Wired glove
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A wired glove is a glove-like input device for virtual reality environments. Various sensor technologies are used to capture physical data such as bending of fingers. Often a motion tracker, such as a magnetic tracking device or inertial tracking device, is attached to capture the global position / rotation data of the glove. These movements are then interpreted by the software that accompanies the glove, so any one movement can mean any number of things. Gestures can then be categorized into useful information, such as to recognize American Sign Language or other symbolic functions.
Expensive high-end wired gloves can also provide haptic feedback, which is a simulation of the sense of touch. This allows a wired glove to also be used as an output device.
Traditionally, wired gloves have only been available at a huge cost, with the finger bend sensors and the tracking device having to be bought separately.
One of the first wired gloves available to home users was the Nintendo Power Glove. This was designed as a gaming glove for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It had a crude tracker and finger bend sensors, plus buttons on the back. In 2001, Essential Reality made a similar attempt at a cheap gaming glove, this time for the PC: the P5 Glove. This peripheral never really became popular among gamers, so P5 gloves might be now found on Ebay for as little as $10.
Ironically, even specialized stores are now selling the older and less performing Power Glove for a higher price than the more sophisticated P5 Glove.
Wired gloves are often called "datagloves" or "cybergloves", but these two terms are trademarks. They respectively belong to Sun Microsystems (which acquired the patent portfolio of VPL Research Inc. in February of 1998) and Immersion Corporation (which acquired Virtual Technologies, Inc. and its patent portfolio in September of 2000).
An alternative to wired gloves is to use a camera and computer vision to track the 3D pose and trajectory of the hand, at the cost of tactile feedback.[1]
