Full experience – Controllers or Hand Tracking?
Technological development and the interest in virtual reality are continuing. VR headsets are going into more and more areas than just games and entertainment. They allow you to see the virtual world. But it is the controllers that give you the opportunity to interact with it. In addition to the movement of the head and body, we also can control our hands to perform additional activities. Lifting, pointing, touching or making simplest gestures is possible.
How do VR controllers work?
Controllers record the movements of our hands and fingers in the virtual world thanks to the buttons attached to them. Whether it’s a business meeting, a training, a instruction or a game with friends. Every user wants to reproduce his movements as well as possible. So that he has the most precise control over his activities. This is influenced by factors such as the precision of the tracking, the ergonomics or the manufacturing quality of the controller. Nowadays, the most popular system for detecting the movements of controllers with goggles is Inside-Out tracking system. It consists of detecting infrared LEDs on the controllers from the cameras of the VR headset. With them they are positioned in virtual space.
Below is an example of VR controllers. For each hand, equipped with buttons, an analog knob to move, and triggers to catch or pointing items.
There are replacement controllers on the VR market. For example haptic gloves, which transfer our hands completely to the virtual world. Unfortunately, such a change entails considerable costs, as several hundred euros are now needed for such a solution. And here comes a new alternative that combines full control, immersion and the freedom to move our hands in virtual reality.
Hand Tracking system
It’s a system that lets you put your controllers aside and use your own hands without any equipment as a primary tool for collaborating with virtual spaces. This is similar to switching from cell phones with number pads to models with touch screen displays😊. The goggles use cameras to analyse the picture of the hand by estimating the position of certain points on the palms of the hands in real-time mode. With this information. The shape, the size, the way in which they move, and their position towards us is depicted in virtual space.
We have to keep in mind that our hands are much more difficult to implement in virtual reality than controllers. However, technological progress contributes to this. In the video, which shows the improvements of the Quest 2 Hand Tracking System. You will not only see the possibilities, but also the improvements of the entire system, which is constantly being improved.
Thanks to the new enhancements, you will see a significant improvement with fast hand movements. Covering one hand with the other or even touching both hands has been improved. Actions where tracking was temporarily interrupted are now enhanced and help you immerse yourself even more in the virtual experience. A more accurate tracking of the movements of the fingers or the entire hand allows a more precise interaction with the environment and increases immersion. It also opens up new activities such as sign language.
Summing up
Virtual reality hand-tracking systems will definitely help you to engage even more intensively with interpersonal communication or to cope with many manual tasks. And all this with your own hands, without controllers.