.
My Focus
During this project we all specialized in certain topics. The topics that I mainly focussed on for this project were the redesign of the hand hub, the material and the hygiene of the glove, the finger position tracking sensors and the size adjustment system.
Redesign Hand Hub
Initially the hub design was left out of our scope, but the previous design of the hub no longer sufficed, because of all the design changes in the rest of the Fino, like the new sensors and adjustment and force feedback system. The goals for the hand hub were to improve the hub design in terms of its size, shape, adjustment system, connection to the glove and looks. On top of that it had to allow for the attachment of a Vive Tracker. For the CAD model I started from scratch and reused the applied principles of the original model (see smaller model above). This design was then further optimized to withstand force of 40N per finger and to withstand a drop test from one meter high. Multiple iterations were 3D printed and tested.
Hygiene
As people don’t wash their hands as often as they should and unconsciously touch their faces about 23 times an hour, a lot of pathogens are present on our hands. The Fino would be used by multiple users successively, which meant that the glove could quickly become a major source of infectious diseases. That's why I dove deep into different solutions for this problem. Through this research, I found that an antimicrobial coating would be the optimal solution and in particular the coating called HeiQ Viroblock NPJ03. This coating combines silver micro-particles with liposomes. This combination kills fungi, harmful (even antibiotic resistant) odour causing bacteria and viruses within two to five minutes.
Finger Position Tracking Sensors
The sensing system measures how the fingers move, to be able to see what the positions of the fingers were relative to the virtual object and to provide them with the right force feedback. The old Fino required an extra cable reel on the hub, which was bulky and hard to integrate, so we looked for an alternative, which needed to be just as inexpensive and accurate as its predecessor. Because of the high price of alternative solutions as for example IMUs and off the shelf stretch sensors, it was decided top-stitched stretch sensors would be a valuable solution.
Material
Hygiene is not only important in the prevention of pathogen transfer. We have a behavioural immune system which is a mechanism that detects signs of contamination and makes sure you shy away from it. Disgust drives this. Moisture, stains, smells, stickiness and grease can make people feel disgust. To prevent the users from associating the Fino with disgust, I researched different materials that could prevent that the glove would: feel wet when the next user puts it on, feel wet on the skin during use, leave the user with sticky hands after usage, smell or leave a smell on the hands of the user. Of course the material also still had to feel comfortable on the skin. The material I found that fitted our assignment best was 100% Polyester of Coolmax® which is a synthetic, high-quality, abrasion and stain resistant, inexpensive, recyclable fabric. The strengths of this material in particular are its ability to wick away sweat and its quick drying time.