Close
0%
0%

LucidGloves: VR Haptic Gloves on a budget

A functional glove that lets you use AND FEEL your hands in VR.

Public Chat
Similar projects worth following
This is a project to try to make VR Haptic Glove technology more available for the public. Currently, most VR Haptic Glove products out there are extremely expensive and are targeted for commercial use. In starting this project, I wanted to create a budget, but still well-functioning VR haptic and finger tracking glove that's cheap and easy for people to get their hands on (or in, lol), and that works **Inside actual VR games**.

https://www.tiktok.com/@lucas_vrtech
https://www.youtube.com/c/lucasvrtech
https://discord.gg/lucidvr

Prototype 4 costs about $30 per hand.

Originally, this was just a fun quarantine project to keep me busy, but 500,000 followers later, this project is now much more than that. My goal now is to spread this project as far as possible and hopefully help more people fall in love with Virtual Reality.

Currently, the project is in prototype 4 but I'm innovating constantly to improve the gloves.

Follow along with my developments on this TikTok page:

https://www.tiktok.com/@lucas_vrtech

Currently, the glove is compatible with PCVR headsets through SteamVR.

Resources:

Getting Started: https://github.com/LucidVR/lucidgloves/wiki

Parts List: https://github.com/LucidVR/lucidgloves/wiki/Prototype-4-Parts-List

Arduino/ESP32 firmware and STL Files (for 3D Printing) are located here: https://github.com/LucidVR/lucidgloves

Open-source driver to use the gloves in SteamVR (A collaboration between Danwillm and me):

Github Driver Link

Steam Driver Release

Instructions and video tutorials for assembling the gloves are available on youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/c/lucas_vrtech

Many features may be unstable until they are polished, build at your own risk :P

Public Roadmap:

Prototype 3

  • First public release (finger tracking model)
  • Much more comfortable and tracking improvements

Prototype 3.1

  • Wireless support over Bluetooth
  • Easier to assemble and faster

Prototype 4

  • First public Force Feedback prototype
    • Addition of haptic servos
  • Custom Rigid Mount for controller holders, and many other improvements.

Prototype 5 (WIP)

  • Planned to be much more compact
  • Will have support for finger splay (side to side movement) tracking

  • Prototype 4 with FORCE FEEDBACK HAPTICS!!!

    Lucas LucidVR01/05/2022 at 01:43 0 comments

    Hello everyone! 

    This update has been long overdue, but with the premiere of my new video on Prototype 4, I thought it would be the perfect time to update you all on the addition of FORCE FEEDBACK to my VR Haptic Gloves!!!

    These gloves now allow you to FEEL the shape and resistance of objects in Virtual Reality!

    This goes along with the release of firmware V4 and OpenGloves Driver v0.4, which enable the haptics to work in actual VR games!

    The hardware itself for the haptics is enabled by the addition of super-cheap 9g RC servo motors, which I am powering off of a cheap USB battery.

    The data for the haptics is integrated either via native Unity code or via modding support for haptics into different games.

    As of 1/4/2022, we currently have haptic support in the OpenGloves unity demo, as well as mods to add haptic functionality into the following games:

    * Half-Life Alyx

    * Boneworks (modded by L4rs)

    * Jetborne Racing (modded by L4rs)

    * Want to help us mod more games? Reach out on our discord server or DM LucidVR#0001 on discord.

  • Bluetooth! + Steam Release

    Lucas LucidVR05/21/2021 at 22:22 0 comments

    Alright, so all of the pieces for using Bluetooth with the VR gloves have come together!

    Using Firmware V2 and Driver v0.3, the gloves can now communicate to steam completely wirelessly.


    This requires using an ESP32 development board instead of an Arduino nano on the glove side.

    Change COMMUNICATION to COMM_BTSERIAL in the firmware, and communication_protocol to 1 in the driver.

    Currently, Bluetooth communication is done through Bluetooth Serial, but I will also be writing a BLE implementation later on.

    In other related news, the open-source VR glove driver that I have been working on in collaboration with Danwillm is now finally released on the Steam store!

    https://store.steampowered.com/app/1574050/OpenGloves/

    I recommend using the steam release of the driver instead of the GitHub zip, as you will get auto-updates as they roll out.

    I'll also be releasing a video tutorial on how to build and set up Prototype 3.1 very soon!

    Youtube Channel

View all 2 project logs

Enjoy this project?

Share

Discussions

otmanefarissi66 wrote 04/14/2021 at 16:20 point

What major are you studying ? I hope you can answer me 

  Are you sure? yes | no

Ethan wrote 04/14/2021 at 14:21 point

I was going to make this but I not only don't have a 3d printer for a lot of these parts, but I am not very good with these kinds of builds, is this planned to be sold?

  Are you sure? yes | no

Emmanuel825 wrote 04/12/2021 at 17:36 point

Hello, I'm here because I would like to know how do you add force Feedback on your gloves. Thanks for your answer

  Are you sure? yes | no

Tony wrote 04/13/2021 at 19:28 point

Force Feedback is not publicly available yet. That is part of prototype 4, which has not been released yet.

  Are you sure? yes | no

dai-san wrote 04/11/2021 at 12:26 point

Using Linear Potentiometers would get rid of a lot of the bulk and require just a small spring per finger to draw it back, gonna try that on my build.

  Are you sure? yes | no

shadowbeam2104 wrote 04/08/2021 at 15:53 point

Will oculus quest 2 standalone be supported at some point

  Are you sure? yes | no

JamesRgames wrote 04/12/2021 at 00:03 point

I think he may do it but it will probe after he’s done with the gloves with a pc

  Are you sure? yes | no

tormasizsolt wrote 04/06/2021 at 12:27 point

This is a great project and I will likely build it in the future, but I am not sure about one thing, Is it possible to use HTC Vive controllers or does it only work with the trackers?

  Are you sure? yes | no

Lucas LucidVR wrote 04/13/2021 at 01:53 point

Yeah, Vive trackers are compatible

  Are you sure? yes | no

Jacob W wrote 04/05/2021 at 02:37 point

I built one hand so far (For testing) and it works great.  You did an amazing job on this project.  I saw smaller potentiometers (I might try) to see how they work and it might help with the size of the glove overall.

Keep it up with this project.

  Are you sure? yes | no

JW wrote 04/02/2021 at 15:54 point

considered using fiduciary makers like in apriltag instead of the other controllers for tracking?

  Are you sure? yes | no

Tony wrote 04/21/2021 at 16:09 point

fiducial tracking is far less accurate and consistent than controllers. It might be possible to implement, but the tracking quality would be very bad and likely unusable in many situations

  Are you sure? yes | no

Cole funk wrote 03/31/2021 at 16:28 point

is it possible to use these with a valve index?

  Are you sure? yes | no

Lucas LucidVR wrote 03/31/2021 at 20:49 point

Yes, though I would recommend using vive trackers if you have base stations

  Are you sure? yes | no

sophi--e wrote 03/29/2021 at 23:09 point

Lucas this is AMAZING! cant wait to see how this evolves and i think i'm gonna give it a go at making version 3! super exciting thank you for sharing!

  Are you sure? yes | no

nintendogamer192 wrote 03/26/2021 at 21:30 point

As I am not at all able to build this on my own, I wanted to ask if they will be on sale someday. Thanks in advance.

  Are you sure? yes | no

Dr.FumihiroKato wrote 03/26/2021 at 11:42 point

Let me provided additional information related to this project.
We have already developed same kinds of mechanism haptic glove and published a journal.
Fig.20 on p.22 shows our proposed system.
Susumu Tachi, Yasuyuki Inoue and Fumihiro Kato: TELESAR VI: Telexistence Surrogate Anthropomorphic Robot VI, International Journal of Humanoid Robotics, Vol. 17, No. 5, p.2050019(1-33) (2020.10)
I was also eager to develop not expensive haptic feedback glove. Each motor costs less than 20 USD and light weight. 

  Are you sure? yes | no

Lucas LucidVR wrote 03/31/2021 at 20:49 point

Wait, is that 20 usd for the whole glove, or 20 usd per finger?

  Are you sure? yes | no

andrewking6021 wrote 04/06/2021 at 11:44 point

check this one, it's a different design. meant to provide haptic feedback on the finger when touch a virtual surface. not what you're doing exactly.  https://tachilab.org/content/files/publication/tp/minamizawa200812TVRSJ.pdf

  Are you sure? yes | no

TGoetzelmann wrote 04/06/2021 at 13:55 point

Actually, it is very similar to our project from 2017:
Timo Götzelmann. 2017. A 3D Printable Hand Exoskeleton for the Haptic Exploration of Virtual 3D Scenes. In Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on PErvasive Technologies Related to Assistive Environments  - PETRA ’17, 63–66. https://doi.org/10.1145/3056540.3064950

  Are you sure? yes | no

sidney.hadfield wrote 03/24/2021 at 17:07 point

hey i have been trying to make this today howver (after much testing of the firmware communication ports and of the perteniometers them self) i cant seem to get them to work in game. i have been testing with half life alyx but to no provail. i have a quest 2 using a link cable, and i know you said you had started testing on that. is there anything you can recomend? also on your videos on tictok i noticed that you are using a diferent games for testing hand modles, what game is this and is there anyway i could get it?

any help would be great

  Are you sure? yes | no

Lucas LucidVR wrote 03/26/2021 at 18:41 point

I'm happy to help, if you have discord send me a DM or join our server. My tag is LucidVR#0001

  Are you sure? yes | no

Polaroler wrote 03/22/2021 at 22:55 point

I was wondering when the instructions to make this awesome project r gonna come out

  Are you sure? yes | no

sidney.hadfield wrote 03/24/2021 at 18:14 point

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ht1vhGQ9auY&t=830s

  Are you sure? yes | no

Kevinspidy wrote 03/22/2021 at 18:07 point

I was wondering if this supported rift s?

  Are you sure? yes | no

Collin wrote 03/21/2021 at 23:09 point

I was just wondering if I needed to use vive trackers. I'm using the Valve index by the way.

  Are you sure? yes | no

Lucas LucidVR wrote 03/22/2021 at 10:57 point

Yeah, without vive trackers you'd have to strap Index controllers to your hands, which would sort of defeat the purpose of gloves a little haha

  Are you sure? yes | no

Xasin wrote 03/20/2021 at 11:05 point

Absolutely gorgeous!
As someone who's still thinking about getting a VR set, seeing builds like this that I can reproduce and add to my VR experience makes me smile - especially seeing as how Steam VR makes this so easy to integrate, which is almost surreal considering the wide variety of vendors and hardware that this opens up.

When you say "adding support for vive trackers soon", do you mean decoding of the lighthouse beacon signal?
That would be really cool!

Also, it looks like the hardware is STM32 based here - I'm wondering if an ESP32 could take over and provide a wireless interface.
If that sounds interesting and you think I could be of some help, gladly hit me up! I do a lot with the platform and it's a real pleasure to work with most of the time :>

  Are you sure? yes | no

Jakub Nagy wrote 03/20/2021 at 15:22 point

From what I've seen, he's using a Arduino nano (ATMEGA328p) and plans to use and ESP32 dev module (probably wroom or wrower). Personally, I would use either ESP32 PICO-D4 or PICO-V3 since they're like 10x smaller in volume and surface area and around 2x cheaper. I offered help too, because this is definitely something I would use myself, and the electronics setup could use some rework, but I didn't get a reply yet.

  Are you sure? yes | no

florian wrote 03/19/2021 at 08:42 point

A very cool approach. I would like to build myself two, but I do not know how it is with the tracking.

Do you just use the Oculus cameras for the position?
I would use them for my Valve Index for which you could use a Vive tracker. Is that integrated at the moment?

  Are you sure? yes | no

Lucas LucidVR wrote 03/19/2021 at 15:55 point

Adding support for vive trackers in the driver very soon.

  Are you sure? yes | no

nhuntera wrote 03/18/2021 at 21:49 point

What are the printer setting you recommend? I tried printing with supports but  they were hard to remove

  Are you sure? yes | no

Lucas LucidVR wrote 03/19/2021 at 15:56 point

The prints are designed to work without supports. Lay them flat and print them without any support.

  Are you sure? yes | no

nhuntera wrote 03/21/2021 at 19:25 point

okay, thanks for letting me know. Great work!

  Are you sure? yes | no

Dan Maloney wrote 03/18/2021 at 20:38 point

Make sure you catch our Haptics Hack Chat coming up on 4/7. You might find it useful.

  Are you sure? yes | no

Similar Projects

Does this project spark your interest?

Become a member to follow this project and never miss any updates